For a few long beats they all just stared at them. Darsal’s shoulders shook with a sob. She hugged herself with one arm and lifted the other hand to cover her face.

“No, Darsal.” Silvie put her arm over the girl’s shoulder. “You can’t blame yourself.”

“I . . . I . . .”

“You are chosen,” Johnis said. “And you saved us all. That’s all that matters now.”

It was hard to imagine what kind of suffering Darsal’s bitterness had caused her all these years. She will bear that scar, Silvie thought. But Johnis was right. They had won. They were the chosen ones, and they had recovered the seven books.

“There’s still danger. The books can still be used.” Karas picked up the black one and wiped Alucard’s blood off its cover using a tissue from her pocket. “What now?”

“Now we have to return them,” Johnis said.

A whoosh of wings disturbed the air behind Silvie, and she spun around, expecting Shataiki. But this wasn’t a wad of black muscle.

It was a ball of white fur: Roush. Michal!

And hard on Michal’s heels, Gabil landed a ways off, tumbled three full turns on the ground, and launched himself into a spindly but much improved karate kick.

“Hiyah!” he cried, and then landed on both feet where he managed to keep his balance. “What do you think? Was that better?”

Silvie now realized that the white streak she had seen among the flood of black Shataiki had been Michal and Gabil! They stood like two soldiers on the grass, green eyes glimmering, fur so white they looked like the marshmallows Karas had served them with coffee.

Karas rushed up to Gabil and dropped to one knee. “Thank Elyon!” She hugged the Roush. “How is Hunter?”

Gabil nearly toppled backward with her hug. “Easy, easy! My improved skills don’t include protection against the hug of death! Hunter who?”

“The Roush who guards Middle?”

“Oh, Hunter,” Gabil said. “As full of himself as always, I’m sure.”

Johnis hurried up to Michal, dropped down to one knee, and bowed his head. “You have no idea how good it is to see you, Michal.”

A thin grin crossed the Roush’s lips. “Actually, I do.”

Then they all crowded around the two furry, white bats, peppering them with questions and offering details about their close call with Alucard. And in short order, some things were finally set straight.

Yes, both realities were linked in so many ways that not even Michal had known before. Thomas of Hunter’s dreams were indeed true, all of them, in both places. Teeleh’s attempt to destroy the world through the disease borne in Shataiki—the Horde disease—was now foiled.