Amelia had called her Daisy, and it didn’t take long to find out she worked beside Amelia, and her name was Daisy MacDougall. A whole litany of hits turned up on that name—blogs, interviews on human–paranormal websites—all calling Daisy a monster hunter.

Victorija clicked on a YouTube link and found herself watching Daisy and a group of friends, ghost hunting in an old churchyard. She paused the video, took a screenshot, and enlarged it.

“Daisy MacDougall.” She reached forward with her shaking hand and said, “Why you?”

When she had tasted her blood in The Sanctuary, it had been like a punch in the chest, and when she looked in her eyes there was something so familiar about them.

On a hunch she went to the births, marriages, and deaths website for the UK. The results would take her hours to go through, but Victorija knew she had to trace this girl’s family back in time, and she had a sinking feeling of where that might lead and what it would mean for her. Death or a broken vow.

* * *

A line of black SUVs and a classic Rolls-Royce ambled through the English countryside. In one of the black SUVs was Katie, who was now well enough to travel. She was still weak, but the doctor thought a change of scene would help.

Katie pulled the blanket under her chin to try to comfort herself. The moment she stepped out of her room this morning, she realized how different she still felt. As she passed the spot on the landing where Josie had attacked her, she had to conceal the panic she felt.

If she had shown the terror and fear that was deep inside her bones, Byron might have left her at home, and she couldn’t bear that. Since her mother and father had flown in to be by her side, she’d hardly been able to breathe.

Her mum especially had not left her bedside, fussing over her. The only respite she got was when Daisy came to visit her. She could understand her parents’ reaction—their daughter had been essentially dead, if not for Bhal’s actions—but the constant talking about it, and no privacy to come to terms with how she was feeling, had only made her confusion over the trauma worse. The other thing was that since her parents arrived, Alexis hadn’t been near, and she couldn’t understand why.

She had gotten used to—indeed, looked forward to—Alexis’s nightly visits with a cup of tea. Katie had to admit it was the only time of day she felt safe, anywhere near grounded, and not filled with anxiety.

Near grounded, that was a joke. Katie gazed out of the window and watched the hedgerows and leafy trees of the countryside whizz by. When she saw the trees, the leaves, the sheep and cows in the field, it was like a scene from a movie she was watching, observing from some point outside herself.

When Bhal had ripped her back from death, death had left its mark on her, and she didn’t know if she would ever be the same again. If Katie thought about it for too long, her anxiety went sky high.