No—this was wrong. As soon as he felt the shadow, he felt its talons sinking into his flesh, shredding him. It flooded into the gaps between his thoughts, crowding out his senses.

Don’t be shy, Liam. You are powerful. You always were.

“I don’t want to be powerful,” Liam managed through clenched teeth. “Not if it means being anything like you, Pitr.”

Oh, but you are like me. And you still have a great purpose to serve. I need you, Liam. I need your command of the darkness. But if you won’t do it for me . . .

The darkness warped again, revealing a stone chamber. A figure crouched in its center, gagged and bound. Daniel, his head bowed, his body slack.

A sacrifice.

The darkness burned away, leaving Liam back on the square, the brownshirts still arguing around him. They barely noticed the bitter laugh that rose from Liam’s throat and the oily black that swirled in his palms.

“You win, Pitr.” Teeth bared, Liam wrenched the ropes on his wrists apart like they were thread.

“Hey, wait!” one of the guards shouted.

“Which of you idiots untied him—”

Liam stood, and a swarm of screeching insects burst out of his palms. In an instant, they surrounded the brownshirts, swallowing up their screams in a torrential buzzing as they ripped away chunks of flesh. Liam was instinct and adrenaline now; if he stopped to think, if he stopped to worry about anything beyond this moment, he would fall apart. He was the shadow’s tool.

But for just a little longer now, the shadow would be his.

CHAPTER THIRTY

DANIEL

For one desperate, beautiful moment, Daniel almost thought he’d be able to pull it off.

After returning the Mercedes-Benz to the motor pool, he slipped unnoticed through the garage bay, the morning shift’s soldiers still bleary-eyed and half asleep. He followed two men to the dining hall, and from there, found the directory for offices. Kreutzer’s was in the basement, attached to the laboratory space, which should have been ideal: fewer witnesses, thicker walls. The yawning secretaries paid him no mind as he stalked past them in a freshly stolen uniform. The office door was unlocked.

And inside, the doctor was nowhere to be found.

Daniel cursed, then shut the door behind himself. It was the safest place for him to hide, for now. He hadn’t done anything too rash just yet. He hadn’t fired his gun, given away his purpose. Maybe the book was here, under the stacks of lab charts, bundled-up papers. He could take it back to Liam, forget his assassination plot, leave his vengeance for another day. Maybe he could even destroy the book. Keep it from everyone’s hands. Run away with Liam and forget everything.

But he’d burned those ships.