So, it wasn’t just an eerie illusion. Neither, apparently, was the voice in my head. Carrie, it called softly. The chill tone paralyzed me. Carrie, he has come back.

“Who has?” I asked out loud. But I knew. I knew in my heart who she meant. Two months of horrible nightmares flashed through my mind. No! I shouted back at the Oracle through my mind. Cyrus is dead. No matter what bizarre scenario you try and come up with, nothing can bring him back!

You doubt me, vampire?

I’m fairly sure that’s exactly when things started to go wrong. The Oracle’s voice filled my head, and she was angry. What do you want, vampire? Why do you come to me?

You told me he’s come back, I pressed. I need to know who you’re talking about.

You’re afraid I speak of the one called Simon. But I do not. Another wave of blood rocked the tank and pounded against the glass. Anne, who’d run to the intercom, shrank against the wall. I don’t know if she’d called for help or not.

“Simon?” I asked aloud. My thoughts were so scrambled, it took me a moment to remember Cyrus’s real name. “I’m not afraid of Cyrus.”

You shouldn’t be. Though he lives again, he lives. I speak of the one who devours the essence of my blood kin. Another wave rocked the tank.

“The Soul Eater?” But another part of her statement demanded my attention. “What do you mean, Cyrus lives?”

Raised by the toothsome ones in the land of the dead. As the first rises, the second falls. Both will be devoured.

Anne edged closer, keeping to the wall. “We need to go. She’s not safe when she’s agitated like this.”

I couldn’t leave yet. Not when I was getting the first real answers I’d received since we’d arrived. “The Soul Eater possessed Nathan?”

The waves of blood came faster and faster now. I felt like a fish in an aquarium someone kept tapping on, and I struggled to keep my mind focused. From the corner of my eye, I saw Anne cover her ears.

You have your answer. Seek the toothsome ones in the land of the dead. The flesh and blood of the destroyer.

Cold fear gripped me. “What if I can’t find him? I don’t understand!”

The Oracle’s eyes snapped open again. In the same instant, Movement guards charged into the room, followed by Max. “Carrie, get away from her!”

The Oracle opened her mouth. Waves of sound rippled through the blood around her as her scream filled the air and my head. “He will become a god!”