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“So time is of the essence?”

“Yes,” he replied. “And remember that the tears don’t stay in one place for more than a few seconds.”

“Right.”

Because otherwise this wouldn’t be complicated enough.

I watched the Cursed Ones lumber about, but none of them had started glowing blue again. “Why aren’t they moving closer to the tears? They’re supposed to be attracted to them.”

“I think your presence might be distracting them,” Kato told me. “They’re clearly afraid of you.”

I tried to steady my rattling nerves with a joke. “Maybe you could snap them out of it by chasing them around with your sword?”

“No,youneed to take control of them. You need to move them where you want them to go.”

I clutched my hands together.

“I saw you do it to one of the Cursed Ones in the Garden.”

I swallowed hard.

“It ran away from you, Seven.”

“It was distracted by all the people running around,” I replied.

“I’m not talking about why it ran away. I’m talking about the part where it completely froze in place for a few seconds. It looked terrified.”

“The Cursed Ones can’t feel fear or any other emotion,” I told him. “There are no thoughts in their heads. Their minds are too far gone. All that remains in that empty vacuum is the Curse—and the single-minded instinct the Curse has burned into them: to bite and infect.”

“Yes, I know,” replied Kato. “Which is why that Cursed One’s reaction to you was so peculiar. I’ve never seen a Cursed One act like that. I’ve never seen one freeze up like that. I’ve never evenheardof anyone being able to influence one of them like that. You can make the feral, crazed Cursed Ones stop. You make themfeelsomething. That is…astonishing.”

I shook my head. “It was only for a few seconds.”

“In battle, sometimes a moment’s advantage is the difference between victory and defeat, between life and death. Do not underestimate your gift.” Kato set his hand on my shoulder. “Because I am counting on it.”

His hand felt like it weighed a ton. It must have been the weight of his words. The pressure. A Knight was counting onmeto get us out of here. He was counting on me to save us.

“I don’t think it’s a very good idea to plan your whole strategy around some weird thing that I can’t control.” My throat was tight and my hands sticky with sweat. I barely choked out my next words. “What if it was a fluke?”

“It was no fluke.” Kato said the words like he didn’t have a single shred of doubt in his mind.

Whereas my mind was swarming with nothing but doubt.

“I have fought a lot of Cursed Ones. I know how they act, and freezing up isn’t it. Not ever. Trust me on that, Seven.”

“Ok…”

I tried to swallow my doubts, like they were pieces of really hard, really yucky food—but a few of them got stuck halfway down my throat. I pushed them down again, this time with more force. And this time it worked. Sort of. I almost forgot that I was totally terrified.

Kato must have seen the terror in my eyes—and realized the reason for it. “I will keep you safe.” He patted his sword. “I will be right beside you the whole time. And I won’t let them hurt you. I promised I would protect you, and I will.”

“I know you will.” My heart was pounding so hard with fear, it was a wonder I was still standing.

“I know I’m asking a lot from you, Seven. And I don’t want to rush you. But we are running out of time. We need to do this now, before all the tears have gone bad.”

“Ok. No problem at all,” I said weakly. “I’m almost ready. Just give me a few seconds to hyperventilate, then I’ll be as right as rain.”

CHAPTER7