“Like Victor,” Sarah Beth said softly, the image of him at the table in the mountains—his pale, transparent skin and those long, skeleton-like hands—flashed in her head and gave her a chill. For a moment, she could almost see—or feel—that black thread calling to her.

“Yes,” Corbin said, calling her back. “Like Victor. And other Dark Ones as well, so remember these things can be two-way streets, and keep yourself safe like Pastor Dee taught you. Not many Dark Ones can get inside you. But powerful ones—like Victor—can.”

Sarah Beth nodded and forced thoughts of Victor out of her head. “So every new person I meet is like a hub, connecting me to all of their threads . . . which means I can follow other people’s threads to someone I’ve never met?”

“Yes, exactly,” Corbin said, smiling broadly—a tutor proud of her pupil. “And it keeps going on and on from there. When you get to the next person, it’s like a new hub, and you can follow all those threads.”

A mental image came to Sarah Beth of an ever-expanding, infinite spiderweb connecting all the people on earth. “Dude . . . that’s insane. We’re talking, like, billions of connections.”

“Trillions,” Corbin said with a wry grin.

“Then how am I ever supposed to find anybody? I mean, I don’t have time to trace trillions of connections. Is that really what you do all day, just wander around following random threads hoping to get lucky and find the right one?”

“No, I’d totally quit if that’s how it worked. But two things—first, remember, this is a gift from God, a gift of the Holy Spirit. So always pray for God to guide you, and He will, I promise. But second, there are a couple of cool tricks you can use as well, to keep you focused and on task. Have you ever heard of something called six degrees of separation?”

“Yeah,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “It’s like something to do with Kevin Bacon?”

Corbin laughed. “Well, yes and no. The Kevin Bacon thing is related, sorta like a joke, but the basic premise of the six degrees of separation theory is that, on average, all people are separated by six social connections or less. In other words, with only six nodes, you can theoretically connect with anyone on earth. For example, you know me. But what you might not know is that I have an older sister—not a Watcher by the way—who lives in New York and goes to Juilliard. She has a roommate and her roommate’s sister happens to be friends with Suri Cruise. And Suri Cruise is Tom Cruise’s daughter. So if you do the math, that means you’re less than six degrees of separation from Tom Cruise.”

“Seriously?” Sarah Beth asked, her eyes going wide.