vial of Kate’s blood that he had stolen from the testing room had smashed during the battle, slicing his skin and spreading some of her blood into his own. A thread of warmth raced through Silas’s veins and he slid his hand into his coat, pulling out thin slivers of bloodstained glass. There had been no ritual. Silas had never intended for it to happen and yet he could sense Kate’s energy within him—a distant echo reflected somewhere deep inside. Her blood had been bound to his within the energies of an open listening circle. It connected them. The pulse of Kate’s life reverberated alongside his own, and Silas could feel the potent rush of Kate’s fear as she walked within the veil.
For ten years, echoes of Da’ru’s spirit had crept inside him. She was arrogant, fearless, and malicious. Her influence had stripped away parts of Silas that he had since learned to live without, and he had fought against it every day, holding back the overwhelming force that threatened to engulf his identity fully in the dark. Silas had become used to restraining the worst of Da’ru’s nature deep within himself, but it had been a long time since he had felt true fear. Kate’s spirit did not overwhelm him as Da’ru’s had done for so long; it glowed like a hidden flame within his blood, and the fear he sensed from her was not for herself, but for the foolish uncle she had come to save: the man who was wriggling futilely against his bonds upon the stone table, incapable of doing anything for himself.
The glass dagger still sat inside the chest of Silas’s first kill. He struggled to his feet and limped toward it, unsheathing it from the man’s ribs while Artemis fought against his ropes.
“Where is she?” Artemis asked despairingly. “Where is Kate?”
Silas left him bound and turned away, carrying a blade in each hand. “Stay here, bookseller,” he said. “It will be over soon.”
The shades gathered around Kate as Da’ru pushed her into the veil. They were screeching and screaming, their voices filling the half-life with desperate words.
“. . . free us! . . .”
“. . . help us! . . .”
“. . . release us! . . .”
The shades moved gently around Kate, but when Da’ru stepped among them, everything changed. The air filled with a low hiss. The shades’ hatred spread like fire, and Kate knew that Da’ru’s connection with the circle was all that was protecting her from their wrath.
“I did not believe what Silas told me about you at first,” said Da’ru, forcing Kate deeper into the mist with strength Kate would not have guessed she had. “Now I can see that he did not tell me everything. I had heard about the Walkers, of course, but I never imagined that I would meet one outside the pages of Wintercraft.”
Da’ru looked at the shades in wonder, mesmerized by the presence of so many pressing closely against her skin. She closed her eyes, absorbing the experience of being able to step physically into the veil for the very first time, and her fingernails scratched deeply into Kate’s skin. Kate realized that she was holding on to her far too tightly. Da’ru was afraid of something.
As a Walker, Kate was able to step into the veil without danger, but Da’ru did not possess the level of ability to allow her to walk safely on her own. She needed Kate beside her. Without a physical link to a Walker, she risked endangering her spirit if she stayed within that mist for too long.
The shades swirled anxiously around them. Kate’s hair whipped up in the current made by their frenzied movements, and she looked through the mist toward the frightened crowd. Every one of those people was in danger, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do to help them. The circle belonged to Da’ru. Kate could not close it. Da’ru was its master and she was completely in control.
“Forget them,” said Da’ru, following her gaze. “Those people do not see the world the way we do, Kate. They never truly believed in the veil. The Night of Souls is just a joke to them, another excuse for a mindless celebration. They have never once dared to try and understand it. Now they can see the truth for themselves.”
Kate glanced back at the central circle. She could see Silas standing at the very edge, but he wasn’t doing anything. He was just