Chapter One

Summary: After Edwin goes to the Cat King for help during a case, he realises that something is wrong. Thomas is in danger, and Edwin and the rest of the Dead Boy Detectives might be the only ones who can save him, with a little extra help
Warning(s): Spanking (eventually, in later chapters; just one swat given in this one); explicit sexual content later on; D/s; AU; references to violence and canon character death; torture scene in later chapters
Pairings: The Cat King/Edwin Payne; Edwin Payne/Monty (starts off unrequited, but...we'll see)
Author's Note: I've generally stopped writing multichapter fics. However, this plot kitten basically bit me and wouldn't let go, so...this one is getting written, rather than the other fic idea I'd started.
Please let me know if you like it! Feedback/kudos is very helpful encouragement to me as a writer

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"What do you think?"

Edwin looked up from the book he was hunched over and sighed, rubbing his temple. He was getting a headache, which shouldn't actually be possible, but given how difficult this case was turning out to be, he wasn't actually surprised.

Charles was standing just inside the door, a sympathetic look on his face as he watched Edwin work through his research for their latest case. "Maybe you should take a break," he suggested.

"I don't have time to take a break." Edwin wouldn't admit, even to his best friend, that the words on the page were beginning to blur together. He shouldn't have been able to get tired...and yet he was. Some ghosts had been killed, wiped out from existence entirely, and they had no answers. There were no survivors of the attacks, and very few clues left behind at the scene. Those traces they'd been able to find were almost impossible to read and study, even with all the resources they had at their disposal.

"Okay. Then don't go and take a break." Charles walked over and perched on the edge of the desk. "Go and see if the Cat King has anything he can give us," he suggested.

Edwin slowly closed the book and looked up at his best friend. "I know what you're trying to do."

Charles immediately did his best to look innocent, which didn't really work. "What do you think I'm trying to do?"

"Force me into taking a break. You're telling me to go and see Thomas, knowing he will see how tired I am and insist I get some rest. With him."

Charles grinned triumphantly. "Hah! You admit you are tired."

"I can't take a break." It was tempting. More than tempting, if Edwin was truly honest with himelf. He had strong feelings for Thomas, and knew that the older being would help him to relax. Maybe Charles was right, and he needed it. But at the same time....

"Look." Charles' voice interrupted Edwin's train of thought. "Even if you won't visit him to take a break, maybe you should ask him if he knows anything about what's been happening. He might be able to tell you more than those books will."

"Perhaps you're right." Edwin pretended he didn't know that Charles was trying to encourage him to take a break. He was feeling tired...drained. Not that Charles looked much better, of course. "What will you do while I'm gone?" he asked, unable to hide the note of concern in his voice.

"I'll be fine. You don't need to worry about me." Charles waved a hand dismissively.

"When you say that, you know I can't help but worry."

"You can worry once we actually have a lead," Charles said. "I'm not gonna do anything without something to actually go on."

"Just make sure you tell me if you get information. Even if you don't intend to act on any of it." Edwin glanced towards the door. "Will you let Crystal know where I've gone?" The living member of their agency had returned right before this case had started, but she hadn't told them much about how things had gone with her parents, or any friends she had left from her old life. Edwin suspected that things hadn't gone well when she'd gone home, but she hadn't been willing to talk about it.

"Of course." Charles stood up, giving Edwin a quick, easy grin. "I've just got you to agree to take a break. Now I've got to do the same thing for her."

"I'm not taking a break," Edwin corrected, even as he walked over to the mirror. "I'm just going to talk to Thomas and see if he can give me any information or help."

"Okay. Whatever you say." Charles slipped through the door without giving Edwin a chance to respond.

Shaking his head, slightly amused in spite of himself, Edwin stepped through the mirror. Almost immediately, as he travelled through the mirror, he felt his body relaxing. The headache was receding. He was looking forward to seeing Thomas, he was surprised to realise. And when he stepped through the mirror in Port Townsend, the rest of the tension seeped out of him.

But it was only temporary, as his eyes landed on the Cat King, lounging in his throne.

Much like the first time Edwin had seen him, there was a body sprawled on the floor at the older being's feet; unrecognisable, with all the blood and wounds that covered their body. But Edwin had seen a lot of death and a lot of violence in his years after death. If Thomas had had someone killed, he assumed there was a reason behind it.

But a loud squawking drew his attention to a bird cage hanging from the wall. Inside the gilded cage was a crow...and there were several cats prowling around on the floor below, predatory eyes fixed on the crow.

"Monty?" Edwin whispered, taking a hesitant, uncertain step forward.

"What do you want?"

The Cat King's voice...impatient and almost harsh...brought Edwin up short. His eyes darted to the older being's face and he frowned, seeing the irritation that was barely concealed. The being lounging in the Cat King's throne looked identical to Thomas, but there was something wrong. Instead of answering the question, Edwin asked one of his own...trying to see what he might be facing. "Why do you have Esther's familiar here?"

Something passed across the other's face; irritation, or perhaps something darker. It was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared, but it was more evidence that something was wrong. In a cool voice, devoid of any emotion whatsoever, the person said, "It's a gift for you."

Edwin looked towards the crow. Monty's eyes were bright and focused on him...like the bird was trying to tell him something. If it was that there was something wrong with the Cat King, Edwin had already realised that. But he was uncomfortably aware of the fact he'd just stepped into a den of cats, whose attacks could easily overwhelm him. And the felines circling around Monty's cage didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with their leader. Or were cats only loyal to whoever had the power over them? Truthfully, Edwin had never been fond of cats...and he hadn't concerned himself with learning about them even after he'd formed a relationship with their king.

It was really too late to be thinking that he should have taken the time to learn more about the cats before now.

Realising he hadn't spoken in a while, and he needed to figure out how to get himself and Monty safely away in order to figure out what had happened, Edwin asked, "How did you know I was coming here?"

"You're here about the ghosts who are being killed, aren't you?"

If it had been Thomas asking the question, it would have been easy to respond. Edwin would have known how to respond; how to react. But with every second that passed, he became more and more certain that this wasn't the Cat King; at least not the Cat King that he knew. Did that mean Thomas was dead? Between the last time they'd seen each other and now...had he lost his remaining lives and passed on to whatever afterlife awaited those like him? The thought made Edwin sad, causing a hollow pit of grief to form in his stomach. Whoever this imposter was either didn't know of Edwin's relationship with his predecessor, or simply didn't care about it.

"Who are you?" Edwin asked.

The mask slipped, slightly, and something else appeared beneath the illusion of Thomas. Something with only muscles and tendons where there should have been skin; with black holes where there should have been eyes. The illusion only lasted for a second or two, but Edwin had still seen it.

Several low growls erupted from behind him and Edwin turned slowly, somehow not that surprised to see a row of cats standing between him and his escape route. Their fur stood on end and their bodies were vibrating with low, menacing growls. Each body was crouched, preparing to pounce.

"Planning to leave so soon?" The soft, menacing voice came from behind him.

Edwin turned round slowly, focusing once more on the imposter. "Where is Thomas?"

"Thomas. You're on a first name basis with him, then."

"Where is he?" Edwin slipped one hand into his pocket, closing his fingers around a smooth, polished stone he had there.

"Nowhere you'll be able to find him." The creature stepped closer to Edwin. "I knew you'd come eventually. The breadcrumbs left for you could only bring you here." He chuckled, darkly.

"You wanted to bring me here. Why?"

"It's not about you." The creature was still wearing Thomas' form and used it to shrug. "You're only the bait to catch something much bigger. To be honest, if you die, it really doesn't make a difference to me."

Edwin shifted so that he could see both the cats and the creature that had stolen their King's face. Gripping the stone tightly, so tight that it would have hurt his hand had he been living, he asked, "Who am I the bait for?"

The creature tutted. "You don't think I'd tell you my plans before you die like an overrated Bond villain, do you?" It turned away, waving a hand dismissively towards the cats. "Tear him apart." Without waiting for a response, or even to see if the orders were carried out, the creature was gone between one second and the next.

Edwin pressed hard on the stone in his pocket.

He didn't hear anything. For a split second. Then, all at once, a terrible, awful yowling came from the cats.

Edwin didn't waste even a moment. He jumped forward, pulling the door of Monty's cage open, and grabbed the crow, pulling it out of the cage. "I hope you can survive a trip through the mirror." Turning, he took a flying leap over the row of cats. A sharp, blinding pain in his ankle caused him to stumble in mid-air, so he didn't land as gracefully as he should have done. But despite the shooting pain, he staggered into the mirror, still gripping Monty's fragile body as tightly as he safely could.

Once he was inside the mirror, Edwin focused on the Dead Boy Detective Agency building. Seconds later, he was toppling out of the mirror, landing at the feet of the Night Nurse.

Hands on her hips, she glared down at him for a moment before she reached a hand out to him. "Where have you been?"

"Trying to find answers, but only ending up with more questions." He put his free hand into hers and carefully pushed himself to his feet, unable to hide his wince as more pain lanced through his ankle.

She looked down and frowned, but then took a step forward and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Supporting what little weight he had, she led him over to the chair and helped him to sit down. "What happened to you?"

"Cat scratch." Now that he was sitting down and no longer worrying about fighting for his very existence, Edwin could think about what had just happened. He focused his attention on the Night Nurse and whispered, "The Cat King is gone."

"The Cat King? Gone?" She knelt at his feet and began to carefully run her hands over his injured ankle. "You're mistaken. Beings like the Cat King don't just vanish."

Edwin stared down at Monty. The crow was sat in his hand; so still that Edwin might have thought the mirror trip had killed him, if it wasn't for the slow blinking. "Something else wore his form. His face. I caught a glimpse of it, like the mask had shifted. It was only for a second, but...I saw muscles. Bone. Like it had been skinned. It only had black holes for eyes." He raised his own eyes from Monty to look at her. "I've never seen anything like it before. Have you heard of it?"

She stared at him for several long moment. Then, abruptly, she said, "No." Her fingers gripped his foot tightly.

Edwin tried to pull his foot away, but a peculiar warmth spread out from her touch. It grew almost to the point of being unbearable...then it was gone. And so was the pain.

Eyes wide, Edwin looked down at his ankle, which showed no sign of ever being injured, and then up at her again. "You healed me."

"Don't get used to it. I can't use that ability often." She let go of his ankle and stood abruptly, casting a narrow-eyed glare at Monty. "You're bringing mangy birds into the Agency now? What good will that thing do for you?"

"He was a witch's familiar. And whatever took the Cat King's form was holding him captive." Edwin frowned, unable to shake the memory of what the creature had said to him. It's a gift for you. "But it said I wasn't the true target," he said out loud. "I was just bait, to catch someone else."

Charles chose that moment to walk through the wall. When he spotted Edwin, he gave a quick grin...but the smile rapidly faded as he saw the look on Edwin's face. "Taking a break didn't go according to plan, I take it."

"Thomas is gone."

"Gone?" Charles repeated. "What do you mean, gone? As in you're going back to see him later? Or...?"

"As in someone else was there, wearing his body. I don't know who, or what. I caught a glimpse of its true face, but it was like nothing I've ever seen before." Edwin's voice sounded strained, even to his own ears. "Whatever it was, it captured Monty to get to me. But I wasn't anything more than bait for another, bigger target."

"Okay, mate, I'm lost here." Charles sounded about as confused as Edwin felt. "Someone else took on the Cat King's form? Was it a shapeshifter? If it wasn't you that it was trying to get to, who was it?"

"I don't know." He couldn't hide how stressed he felt; how worried about Thomas he was. Charles was doing their usual rhythm: asking questions to allow Edwin to think, to plan, to come up with ideas. But he couldn't think about anything, other than the fact that maybe Thomas was dead. Like Niko. And just like Niko, Edwin would have failed him.

Charles looked at him carefully, then turned to the Night Nurse. "Mind giving us some privacy?"

"Of course not. It isn't like I have a job to do or anything." Shaking her head, she walked towards the door. Before leaving the room, however, she paused and spoke without turning to look at them. "Of course, you should consider that you have a witness to what might have happened to the Cat King. A witch's familiar can provide a lot of useful information." She then walked out of the room.

Charles was studying Monty, his head cocked to one side. "I thought he'd disappeared when the witch was taken by Lilith."

"I suppose I did too." Though after Niko had been killed by Esther, Edwin hadn't thought about Monty at all. Charles had told him of the aid the crow had given, but they hadn't discussed Monty outside of that.

Edwin couldn't help feeling a slight stab of guilt, realising it could be considered that he'd neglected to acknowledge that Monty had helped them, even though he'd originally been Esther's tool to betray him.

"So what are we going to do?" Charles asked, breaking into Edwin's thoughts. "Do you know how to communicate with Monty? He can understand us, but we can't understand him."

Edwin looked down at the crow, who was staring back at him with bright eyes. Did Monty remember being human? How did he feel, if he remembered? "Do you think we can ask Crystal to read him?" he asked out loud.

"Good call," Charles said. "What else do I need to know about this case?"

"I don't think we'll get any help from the cats," Edwin admitted. "I don't know how loyal they were to the Cat King in the first place, but whatever stole his body is now in control of them. He tried to get them to kill me."

"Are you hurt?!" Charles took a step forward, eyes narrowing in concern.

"I was," Edwin admitted. "I'm not anymore. The Night Nurse healed me. I don't know why, but she didn't seem happy about it."

"Huh. Maybe she's actually growing to like us." Charles moved to leave the room, then hesitated, glancing back at Edwin. "You know it's not your fault, right? Whatever happened to the Cat King, it likely would have happened even if you had been there. And maybe don't count him out yet. Someone like him is gonna be hard to kill. And he was only on his fourth life."

"He was on his fourth life because Esther killed him. He can still be killed. He can still be hurt." Edwin looked down at Monty, wishing he had a way to ask the crow questions and understand the answers immediately. But he needed help to communicate with Monty.

"I'll be back with Crystal," Charles promised, before walking through the wall.

Edwin let out a long sigh and carefully placed the crow on his desk. "After Crystal communicates with you, you can eat something if you need to. I don't know if witches' familiars, or former witches' familiars, actually need to eat, but we do have some food here, since Crystal is living and needs it."

Monty gave a low, mournful caw, and began to preen his feathers.

"I have no idea what that means," Edwin muttered under his breath.

It seemed to take so much longer, though that might have been because Edwin was feeling so impatient, but the door was opened and Crystal stepped into the office, while Charles walked through the wall next to him.

"Charles told me what happened to the Cat King." Crystal walked over to the desk, pausing opposite Edwin. "Do you think he'll help?" She nodded to Monty.

"He helped us before," Charles said. "I know he was planning to betray us after that witch turned him human, but he helped me get free. There's no reason to think he won't help us now, since the witch was taken by Lilith." He paused and then added, "I wonder what she did to her...."

"I hope she took her somewhere she can never hurt anyone else again, if she didn't outright kill her." Crystal reached out a hand towards Monty, but hesitated before actually touching him. "You've seen what I can do, so if you try anything, you know I can stop you by whatever means necessary."

Monty didn't move, only looked at her with unblinking eyes.

Crystal placed her fingers on the crow's head. As soon as she did so, her body arched and her eyes turned white, as she used her abilities.

It was hard to sit still and wait for Crystal to finish. Edwin really wanted to try and find Thomas, as long as the Cat King was still alive...and he couldn't deny that he was worried the older being wasn't. He remained sitting, but tension was thrumming through him and making it difficult to stay still.

Crystal gasped, hand slipping away from Monty's head as her eyes returned to normal.

"Are you all right?" Charles moved swiftly to her side, grasping her elbow to support her.

"What did you see?" Edwin asked hurriedly.

"I couldn't see much," Crystal admitted, leaning against Charles for support. "It's like I'm being blocked by something. But I saw a person with yellow eyes. Or maybe they were more golden in colour. I couldn't get anything else."

"A location? A direction? Anything?" Edwin couldn't hold back the note of desperation in his voice.

"Look, maybe she's not the best person to talk to a witch's familiar. Even a former witch's familiar," Charles suggested. "Maybe we need to be looking for a witch."

Edwin closed his eyes and tried to calm his worry and desperation. But it was difficult. "Where would we even find another witch? It isn't like one is just going to come here, asking the Dead Boy Detectives for help."

The Night Nurse opened the door and stepped into the room. "It's a bit crowded in here," she observed, before looking at Edwin. "There's someone here wanting the services of your agency."

"A ghost?" Edwin shook his head. "Tell whoever it is that we're busy. We're closed."

"I'm not your errand girl," the Night Nurse replied. "You can tell them yourself." Turning towards the door, she added, "It's a living person, by the way. Not a ghost." She walked away without waiting for a response.

"I'll go and get rid of them." Charles hesitated, glancing at Crystal. "Maybe you'd better come with me. A living person might not be able to hear me asking them to leave."

Crystal nodded. Before she followed Charles out of the room, though, she cast a glance over her shoulder at Edwin. "I'm sorry I couldn't get more information."

Edwin just nodded wearily and waved a hand towards the door. "Just make sure we're closed for the rest of the day. Maybe even the whole week," he added, in a much softer voice.

"I'll tell them." Crystal slipped out of the room, following Charles.

Letting out a quiet sigh, Edwin turned his attention back to Monty. "If you knew where Thomas was, I'd be tempted to ask you to point to it on a map. Assuming he's still alive, of course." For a brief second, he thought about the possibility that it had been Monty blocking Crystal from reading him...but he quickly disregarded that thought. If Monty was unwilling to help them, the crow would have taken the first opportunity to leave. And he had helped Charles against Esther.

His best friend returning to the room, with Crystal following close behind, pulled Edwin out of his thoughts once more. Looking up at the two, he began speaking. "We might be able to find a ghost with connections to a witch, or even a connection to Lilith herself. Niko said something about being able to speak to Lilith through an image of her, didn't she?"

"That might not be necessary, mate," Charles said carefully.

"What do you mean?" Edwin looked past the two of them.

Another person, a Native American, stepped into the room, looking very out of place and obviously ill at ease. She was short, perhaps only five feet tall, with long black hair in two plaited braids. She was dressed very simply, in a white blouse over a pair of blue jeans.

Edwin looked at Charles, who met his eyes and shrugged, then jerked his thumb towards Crystal.

Holding back a sigh, Edwin rose from his seat and walked round to the newcomer. "I'm sorry, but we're not taking on any new cases right now. If you tell me what trouble you are facing, I can direct you to someone who might be able to help."

"She's a witch," Crystal said.

"I'm not a practicing witch." The woman spoke with a light accent. She glanced at Monty, sitting on the desk, then focused her attention on Edwin once more. "I need your help."

"We have another case that's taking all of our attention right now," Edwin said. "But as I said, if you tell me what you need, I'm sure I can recommend someone else who will be able to help you."

"Someone else who has been to Hell twice and returned to tell the story?" she asked.

Edwin looked at Charles.

"I didn't tell her anything," Charles said. "Crystal didn't either. She just grabbed her hand and read her and told me she was a witch. So we brought her in here." 

Edwin looked slowly towards Monty, then closed his eyes for a second before he opened them again and faced the witch. "You need our help. We need yours as well. I need you to communicate with a crow who used to be a witch's familiar."

"I'm not...."

"You're not a practicing witch. I heard you the first time," Edwin said. "But we don't offer our services for free. If you want our help, then you need to help us in return. That's the price I will ask from you."

She stared at him for several long seconds, then gave a sharp, jerky nod. "I agree to your terms." She walked over to the desk and placed her hand on it, palm up.

Monty eyed her palm, head cocked to one side, before he hopped into it and began to caw at her.

Edwin moved a bit nearer to Charles and Crystal, asking Crystal softly, "Did you get a sense of what she wants from us?"

"I didn't get her surface thoughts," Crystal admitted. "I just saw she was a witch when I touched her. I wasn't looking for any more details other than that."

"No."

The sudden harshness of the word uttered by the witch drew Edwin's attention to her once more and he frowned, brows drawing together. "No what?"

She placed Monty back on the desk, then crossed her arms over her chest and matched him stare for stare. "He wants me to turn him into a human. So that he can help you better."

"What's wrong with that?" Charles asked, before Edwin could say anything. "Esther, that's the witch who was his mistress, turned him human. How hard can it be?"

She looked towards him, then focused on Edwin once more. "Turning a familiar into a human is black magic. The witch who turned him before would have had to pay a price. That kind of magic always comes with a price."

Edwin took a step closer to the desk, looking at Monty. He hadn't thought about how Esther had turned her crow into a human, but he guessed it made sense that the magic hadn't been a simple spell to cast. "What kind of price needs to be paid?" he asked.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "The price isn't always paid immediately. But there is always one."

"Whatever it is, I'll pay it." Perhaps that was reckless. It probably was reckless. But all Edwin could think about was the fact that the Cat King, that Thomas, was gone. If Monty wanted to help, that meant he was still alive, didn't it? At least as far as Monty knew.

"You might not feel that way when the time comes," she warned.

"Are you sure about this, mate?" Charles moved to stand at Edwin's shoulder, speaking in a soft voice.

"I have to save him, if I can." Edwin looked into his best friend's eyes. "He'd do the same thing for me," he said, with certainty.

"Okay. If you want to do this, I'm behind you all the way." Charles gently squeezed his shoulder, then asked the witch, "Did you get anything about where the Cat King actually is?"

"He's in the Dreaming," she replied.

"What's the Dreaming?" Crystal asked.

"It's another plane of existence," Edwin explained. "Like the afterlife. Like Hell. It's where living creatures go when they sleep." He frowned, looking towards Charles once more. "We're going to need to open a portal into the Dreaming."

Charles rubbed the back of his neck. "Isn't the Sandman in the Dreaming? You think he might give us to Death? Or tell her we're there, so she can force us to move to the afterlife? Since she's the big boss and all."

"I don't know. But what's the alternative? I can't just leave him there, Charles. What if he's being hurt? What if he loses the rest of his lives?" Edwin closed his eyes, struggling to calm his emotions. Thomas needed him to be calm and come up with a plan to rescue him, not to just let his emotions overwhelm him.

"Okay." Charles nodded. "We'll find a way into the Dreaming." He looked towards the witch. "What do you need from us? And what's your name?" he added, a slightly sheepish note creeping into his voice.

"You can call me Juniper," she answered. "And the help I need from you actually inolves the Dreaming as well. Since you'll be going there anyway, I suppose this works for the best."

"Do you need anything from us to turn Monty human again?" Edwin asked her.

She stared at him for several long moments; long enough that he wondered if she was going to refuse to change Monty at all. Finally, though, she shook her head and sighed. "I only need privacy. Don't come in here, whatever you might hear."

"What are we likely to hear?" Charles asked, a note of worry creeping into his voice.

Juniper just stared at him without saying anything.

"We'll give you some privacy." Edwin walked through the wall and stood on the other side, allowing his body to solidify enough to lean against the wall. He closed his eyes as Charles settled in to wait next to him, taking comfort in his best friend's presence. He didn't open his eyes even when he heard the door open to allow Crystal to leave the office.

His surroundings were so quiet, it made Edwin jerk abruptly when he heard a bird screaming in pain. That was the only way he had to describe the sound: it was screaming. And he could hear the unmistakeable sound of a blade ripping through flesh.

Charles' hand closed around Edwin's wrist, preventing him from heading back through the wall. "She told us not to go into the room, no matter what we heard."

"She's hurting him," Edwin protested.

Charles gripped his arm a little tighter; a little harder. "He wanted her to turn him human. Maybe this is what it takes. I don't think she'd be doing it like this if it wasn't necessary."

Edwin stared into Charles' eyes, trying to focus on his best friend instead of his desire to run into the office and put a stop to...whatever was going on. "I want to know what's so important to her that she'd agree to this despite what she said earlier."

"Maybe she's lost someone in the Dreaming as well? Could be why she came to us, knowing you've been to Hell and back twice." Charles smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Not sure why she can't go there herself, though. Since the living are supposed to be able to enter the Dreaming when they sleep."

The screaming was still just as intense, though it no longer sounded like a bird. Instead, it sounded like a human screaming in pain.

"Don't," Charles warned.

Edwin hadn't realised he'd taken a shaky step towards the wall until Charles reacted, adjusting his position to block his way. He forced himself to stop, but it was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. "What if she's killing him?"

Charles didn't tell Edwin that he was worrying about nothing, or that he was being silly. He just did what came so naturally to him. He considered it as a real possibility. "No," he said finally. "She came here for our help. She didn't know he was going to be here."

The screaming wasn't stopping. Edwin glanced down at Charles' hand around his wrist, then at the wall, then began to lurch towards it.

Charles yanked him off balance and his free hand delivered a sharp smack to Edwin's bottom.

Edwin's body jerked and he tried to pull his arm free of Charles, but his best friend was holding him so tightly, it was as if he'd enhanced his strength in some way. "Let me go. I need to put a stop to it."

"It's too late." Charles' voice was gentle, not unkind or cruel, but he wasn't going to budge. His grip tightened on Edwin's wrist as he said, "Whatever's happening, it's already started. If you go in there, you might be responsible for the spell going wrong. Or Monty dying."

His words made sense. They were reasonable, and even sounded like what Edwin might say to dissuade Charles from doing something stupid and potentially dangerous. Edwin looked down at his best friend's hand, then up into his eyes, but didn't say anything.

"He's already been turned human once," Charles said. "Esther probably did it the same way Juniper is now. Which means Monty knew what it would be like, and he asked for it anyway. It was his choice."

"I think this should be the other way round," Edwin whispered faintly. "I should be the one holding you back and being reasonable and logical."

Charles smiled, though it was kind rather than mocking. "It's difficult when it's involving your emotions and the people you care about, isn't it?"

"I suppose." Slowly, Edwin realised that the screaming had stopped. He wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not and glanced towards the wall. "Is it safe to go inside yet?"

"We should wait until Juniper comes and gets us," Charles said.

Once again, his best friend was being logical and reasonable. Edwin knew that if it was up to him alone, he wouldn't be waiting around patiently. He would have gone into the office the moment he heard Monty screaming, warning from the witch or not. "I'm glad you're here, Charles," he whispered.

"It's nice being the sensible one for a change." Charles' voice carried a trace of amusement.

Edwin opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything, the office door was opened.

"Do you have clothes?" Juniper was standing in the doorway, looking from one to the other. "He's going to need clothes."

Crystal chose that moment to return to them, carrying a folded pile of clothes, with a pair of sneakers resting on top. She handed the pile to Juniper. "He can use these, at least until he can get some clothes of his own."

Juniper just nodded and disappeared back into the office.

"Where did you get the clothes from?" Charles asked Crystal.

She shrugged. "I had the feeling they were needed, even before Monty was brought here." She glanced at Edwin, then took a deep breath before asking, "Do you know how we're going to get into the Dreaming yet?"

We? Edwin frowned. "I don't think we can all go," he said out loud. "Someone should stay here in case there are any problems that need the Dead Boy Detectives."

"Is this about me hiding when I lost my powers?" Crystal asked. "Because I didn't lose them. I was able to use them when it counted."

Edwin didn't point out the fact that it had never been about her losing her powers, but instead about lying and deceiving them into believing otherwise. That wasn't the reason why he wanted her to stay behind, in any case. He might not have spent much time in the Dreaming, but he knew how dangerous it could be to the living. He'd heard about mortals who had used too much of the Sandman's sand and lived in their dreams while their bodies wasted away to virtually nothing.

It was going to be hard enough for him and Charles to find their way, let alone taking along someone living who could be more easily seduced by the power of the Dreaming. But if he explained it to her like that, she'd get defensive and assume he didn't trust her. So Edwin tried to be diplomatic as he said, "There are still going to be ghosts who need help. The Night Nurse will be here as well, but she's more likely to turn away someone who needs help, or try to force them into the afterlife before they're ready." To be honest, even though he thought taking a living person into the Dreaming was a bad idea, he was also honest in the reason he wanted Crystal to stay behind.

Crystal frowned and looked towards Charles, like she was trying to see what he felt.

"Yeah, Edwin's probably right," Charles agreed. "The Night Nurse doesn't seem to have as much compassion for, well, anyone, whether they're living or dead. And she's only staying here with us because her boss made her stay. Maybe she wouldn't sabotage our work, but she definitely sees us as her rivals, if nothing else."

"Okay." Crystal shook her head. "But I'm worried that if you go into the Dreaming, you might not come back again."

Edwin couldn't admit that he was also worried about the same thing; he had to hope they would be able to rescue Thomas and come out the other side completely unscathed. But he had to consider the possibility that going into Dream's realm would draw the attention of Death. And if that was the case, they would have to figure out a way of staying together when faced with the inevitable end of all things. "We have to get into the Dreaming first." He turned to the office and raised his voice enough to be heard by the two inside. "Is it safe to come in?"

"Yes. You can come inside now," Juniper answered.

Edwin and Charles walked through the wall, while Crystal stepped through the door. 

Monty, now back in his human form, was sitting on the chair behind the desk. His face was pale and there were dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn't been sleeping well. Maybe he hadn't been. Edwin had no idea how long the imposter had held him captive for.

"How are you feeling?" Edwin moved round the other side of the desk, anxiously looking over Monty's face and body. There were no obvious wounds, but that didn't mean he wasn't hurt in another way.

"I'm fine. Nothing's wrong with me." Monty placed his hands on the desk for support and pushed himself to his feet. "Have you figured out how we're going to enter the Dreaming yet?"