"We'll go somewhere without a moon," Levi said. "Somewhere where we can find a lot of people willing to be changed into werewolves. We'll train, regroup, and come back to take the Palace."

Abram grabbed Levi's arm, jerking him back under the shadow of the statue. "You didn't tell me anything about this. Take the Palace? What are you talking about?"

Levi opened his mouth to respond.

The spotlights exploded, showering sparks everywhere.

Abram reflexively pushed Levi to the ground, shielding him with his body. By the time they hit the grass, just a heartbeat after the lights went out, the generators in the square had gone dead. All mechanical sounds faded.

The wind picked up, blasting through the square, rattling through the barricades. It was loud enough to muffle the pack's shouts.

"Stay down!" Abram yelled, pushing Levi onto the grass as he drew his gun.

But the werewolf didn't stay down. He also didn't look worried.

"No, wait," Levi said. "It's okay."

Brilliant white light flooded the square. It wasn't coming from the spotlights-it was far too bright and silvery-blue. It cast harsh shadows on Levi's grinning face.

He had been expecting this.

Nash Adamson descended, wings flared wide, downy white feathers whipping around him in the torrential wind. He landed on top of the silent generator. The light from his wings faded fractionally, just enough for Abram to see that he was wearing one of his usual business suits, probably made by some ridiculously expensive Italian tailors.

The wind didn't slow when his light dimmed. He lifted a hand to shield his face from the wind.

Nash's voice echoed over them. "Run!"

Apparently, Levi hadn't expected that. He shoved Abram aside and got to his feet.

"You're not Azrael," Levi said. He didn't recognize Nash. He hadn't been around the pack enough to know who their lone feathered member was.

"Run, you idiot, before it's too late," Nash said. "Go, all of you! As fast as you can! Go!"

Lightning arced over the sky-not a flash of it, like normal lightning, but a circular flare that pulsed above the center of Northgate. It was brighter than Nash, brighter than all the spotlights combined, brighter than even the sunlight.

As the light grew, so did the wind. It vortexed around the town square.

Paetrick broke free of his Scion guards and dashed at Levi, plowing into him, knocking him to the grass. They struggled against each other.

Turned out that Levi really was stronger-he dropped the other werewolf with a single hard punch.

Nash jumped off the generator and gripped Abram's arm. "Where are Rylie and Abel?" he yelled over the wind.

"Gone," he shouted back.

"Lucky thing," Nash said. "We have to go before they open the road!"

"Why? What's going on?"

Levi jumped on Nash, seized him by the shoulders, and flung him across the lawn. Werewolves were strong and angel bones were hollow. Nash went soaring. He smashed against the wall of the bank, and Abram couldn't see well enough through the brightening light to tell if he was okay.

The wind suddenly vanished.

Everything hung suspended in the middle of the air. Deepali had been falling, pushed by another werewolf-she froze halfway down, arms outstretched, shock on her face. The trash that had been blowing around the grass stopped in an instant. Abram was sluggish, struggling against the weight of the air.

It was like life had been put on pause.

The lightning above them had become a single, huge rune suspended in the sky. It shined down on them. Dust motes sparkled in the air.

Distantly, Abram remembered Summer watching science fiction movies with alien abductions, and he wondered if they were about to be taken by extraterrestrials.

He suspected it was much, much worse than that.

"I was going to tell you," Levi said, clutching Abram's arms. His fingers were tight even though he moved slowly, too. "You'll see, though. I think you're going to like this. I know how much you miss Haven, and this is even better."

Dread suffused Abram. "Levi, what have you done?"

"I'm saving the pack," he said. "I'm saving the world."

And then there was nothing but light, and Northgate was gone.

Twelve.

ELISE APPEARED IN Northgate with a stirring of wind. She braced herself to be shot by the Apple, who she knew to be guarding the bridge now.

Yet not a single gun fired.

Nobody was at the top of the bridge, in fact. Half of the barricades had been knocked over, letting her see beyond them to the surrounding streets. The windows on the nearest buildings were shattered. All of the lights were off. The generators had failed.

She phased past the statue of Lincoln's grandfather and appeared beside the nearest generator. From that vantage point, she could see the building that used to be Poppy's Diner. There wasn't a single sign of life. Not so much as a whisper of a voice or a heartbeat.

Elise traced a finger over one of the indicator lights on the side of the generator. The bulb inside was no larger than her thumbnail, but she could see that the filament had burned out, just like the bulbs in Mayor Gregg's office in Two Rivers.

Flipping the switches on the side didn't do anything.

Faint worry began creeping into her heart.

She pushed into an old consignment shop. All the racks and shelves had been removed, the clothing repurposed by the Scions, and nothing remained but an empty room covered in a fine layer of ash from the fissure. She didn't go far inside. She only checked the light bulb within the doorframe. Also burned out.

She stretched her senses to their utmost, trying to feel the nearest life. There were other towns just a few miles from Northgate and farms in between-farms that the Scions had repopulated. She sensed a few faint lives, too small to be human. Probably squirrels and songbirds. But no werewolves.

To the west, nearer St. Philomene's Cathedral, Elise felt the faintest hint of magic brush against her mind. She erupted into shadow, darting across the distance to close in on that faint hint of human life.

A young woman was unconscious on the lawn outside the cathedral. Judging by the gun she had dropped, she had been a Scion. Elise rolled her gently over onto her back and pushed the brown hair out of her eyes. She didn't recognize this woman-she wasn't sure if that was a relief or not-but her pulse was strong and steady.

She was also visibly pregnant.

"Elise!" Stephanie stumbled out of the church. The instant she crossed the wards, her heartbeat became audible. She had been hiding behind magic that was strong enough to prevent even Elise from detecting her.

Elise stood to face her head-on. "How many survivors are there inside the church?"

"Just me," Stephanie said. She was washed out, hands trembling, her strawberry blond hair fallen loose from the bun. "It was Levi."

She was really starting to hate that guy.

"What was Levi?" she asked, enunciating each syllable very carefully.

"I don't know. I'm still not sure. It was loud, whatever it was, and so horribly sudden. There had been so many people around-people who were arguing about the pack, and what to do with those who remained loyal to Rylie, refusing to obey Levi's new role as Alpha."

"And?"

"And then I heard a chime," Stephanie said. She began trembling harder. Her hands knotted in the hem of her sweater. "I had been alone in Father Night's office. I emerged to find the source of the noise and everyone was gone. Everyone but Thea and me." She indicated the Scion with a nod.

"Gone," Elise said.

"Vanished without a trace." She kneeled beside the woman on the lawn and checked her pulse. Her brow relaxed when she felt a heartbeat. Stephanie turned an imploring face toward Elise. "I know you hate us, but you have to do something about this."

Funny how Stephanie was happy to see Elise now that her life might depend on her presence.

"Where has Levi been staying?" Elise asked.

Stephanie led her to the trailers behind the cathedral. Levi had been staying in Father Night's former home, and now Elise studied the living room with a critical eye. There was no sign of a struggle. Everything looked to be where it belonged-every single piece of old, battered furniture.

Same as in Two Rivers.

Father Night's influence was still everywhere. The shelves were filled with knickknacks he had gathered during his time as a roving exorcist, several of which she recognized. Their paths had crossed more than once when she had still been human.

Elise felt a smile creep over her when she spotted the bundle of twigs from a case that she had worked on with Father Night. She plucked it off the shelf and pocketed it.

"Don't touch that," Stephanie said. "That doesn't belong to you."

Elise ignored her, opening the door to the bedroom. The overwhelming smell of pot smoke blasted her in the face.

Clothes were scattered haphazardly across the floor. Elise picked up a pair of jeans. They looked much too large to belong to Levi. The belt was still in the loops, heavy and thick, like a utility belt. More function than fashion. She tossed them aside.

"What are you hoping to find?" Stephanie asked. "That is to say, what should I help you search for?"

Elise mulled over the question as she picked through the attached bathroom. Levi had two razors. Two different types of aftershave. Only one kind of shampoo. Two sticks of deodorant. It seemed that Levi had a male roommate living with him.

"Anathema powder," Elise finally said. "It's black and about as coarse as pepper. It may or may not be haloed with magic. It will be in a glass vessel. If you do find something like that and see that it's touched with magic, don't open it-that means it's already been activated."

Elise went through the drawers while Stephanie searched the closet. In their silence, she heard a soft, rhythmic sound-a strange noise that would have easily been drowned out by the sound of the rain. And once Elise heard this small heartbeat coming from within Stephanie's womb, she realized that the doctor's stomach was swollen. She was smaller than the woman unconscious on the lawn, still capable of hiding it with loose clothing.

"They left behind the pregnant women." Elise said it as the realization came upon her.

Stephanie's hand jumped to her stomach, a reflexive gesture of self-defense. "How did you...?" Her eyes narrowed. "Ah. I suppose I can imagine."

A headache throbbed in Elise's temples. The sheer irresponsibility of it. The idea that anyone would willingly bring new life into this horrible, shattered world.

Yet whatever Levi had done, it had spared the pregnant women.

Demons wouldn't have cared about that.

"Have you seen Levi speaking with anyone unusual lately?" Elise asked, shaking the contents of one drawer onto the floor. There was nothing inside but socks, underwear, and a couple of knives.

"I haven't seen him much at all," Stephanie admitted. "I've been in California since Shamain fell. He hasn't been updating me on Northgate's progress as frequently as I'd requested, and that was part of the reason I came back. I needed to know what he's been doing."

"What was the rest of the reason you came back?" Elise asked.

"It's a personal matter."

"Anything to do with the pregnancy?"

"In a manner of speaking. As I said, it's personal."

There was nothing in Levi's drawers. She abandoned them in a pile and moved to his bed.

Elise flipped his mattress over with a hard shove, exposing boxes underneath. Most of them were Bankers Boxes. She ignored those and zeroed in on a small wooden chest. It was secured with a golden lock, but it snapped easily under her fingers.

She opened it and recoiled at the contents. Levi had two more vials of anathema powder, not yet magically active.

There were also three empty vials alongside the two filled ones.

The inside of the lid was engraved with a House seal that she recognized. It was a bleeding heart encircled by spiky rays of fire. That was one of the Houses that she had been trying to force into relinquishing its slaves. Davithon wore that image etched into the breast of his House livery.

But this bleeding heart, unlike the others she had seen, was stamped with the letters "CV"-just like Volac's bill of sale for her slaves.

"Courevore," Elise whispered to herself. "That's what CV means. This is from the House of Courevore."

Her mind whirled with the implications of it.

Levi Riese had tried to poison her using something that Davithon had given him, and Davithon was currently imprisoned within Elise's dungeon. How in all of the seven Hells had Levi managed to get in touch with an imprisoned demon?

And if Davithon was making thousands of people disappear, why would he spare the pregnant women?

Lincoln Marshall had seen better days. He was on his feet, but walking slowly enough that James thought he might fall over at any moment. James was trying to follow him and growing impatient.

"I can get there myself," James said.

"She said to stick with you," Lincoln said. "I'm sticking with you."