“You’re going to take her anyway.” I said it as soon as I realized it, and I believed it the moment the words left my lips. She needed Kenley alive and in custody just as badly as she needed me dead.

“I will, unless you come out and stop me.” Her footsteps retreated, and I recognized the creak of the floorboard in front of the closet—and the soft click as she turned the light on, locking Kris and Kori out.

Shit!

I glanced around Gran’s bedroom until I found the lamp with the infrared bulb, which was kept on at all hours. I turned the lamp off, then flipped the regular light switch next to the door, throwing the room into darkness, except for what moonlight shone in from the open window.

Then all I could do was hope that Kris would find the pocket of darkness I’d left for him. And that he’d bring an extra gun.

I’d found the woman responsible for the slaughter of my family—evidently the third time really is a charm—and this one, too, deserved a bullet.

But when Kris failed to materialize more than a minute after I’d given him darkness, Lynn’s steps retreated down the hall toward the living room. And the staircase, leading to Kenley’s room. Surely Kenley had heard the commotion.

Surely she knew to hide.

But I couldn’t take that chance.

When I heard the landing creak with her weight, I eased Gran’s door open and tiptoed down the hall, careful to avoid the noisy board in front of the closet. Lynn was halfway up the stairs, but I snuck past her to the body still leaking blood on the carpet where he’d fallen half-out of the kitchen. Surely Sean was armed.

But he was not. Or else Lynn had already relieved him of his weapons.

Crap!

She was almost to the top of the stairs.

“Lynn!” I ducked behind an armchair when she turned, already aiming at me. “Leave Kenley alone.” Lynn didn’t have a way out of the house anyway, unless she’d already called in another Traveler. How was she planning to get Kenley out?

Her footsteps came closer, down the stairs, but I didn’t dare peek for fear of getting shot in the head. I had no idea how good her aim was.

I could only listen as she descended the stairs, squeaked on the landing, then stepped onto carpet. Her pant legs whispered against each other as she came toward me, and I circled the chair slowly, still squatting, trying to stay out of view.

“You have nowhere to go,” she said, but her taunt sounded more like a statement of fact. “You can’t get out of this boarded-up house. You have no weapon and you’re hiding from an armed woman. And before you decide you can take me, you should know that even if you killed Julia, you weren’t her real downfall. Her biggest mistake was underestimating me.”

I didn’t doubt that for a moment.

She came closer, and my heart thudded in my ears. I circled the chair to my right as she followed on my left, and my thighs burned from holding a squat for so long.

Then Lynn lurched into view on my left, grim smile in place, aiming my own gun at me. “Stand up, Sera. At least face death like an adult, and know that your sacrifice will mean the world to your brother and sister, when they’re old enough to understand.”

I stood, because my legs were cramping. And because she was right. What kind of dignity was there in being shot on the floor?

“At least your death will be more merciful than your sister’s. I promise I’ll aim for your head.”

“You bitch!” I lunged for her without thinking, aiming low, like my dad had taught me as a kid. My shoulder caught her in the chest, but only because I’d surprised her. She went down on her ass, but it only took her a second to regain both focus and aim.

I froze, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I was facing my death when I’d only just rediscovered life, and all it had to offer. Kris. Family. Freeing people and taking down bad guys.

“Fine. A graceless death it will be.” Lynn frowned up at me from the floor, taking aim two-handed. The world came into crystal-clear focus as the last seconds of my life ticked away, and I saw her finger tighten on the trigger.

Then sound erupted around us, and the side of her head fucking exploded.

I stumbled back in shock. My ears rang. My pulse raced. The gun fell from Lynn’s hand, and her body hit the floor, half on its side. Bits of her brain dripped down the screwed-shut front door.

My breath came and went so fast the room started to spin around me. Then I saw Kris standing on the landing, still aiming at the dead woman, and the world came back to me. Everything went still, and he seemed to cross the room in slow motion.

“How...” That was all I could manage.

“Kenley let me in through her bedroom.” He reached down to pull me up, and then I was in his arms, and I was alive, and he was crying, but he looked so happy. “I thought you were dead. I thought you were both dead.”

“Is she okay?” Kenley asked, and over his shoulder I saw her at the foot of the stairs in a thick bathrobe, holding Vanessa’s .22 like a kid with a water pistol.

Kris pulled away enough to get a good look at me. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, and tears spilled down my face. “I’m good. I’m so good.” He wiped my cheeks with both hands, but more tears followed. “She killed my family, Kris. It was her, not Julia.”

His brows rose in surprise, then a smile grew on his face, which felt odd, considering the dead woman at his back. “So...I really did kill your bad guy?”

I nodded, still crying. “You did. Thank you.” I kissed him. Then I kissed him some more. And when I finally let him go, it was only so that I could say the most wonderful sentence ever. “I think we did it. I think we actually just put the Tower syndicate out of business. For good.”