She laughed, and the sound was truly awful, pained and dry and rasping, and thenshe turned her hands to grab at his forearms, trying to pull him into the fire, too. Her grip was terribly strong, and when she touched, she burned him, too, excruciatingly.

The cat screamed, the way only cats can, like a terrible baby howling, and dug her teeth into the back of his pants, trying desperately to tug him back from the woman trying to pull him into the fire.

"You have to burn it away," Maeve croaked at him, barely audible. "It's bad, Kurloz, this is the only way we can be free of it, of you ... "