Bec licks her lips nervously. “We might have an inside man who can help us.”

“What are you talking about?” Dervish frowns.

“It’s something Beranabus said before he died.” Bec shudders. She was close to the old magician. His death hit her hard. “In the hold of the ship, after I told him about Death, he said to tell Kernel to find him.”

“He wanted me to open a window out of the hold,” I mutter, feeling guilty even though I know there’s nothing I could have done to help him.

“That’s what I thought,” Bec nods. “I assumed he planned to escape or knock the lodestone through the window. But the more I think about it, the more I doubt that assumption. He knew he couldn’t last long against the Shadow, that it would take us several minutes to climb the stairs. He knew you were part of the Kah-Gash and that the Shadow wanted to get its hands on you. Why would he ask you to risk capture? He was doomed and he accepted his death. His only concern was that we evade the Shadow and live to fight another day.

“I don’t think he was asking for help.” Bec licks her lips again. “I think he was looking ahead. Once he knew what the Shadow was, he resigned himself to dying. But he didn’t give up the fight. Juni and I are proof that death isn’t the end. When he found out who his enemy was, I believe Beranabus saw a chance to learn more about it and share that information with us.

“Death uses souls to create its body. Maybe it held on to Beranabus’s soul when it killed him. Part of him might be alive inside that monstrous mass of shadows.”

Bec looks at me and grins shakily. “You can locate anything in the universes of the living, Kernel. Do you think you could find a ghost in the realm of the dead?”

SHADES OF THE FALLEN

There’s uproar when Bec suggests Beranabus might still be alive in some form. Grubbs accuses her of living in a dreamland. Meera gently suggests that she’s in denial, that she needs to accept the ancient magician’s death. But Bec stubbornly pushes her case, and as she elaborates, our skepticism fades.

We know souls can be separated from bodies—that happened to me in Lord Loss’s kingdom years ago, when I entered the Board. In the past, a soul couldn’t survive a body’s death, but things have changed. Death is claiming souls and using them. We’ve no way of knowing if a captured soul remains conscious or not. But if they do… if Beranabus has made a study of Death from the inside and uncovered its secrets… maybe he can tell us how to kill it.

It’s probably a wild shot in the dark. Grubbs certainly thinks so and says that it’s a waste of time, but the rest of us believe it’s worth trying.

But before we can set off in pursuit of a dead man, we have the living to take care of. The new window is almost open. In another few hours, dozens of demons will be streaming across.

While Grubbs fetches his werewolves and Meera rustles up battle-hardened soldiers, I slot patches of light together. Dervish and Kirilli are resting—Dervish looks shattered, Kirilli scared. Bec’s watching me. Something about her gaze makes me feel uneasy.

“It must have been amazing,” she says. “Your trip to the stars and beyond sounds incredible.”

“Yes,” I grunt.

“I was wondering…” She coughs. “I’d like to touch you.”

“What?” I squeak, startled, thinking she wants to kiss me.

“I can absorb your memories if we touch,” she says.

“Oh.” I chuckle at my mistake. Then I grow serious. “Why do you want to take my memories?”

“Not take,” she says. “Share. I want to see everything you saw. The lights, the worlds, the Crux. If you grant me access, I can see all that you did.”

“What does it matter if I show you or not?” I snap.

She looks surprised by my harsh tone. “Well, of course I’m curious,” she says, stammering a bit. “But apart from that I have perfect recall. If you share with me, I might spot something that slipped your mind.”

“I doubt it,” I sniff.

“But it can’t do any harm, surely, if I just…” She reaches out, then stops as I glare at her. Letting her hand drop slowly, her expression darkens. “You’re hiding something from us. Just like Grubbs.”

“You saw that too?” I hiss.

“Everyone sees it. Something happened between him and Juni that he doesn’t want us to know.”

“What do you think it might be?” I ask.

“I’ve no idea. But I think I know what you’re holding back. You look hostile. I’ve done nothing to make you dislike me, so you must be… afraid.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” I sneer.

“Maybe not. But you’re nervous… more than that… suspicious?”

I fidget uncomfortably.

“The Old Creatures said the pieces of the Kah-Gash have been influenced by the hosts they’ve inhabited,” Bec says thoughtfully. “If my piece of the Kah-Gash was in Lord Loss for thousands of years…” Her expression clears. “You don’t trust me. You think I might betray you, or that my piece of the Kah-Gash might trick us.”

“Can you say for sure that it won’t?” I ask quietly.

Bec starts to respond hotly, then pauses. “Actually no,” she admits. Then she looks at me piercingly. “But can you make any guarantees? Can Grubbs? You don’t know where your pieces were before, or why they ended up in you. Maybe we’ll all be played for fools.”

“Maybe.” I nod slowly.

Bec smiles thinly. “Go on watching me, Kernel. I don’t mind. But I’ll be watching you too. And Grubbs. I don’t think any of us can be trusted.”

“You’re right,” I say glumly, then return her smile. “And we’re the ones who are supposed to save the world? I don’t like our chances!”

“Me neither,” she laughs, and we grin at each other, united by our uncertainties, paranoia, and fear.

We could stop the mage before he opens the window, but then we wouldn’t have a chance to test ourselves. I don’t like the course we’re taking—people will probably die—but there’s no other way. If we want to learn about the Kah-Gash before we go looking for the Shadow, we have to fight. We could cross to the demon universe and test it there, but that would mean unleashing the Kah-Gash in an area of total magic. If the weapon’s on the side of the Demonata, that would hand it the perfect opportunity to break free of any confines we might seek to impose.

“Stick close to me,” Grubbs growls. I’m on his left, Bec on his right. Meera, Kirilli, the werewolves, and soldiers are behind us. Dervish is a bit farther back, observing. I sense the window forming. Just minutes to go. The mage is working inside a nearby building.

“We’re not going for a full union,” Grubbs says. “Just a partial link.”

“Are you sure we can do that?” I ask.

“Yes,” Grubbs says. “I’m the trigger. I can control it. Follow my lead, don’t react when you feel my magic mingling with yours, and everything will be coolio.”

I share a troubled glance with Bec—she doesn’t like this either—but before I can say anything the window opens and demons scurry out of the building. There are dozens of scaly, bloody, multiheaded monsters, oozing pus and slime, slithering down the steps, smashing through windows, hunting for victims. A river of nightmares.

But nothing new. I faced worse with Beranabus. I’m more concerned about the werewolf between me and Bec than I am by the demons bearing down on us.

Grubbs stares at the Demonata, eyes narrow and glinting yellow. His fangs grow an inch, his lips stretching with them. He grabs hold of my hand and Bec’s. Energy spirals up my arm. I tense against it but then the voice of the Kah-Gash murmurs to me. It’s all right. Don’t fight. No harm will come of this.

I don’t entirely trust that inner voice, but even if I wanted to reject the union, I couldn’t. The magic within me warms to Grubbs’s and I feel power well up from nowhere. The shock of it makes me gasp. My skin crackles and my fingers dig into Grubbs’s huge paw. My legs go weak, then steady.