The eerie music and bell tolls were replaced by the howl of the wind as it slammed into me like a dust storm, knocking me one way, then another. My limbs went numb within seconds, but not enough to deaden the sensation of freezing needles stabbing into me at high speed. I shifted my feet wider to brace myself, blocking my face with my arms, my dress whipping around my legs. Just over the howling, I could hear bangs and scratches, moaning, the creaking of wooden boards.

The Waking had begun.

It was amplified, which made sense for the severity of the curse. Still, I was freezing. I needed to work quickly, take in as many Manifestations as I could so I’d know what sort of amulets would be required. Already my mind could see and feel the strokes I’d need to cut from the silver with my welding pen. It was like a box of white powder thrown onto a black board, the patterns of each Manifestation’s life force sticking to invisible glue to form a clear design. Line, line, curve, line, dot, line. Or, normally, they were clear—now there were hundreds, overlapping, jumbling up. Far too many to distinguish one from another.

But I could focus on one. Pick the easiest to start on tomorrow. From there they were all connected, and cleansing the first Manifestation would make it easier for me to take care of the next.

All the candles had been blown out by the wind, so the meager moonlight through the windows at the end of the hall and downstairs were my only source of light. But I saw vague shadows of what looked like a horde of rats at the bottom of the stairs and the first-floor ceiling. Waves and waves of small, dark creatures scampering around and over each other, leaving no view of the wood underneath. Likely not actual rats, but until I knew for sure I wasn’t going to venture that way. Besides, the stairs were where the wooden creaking was coming from, the wood visibly shifting and cracking. Breaking.

I bent down and touched a deep crack on the first step, my fingers stopping on the outside of it, as if the space between were a barricade. It was the solid stair, the cracks lying on top like a mirage.

This Manifestation wasn’t even tangible. In other words, it was weak. This would be the one to start with.

And thank God I found it quickly, because my skin had shifted from burned and raw to numb, and it scared me a little. I’d never been hurt by a Manifestation this way—but then, I’d never been without my amulet. I needed it back around my neck, and quickly.