“Megan—”

“I was the first. Before you came. They thought I just ran away last summer, left town because my fiancé jilted me, but . . . I didn’t. I was going to, and packed my things, and—and then he was there. I never thought he—he would hurt me.” She swallowed visibly, then went on determinedly. “He wanted to see if he could hide me away without the elders, without Duncan, knowing anything about it. And he did.”

“You mean, when we had a team here in January—”

Megan shook her head when Hollis’s horrified words broke off. “I was—was dead by then. Buried. Hidden. And the monster stayed quiet while all that was going on. Even though he was getting more and more angry. He had his own plans. And now . . . He took someone else just before you got here. I think you . . . you felt what was happening to that poor soul. You can’t help him anymore. No one can. But the monster . . . he’s taken someone else. I’m not sure who. Or even when, except . . . except it wasn’t long ago. If you don’t stop him, he’ll kill them just like he did me. Just like he killed that other man. Maybe . . . maybe worse.”

Having learned the hard way how little time for useful communication she usually had with the dead, Hollis said urgently, “We need a starting place, Megan. Something. Can you— Do you know where—where he buried you?”

“The crows know. Ask them. And be careful, Hollis. The monster is afraid of you. Of all of you. He believes he isn’t, but he is. Because you hunt monsters, and deep down inside even he knows that’s what he is.”

“Megan,” Hollis began, then swore under her breath when she realized the spirit was fading. Quickly she added, “We’ll stop him— I promise. Don’t let him hold you here.”

“I don’t have a choice . . .” The spirit and her voice faded into silence until they were gone.

The room seemed darker somehow with Megan gone, but then Reese spoke quietly and Hollis immediately felt everything brighten at least a little.

“What do you suppose she meant by that last? How does a killer hold the spirits of his victims earthbound?”

Hollis half turned in his loosened embrace so she could face him, glad that he could still see spirits as she did when they were physically touching. She felt less lonely about it. “None of them has ever told me,” she confessed. “But at least some of the ones I see do seem to be trying to help stop their killers, as if that’s keeping them from moving on.”

“Barred by some law of the Universe from simply telling you who killed them?”

“Apparently. Diana says it’s still the same with her guides, even after all this time. If time even matters. She’s had them lead her to physical remains, but not to killers.”