Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Hold on, Sebastian thinks, tugging my hand to lead me toward the far side of the fortress. There’s still one place left that we haven’t searched. He gestures to a narrow flight of stairs that leads up to the roof, partially hidden by the stacks of books. We waste no time, but halfway up, I pause.

For one brief instant, I felt Euna’s mind. Her thoughts were jumbled and confused. Then gone again.

I swallow hard as we open the hatch to the roof and step out into the cold night air. I pull my skirts closer as if that could make them lend me more warmth. Sebastian rubs his arms.

There—on the other side of the railing surrounding the roof—is a figure in a dressing gown, her skin and hair glowing against the dark backdrop of the night.

“Euna!” I cry, reaching out with my talent at the same time. I half expect her to turn around with a smile and ask us what we’re doing up on the roof with her.

She doesn’t turn. And when I touch her mind, it doesn’t have the familiar contours of the steady, thoughtful woman we’ve grown used to.

She isn’t there. But someone else is.

Then they’re gone, vanished before I can grab hold of that foreign mind. Euna’s thoughts become a violent storm as she teeters near the railing. We break into a run, grabbing at her clothes to pull her away from the edge. Finally she turns, her eyes wild and confused, seeing us but without full recognition.

“Where am I?” she whispers. Then she crumples to the stone roof.

Where did I go? Where did I go? Where did I go? rushes through her brain in a painful loop. I pull my talent back and wrap my arms around my waist. My whole body quakes, and I can’t tell if it’s from the cold or the fear rattling my bones.

Sebastian crouches near Euna. Her eyes have begun to roll back in her head, and I worry she may lose consciousness. “We have to get her help. Can you tell what happened to her?” When he glances up at me, his face is as white as a sheet.

I brace myself on the railing of the roof as he reaches my side. “What is it, Simone?”

I shake my head, my pale curls wisping across my vision. “They’re here. They got her. I don’t know what they wanted, but they left just as I called out her name.”

Sebastian takes a step back. “No. That’s not possible. We left the body walker behind. We’re supposed to be safe here.”

“If it’s a body walker we’re dealing with, we’re not safe anywhere. We’ll never be safe, our friends will never be safe, no one will ever be safe. Not until the body walker is stopped for good.”

Chapter Fourteen

We prop Euna up near the door to the stairs, safely away from the edge of the roof. She is too tall for us to carry down ourselves, and we’re too terrified of the body walker to split up.