Daniel scrubbed the blood from his eyes and tried to find his feet as he shifted his weight toward Liam, letting himself be pulled up.

“How many?” Daniel asked. He didn’t know why. It would be far too many for the three of them—even with Liam’s abilities.

But Liam had no chance to answer. The door burst open, revealing a wall of rifle barrels aimed at them.

Then the world tore itself in two with a scream.

CHAPTER EIGHT

REBEKA

Everything was falling apart around her.

The music hall split open with a horrifying shriek, thinning the air. She was thrown backward, away from the doors where Daniel and Liam faced down a host of guards, and as she fell, she blinked and saw another place: a stone tower wreathed in shadow, breathing as if it drew energy into itself. It was burned into the back of her eyelids so no matter where she looked, it waited for her, shadows swirling around it.

This must be it: the vision she’d been trying to protect Daniel from. The grim conclusion to his quest. She’d failed them both—and the rest of their family, too.

The lightning faded, but the screams continued as Liam hummed a note that rattled her soul.

Daniel—was it Daniel screaming? She staggered to her feet, only to find the music hall flattened around her as if a tornado had landed on them. Shelves twisted and snapped, sheets of paper swirling past her—inventories and ledger papers and grim swastika letterheads. The guards who’d filled the doorway moments before now sprawled across the floor. Some cried out, their limbs bent at unnatural angles. Others were all too still. Scattered rifle stocks were shredded and spiraled like peeled potato skins. And in the epicenter of the torrent stood Liam, arms raised high as he commanded a spinning column of thick black smoke.

No, it was darker even than smoke. It was like burning pitch, and smelled just as foul. Inside the whirlwind, she heard—voices. Howls. Teeth snapping, ravenous.

The shadows whispered to her, achingly familiar: Yes.

“We have to go.” Rebeka charged forward and seized her brother’s hand, then reached for the American, too. “More will be coming.”

“No—I need a moment—longer—” yelled Liam.

Boxes of paperwork were ripped off of the shelves, caught up in the vortex. Rebeka ducked low to avoid a piece of plywood as it whizzed past. “Your book isn’t here! Let’s go!”

“One more minute—”

But the sound of gunfire swallowed up whatever Liam was about to say. A fresh group of guards had arrived. Liam fell backward, struck in the shoulder, and dragged Rebeka and Daniel down with him. The vortex shifted in response as his concentration broke. Lightning crackled across its surface as the darkness stretched and yawned—a hungering void.

And then something taloned, something sinuous, slithered out of the black.