The fox turned from him, trotted toward the window, then paused to give him a final glance. A gust of wind came down the chimney and the fire flickered. He shifted his gaze only for a moment, but when he looked back she was gone, as though she had never been there at all.
A melancholy smile touched his lips. Oliver hesitated only a moment and then carried the tray toward the door. His mother’s parlor had always been an escape for him, a place to which he retreated whenever he began to worry that his father might be right, that his journeys into his own imagination were foolish.
He stepped out into the corridor and pulled the door closed behind him, but it swung open just a few inches.
The door to his mother’s parlor did not close properly anymore.
Oliver suspected that it never would.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the award-winning, bestselling author of such novels as The Myth Hunters, Wildwood Road, The Boys are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, Of Saints and Shadows, and the Body of Evidence series of teen thrillers. Working with actress/writer/director Amber Benson, he cocreated and cowrote Ghosts of Albion, an animated supernatural drama for BBC online, from which they created the book series of the same name (www.ghostsofalbion.net).
With Thomas E. Sniegoski, he is the coauthor of the dark fantasy series The Menagerie as well as the young-readers’ fantasy series Outcast and the comic book miniseries Talent, both of which were recently acquired by Universal Pictures.
Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. He graduated from Tufts University. He has recently completed a lavishly illustrated gothic novel entitled Baltimore, Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, a collaboration with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. There are more than eight million copies of his books in print. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com.
ALSO BY CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN
THE BORDERKIND: BOOK TWO OF THE VEIL
THE MYTH HUNTERS: BOOK ONE OF THE VEIL
WILDWOOD ROAD
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN
THE FERRYMAN
STRAIGHT ON ’TIL MORNING
STRANGEWOOD
THE SHADOW SAGA
OF SAINTS AND SHADOWS
ANGEL SOULS AND DEVIL HEARTS
OF MASQUES AND MARTYRS
THE GATHERING DARK
WITH MIKE MIGNOLA:
BALTIMORE, OR, THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER AND THE VAMPIRE
THE LOST ONES
A Bantam Book/April 2008
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2008 by Christopher Golden
Bantam Books, the rooster colophon, Spectra, and the portrayal of a boxed “S” are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Golden, Christopher.
The lost ones/Christopher Golden.
p. cm.—(The Veil; bk. 3)
I. Title.
PS3557.O35927L67 2008
813'.54—dc22
2007027924
www.bantamdell.com
eISBN: 978-0-553-90482-6
v3.0
Lost Ones-Veil 3 Page 42