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Ernesta’s body did not move.

“COME. BACK.” I ordered again, channeling everything inside of me through the crucible.

Her eyes opened.

FIFTY-FOUR

Nedra

“Nessie!” I criedjoyously.

Her flesh was cool, like the iron bead in my hand. She had no heartbeat.

I pulled back.

No life in her eyes.

“Nessie?” I asked, leaning back and looking into her expressionless face.

She blinked.

There was nothing of my sister in this shell of a body. Was this what necromancy was? Raising the bodies but losing the souls? What point was there in that?

Unblinking, she watched me.

I couldn’t stand to look at her expressionless eyes. I had to get out. I ran across the metal landing, heading straight to the spiral staircase. But when I reached the top of the steps, I was stopped short by a wave of power, the sheer force of which hit me like a gust of wind in a hurricane.

From my vantage point, I could see almost all of the abandoned bodies in the hospital. But I could also see the golden glow that clung to them, much like the glow that had enveloped Ernesta when I first raised her.Souls.

But unlike with Ernesta, I couldhearthese souls. Not with my ears, but in my mind—I could hear every last one of them. And they were crying out.

Help me.

Time. Give me more time.

Bring me back.

Can you hear me?

There’s more I want to do.

Each voice was distinct, each imbued with its own sense of longing. And each voice was directed at me. Just as I could sense the dead, they could senseme.

I remember you,one voice said, and my eyes drifted to the body of the boy on the floor, Ronan.

What do you see?I thought the words, but I knew he understood.

Darkness,he said.And light.

Do you see my sister?My internal voice was urgent, begging.She looks like me.

Nothing looks like anything here.

Ernesta?I called loudly in my mind.Can you hear me?

But as I tried to reach through the veil that seemed to separate me from the voices, I couldn’t get any sense of my sister. I could not find her cries among the others. Now that I’d made my presence known, they called to me even louder, screaming, begging, a long, low moan that sliced through my brain with the finesse of a sledgehammer.

I took a deep, shaking breath, trying to make sense of it all. And in the sound of my exhale, I could feel others, ones I’d not noticed before. Silent ones. They shrank away from me, pulling deeper past the veil.