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sister’s, glittered like emeralds. She certainly didn’t look like the mother type.
    Across from them, the three deformed girls were thrown into a cramped cell and chained to the wall, where they huddled together, broken. The witch stopped in front of Watch and Adam’s cell, the black knight at her side. For a long time she stared at them both, her eyes finally coming to rest on Adam. A faint smile touched her lips, as cold as her eyes.
    â€œAre you enjoying Spooksville?” she asked. “Seen all the sights?”
    Adam had to remember to breathe. “It’s very nice, ma’am.”
    Her smile widened. “I’m glad you approve. But tomorrow it might not look the same to you. It might look very black indeed.”
    Adam realized she was talking about removing his eyes. “But, ma’am,” he stuttered. “Remember how I saved your car from the shopping cart? You said to me, ‘Thank you, Adam. You have done your good deed for the day.’ ” He added weakly, “I thought you were my friend.”
    She threw back her head and laughed. “You mistake me for someone else. But that mistake is understandable. All the mirrors in this castle are dusty. One reflection can look much like another.” She moved closer to the bars that separated them and put a hand on the metal. Adam saw that she wore a ruby ring on her right hand. The interior of the stone burned with a wickless flame. “I am not Ann Templeton, although I know her well. The skeletons you found in that house do not belong to yourparents, although they might in the future. But none of that should concern you now. You are about to enter eternal darkness. You have only one chance to escape. That is to tell me where your friend Sally is hiding.”
    Sally must have escaped, Adam realized. He was happy for that at least. He stood proudly as the witch waited for his response. The chain held him close to the wall.
    â€œI don’t know where she is,” he said. “But even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. Not if you threatened to boil me in a pot of water.”
    â€œYou don’t want to emphasize the pot of boiling water,” Watch muttered.
    The witch smiled again, this time maybe a little sadly. “You have such beautiful eyes, Adam. They look so nice where they are.” Her voice hardened. “But I suppose they will look nice on one of my dolls.” She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. “Take them upstairs. We will not wait until tomorrow to operate.”
    The black knight drew his sword and stepped forward.

15
    C hained together, Adam and Watch were dragged up a long stone stairway to what appeared to be the living room of the castle—if castles had living rooms. It was a place of shadows, of candles that burned with red flames, and of paintings with eyes that moved. The dark ceiling, high above their heads, was all but invisible. While the witch watched, the knight chained them to an iron post in one corner of the room.
    All around them, as Watch had said, were clocks that ran backward.
    And there was something else. Something that appeared to be magical.
    In the center of the room, on a silver pedestal, was an hourglass. Tall as a man, it was wrought of polished gold and burning jewels. The sand that poured through its narrow neck sparkled like diamond chips.
    Not only that. The sand flowed from the bottom of the hourglass to the top.
    The witch noticed his interest in the hourglass.
    She smiled. “In your world there is a fable about a girl who walked through a mirror and ended up in a magical land. The same principle applies here. Only you walked into a tombstone and ended up in a place of black magic. But you might be surprised to know that there also exists an hourglass like this in your Spooksville. There the sand flows down and time moves forward. Do you understand?”
    â€œYes,” Adam said. “And here the sand flows up and time