“We’re working on identifying the girl Chase mentioned in his journal, but we believe she’ll make her way to one of the other three Compounds in the United States, since the Adamantine Gates once stood at each location before they were destroyed.”

It’s a good guess. The gates were melted, leaving behind a black lake that gives off high levels of energy, attracting all kinds of things—death-speakers and the dead. Unfortunately, it also attracts Influence.

“And you would like the Order’s approval to search for her?” Abrams asks.

“It is our job to locate the Eurydice. We should be searching for her. Clearly, she has demonstrated she’s dangerous. She took Lockwood’s life.”

Oh, hell. I see where this is going now, and it’s not good.

“If what you say is true, then the Eurydice should face consequences for misusing her power.”

“She is hardly trained,” Elite Val argues. “Indeed, as much as you remember it is our job to locate her, you forget it is also our job to train her.”

“We can’t do that if we do not find her first,” Roth argues.

“There is no doubt we need her,” Elite Gwen adds. “Without the souls passing into Spirit, Influence is becoming stronger. Just this week, a plane went down in Switzerland. One hundred and fifty people killed.”

“I thought Charon opens the gates for mass death,” says Ezekiel.

“One hundred and fifty must not have been enough,” another adds.

There is a strange, tense silence after that comment. I can practically hear Roth tallying his supporters.

Charon has never been hands-on. He doesn’t see us as his children or anything like that. We were created for a simple purpose—to protect human souls, enforce the rule of the Order over death-speakers, and protect the Eurydice. When we fail him, we are punished. Many believe that’s what the last seventy years have been, a punishment for our failure to protect the Eurydice in her last life when she was murdered. It was after her death that the Adamantine Gates were dissolved, effectively cutting us off from Spirit.

“I’m assuming this is why you’ve assembled an army of shadow knights.” Elite Abrams’s eyes cut to us, lingering longer on me than anyone else. I have a feeling it’s from the lack of threading on my uniform.

“I would hardly call them an army,” Roth argues.

“Really? Then what do you call several trained soldiers? Sending armed Valryn after the Eurydice will only frighten her away from us. She may not even know what she is—”

“Then what do you expect us to do? Reason with her?” Roth makes the suggestion in jest, even laughing, but Elite Abrams isn’t joking.