The Watchtower

steps below me. “He almost reached us.”
    “But look—there are footsteps coming up, but then he turned around and went down ! He might still be below us in the tower!” Will drew his sword and pushed past me. “I’m going to end this once and for all.”
    I heard Will’s footsteps racing down the stairs. I followed, terrified at every turning of the spiral stairs that I’d find the two of them locked in combat, but hoping that Will’s assumption was wrong. Just because Marduk was back in the tower when I used the timepiece didn’t mean he traveled forward in time with us. Did it?
    I was relieved when I reached the bottom of the tower without encountering Marduk. Will was standing just outside, blinking in the early-morning sun. He was staring down at the ground. As I came up beside him, he pointed at something. Among the cigarette butts was a bloody footprint … and another … and another. I followed the trail of them to the entrance of the metro.
    “Shit,” I swore, meeting Will’s stricken eyes. “We brought him home with us!”
    Will nodded and then turned in a wide circle, taking in the park, the early-morning commuters (who only gave our clothes and Will’s sword passing glances, assuming, I realized, that we were gamers), the entrance to the metro, and the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
    “Home?” Will asked, shaking his head in confusion when his circle brought him back to me. “This doesn’t look like home to me. Is this the land of the fey you’ve brought me to, Marguerite?”
    I opened my mouth to object to his calling me Marguerite—I hadn’t evolved that far past my jealousy—but then saw the bigger problem.
    “Will,” I asked, “how long were you a vampire?”
    He looked baffled at the question, but answered, “It felt like an eternity, but I suppose it was only two days.” He took a step toward me. “I hope you won’t hold that short time against me now that you’ve saved me.” He looked concerned. Probably because I was crying.
    “You’re not my Will,” I said, not caring how the words might wound him. “I saved the wrong one.”

Tor Books by Lee Carroll
    Black Swan Rising
    The Watchtower

 
    This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
    THE WATCHTOWER
    Copyright © 2011 by Carol Goodman and Lee Slonimsky
    All rights reserved.
    Edited by Paul Stevens
    A Tor ® eBook
    Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
    175 Fifth Avenue
    New York, NY 10010
    www.tor-forge.com
    Tor ® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Carroll, Lee, 1951–
         The watchtower / Lee Carroll.—1st ed.
                 p. cm.
         “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
         ISBN 978-0-7653-2598-3
       1.  Women jewelers—New York (State)—New York—Fiction.   2.  Magic—Fiction.   3.  Good and evil—Fiction.   4.  Vampires—Fiction.   I.  Title.
         PS3603.A774578W37 2011
         813'.6—dc22
    2011013450
    First Edition: August 2011
    eISBN 978-1-4299-7764-7
    First Tor eBook Edition: August 2011