  Garrick shook his head. &quot;They weren&#39;t burnt. They were turning black. You know, it&#39;s said that Lucifer has black wings. I&#39;ve never seen them but they&#39;re meant to be the purest black, like a night that will never end. It&#39;s said that every day he was bound in chains, his heart hardened a little more against his Father and as each day went by, another feather would turn jet black, until finally every single one was like it had been dipped in oil. He could have stopped it if he&#39;d repented. He could have stopped them all turning black, but he couldn&#39;t because he never repented. He always believed that he was justified in everything he did, no matter what. He still believes that, Megan.&quot; &quot;I&#39;m not like that,&quot; I whispered. &quot;I&#39;m not him.&quot; &quot;Then stop this now, before you go too far. You cannot blindly do whatever you desire a

  I was falling. Tumbling. Flailing. Hurtling towards the ground so fast, watching the world grow and swell beneath me, seeing every terrible minute detail coming into focus with each agonising second. Lucius' face, usually so devoid of fear, always accepting of every nightmare that crossed his path, yet now with wide terror-filled eyes, as if suddenly, at the end of it all, he had finally realised what his fate really entailed. Drachmann, his twisted wrinkled face, looking so utterly inhuman that I wondered how he could ever pass for anything but the monster he really was. And Brandon, whose rage seemed so palpable, it was as if Vánagandr had already burst free from the human flesh that bound it and was now filling every inch of space with malevolent intent. Awareness had come too late. I'd been so lost. So consumed by a power I couldn't control that not once did I realise just how much

  And he'd been through a terrible ordeal and had experienced horrors that I couldn't even have imagined in my worst possible nightmares. Of course he was feeling out of sorts. Who wouldn't? Without waiting for him to answer, I stepped through the mirror, taking him with me, feeling the sick sluggish resistance of the molten glass, sucking on our skin as if it didn't want to let us go. But then, we were through, on the other side, back to the library, the real library. Books still lay scattered about the floor from where they had fallen from the shelves and the once-roaring fire was now extinguished, not that it mattered. We wouldn't be stopping here. "Come on," I said, starting to cross the room, but he tugged back his hand and remained where he was, his dark brows furrowed in a way that made him look lost and afraid. My heart faltered for a moment, barely believing that he was here and

Garrick shook his head. &quot;They weren&#39;t burnt. They were turning black. You know, it&#39;s said that Lucifer has black wings. I&#39;ve never seen them but they&#39;re meant to be the purest black, like a night that will never end. It&#39;s said that every day he was bound in chains, his heart hardened a little more against his Father and as each day went by, another feather would turn jet black, until finally every single one was like it had been dipped in oil. He could have stopped it if he&#39;d repented. He could have stopped them all turning black, but he couldn&#39;t because he never repented. He always believed that he was justified in everything he did, no matter what. He still believes that, Megan.&quot; &quot;I&#39;m not like that,&quot; I whispered. &quot;I&#39;m not him.&quot; &quot;Then stop this now, before you go too far. You cannot blindly do whatever you desire and say to hell with whatever everyone else thinks or wants. You are not always right just because you 

Chapter 239-9