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Chapters (42)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. DEDICATION PAGE
  4. CONTENTS
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  42. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He knelt next to me. “I cannot promise a perfect translation.” After a long pause, he said, “Ah … God who is full of compassion, who dwells on high …” He spoke slowly, carefully, with sadness and reverence in his voice. “Grant true rest on the wings of the Divine Presence, in the exalted spheres of the holy and pure, who shine like the stars, to the soul of … Andrea, who … who …”

He cursed and stood up suddenly. “I can’t do this.” He leaned over and rolled Andrea’s body into the tarp.

I slowly got to my feet, heavy with new understanding. Every time he’d chanted over the body of someone he’d killed, he hadn’t been praying for the Mazikin, or even for the body. He’d been praying for the human soul he thought he was freeing, far away in the Mazikin realm, unreachable except for the wishful words of his heart.

What did he have to pray for now?

His usually steady hands were trembling as he pulled the edges of the tarp tight. “I will take her to the basement. They’ll send someone to come and get her.” He picked up the wrapped body, slung it over his shoulder, and turned his back to me. “I’m glad you weren’t badly hurt,” he said, and then marched up the stairs and into the house.

TWENTY-FOUR

TWENTY-FOUR

I DIDN’T MAKE IT home until four, and suffered through a few hours of dreams in which I stared at the world through a stranger’s eyes, wearing skin that wasn’t my own. Filled with hunger, an insatiable craving for one thing. Something I couldn’t have.

My alarm was almost a relief, but that keen sense of need followed me right out of sleep. I ran to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror, just to make sure I was still me. I slipped out early and drove to the Guard house, because with Henry gone, I was the only one who could drive Jim and Malachi to school. It seemed beneath Raphael to have to do it.

When I arrived, only Jim was waiting for me. I glanced at his face. Raphael had done a pretty good job—the scarring was faint, and only when Jim turned his head could I see the narrow, silvery tracks crossing his pale, otherwise perfect skin.

He gave me a look I couldn’t decipher but that seemed to fall somewhere between pity and amusement. “Laney showed up this morning and offered to drive Malachi to school.”

We drove in silence. Jim folded his arms over his chest and leaned his head back with his eyes closed. Shutting me out. Or maybe catching a few moments of sleep, which was hard for all of us to come by these days.