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She might even fight us.

I looked at heraleimi,as Black must have done. I’d known, of course, ever since Black spoke to her, what she was, but now my light confirmed it.

She was definitely seer.

She looked seer, even in those wide eyes, angular cheekbones, and perfect mouth.

But heraleimiclight was what really gave her away.

It writhed around her like a separate, living being. I saw meanings stacked and woven there, a confused tangle of thought and feeling and intensity and repression. I glanced at her throat, didn’t see a collar, but I could feel something strangling her living light, even with how much of it I could see. It didn’tdimher light exactly, but more seemed toscrambleit, in a way that likely made it hard for her to do much, if anything, with her seer abilities.

Was this another of Lucian Rucker’s fucking tech toys?

“Yes,” Black muttered coldly from next to me. “Likely. We need to get her to the lab. Do a CAT scan, possibly an MRI.”

His eyes never left the girl.

My eyes fell to the cage. It was only about six by four feet.

She could lie down in it, at least, and I saw that the bottom of it consisted mostly of a mattress. I didn’t see ventilation of any kind, apart from the steel bars. The metal door had an open window on it, presumably to let in air, and possibly some light. The only other thing I saw in the space with her was a stuffed elephant she gripped in one hand.

My throat tightened as I looked at her. I fought back the stinging in my eyes.

“Baby,” I whispered.

I don’t know why I said it.

Her eyes darted to mine.

She also looked even younger to me now, as I edged nearer.

Instead of looking fourteen in human years, she looked closer to twelve.

In seer years, that would make her––

“Eighteen or nineteen years old,” Black said, gruff, in English. “But doc, the comparison in years isn’t really apt. She’s not likely to be the same maturity level a human would be at that age. Emotionally, she’s much closer to the age she looks.”

I felt even sicker at his words. They absolutely felt true to me, though.

I could feel Black’s emotional reactions sparking and surging around me. He sounded choked up, which made me fight tears, too.

I fought to answer him, to talk to Nick maybe, who’d remained silent through all of our back and forth. I couldn’t make myself speak.

Then I saw the girl glance at Nick, as if remembering him only then.

She visibly flinched when she looked at him that time, but not in fear.

Her eyes grew wider and softer, then abruptly too bright, like she was struggling to hold back tears. She still looked like she was in shock, but relief was making its way through that shock now. She stared at Nick like she couldn’t believe he was there, like he was the answer to some wish she’d made, a fervent wish she’d never believed would be granted.

I wondered if she knew what he was.

Did she think he was seer, too? Is that how she interpreted how he looked? Unlike with Black, she didn’t look afraid of him. Was that some vampire thrall magic, too?

No,Black murmured in my mind.No, I don’t think so, doc.

He looked between the girl and Nick, like something about the connection there made him uneasy.

She knows him,he sent softly, nearly to himself.