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Dumb question. I knew where he was. He was in the house somewhere, and he’d just done something to unravel the magic woven in thousands of layers around it.

Nox batted away a few floating dark balls, some of them large enough to look like orbs rather than ash. The motes were everywhere, as if a volcano had erupted, leaving the entire block covered with blots. They swarmed out of the house like the fragmented remains of a thousand forgotten things. I could only sort of see them, dark blots at the edge of my vision.

Nox slunk around Victor and reached my side, vanishing almost instantly into a tingling mass against my skin. A blaze of focus and energy lit up my bond with Jude. The motes began to move, twirling and almost dancing.

“What are they?” Victor asked, holding out his hand as if he could touch one. It floated right through him.

For a heartbeat, I feared the motes were all that remained of Jude. But I could feel him faintly through the bond. He was upstairs. That was as much as I could get.

Nox prodded me with a mental nudge. I got no words from him, but I understood what he needed. He was tied to Jude as much as I was, and Jude had just done something big.

“Take whatever you need,” I whispered to Nox, shoving my energy at him, and through him to Jude.

The drain was instant. I stumbled, my vision swimming. Victor caught me.

“Whatever you’re doing, stop,” Victor demanded.

“Jude needs me.”

“You do little good to any of us dead.”

I shoved the thought aside. Focus. He’s still here. I can still reach him. With my energy feeding into Jude, our bond strengthened, and I knew I could follow it to his side.

I sucked in air and blinked through the stars to watch the motes drift into the ground, into the walls, into the air itself. They seemed to dissolve, but everything they touched illuminated with a ping of brightness. The entire area lit up. Not with electricity.

Shapes.

People shapes.

Ghosts.

The light was the weave. I was seeing the weave, and ghosts. How?

Victor gasped, his grip on me tightening. “What new nightmare is all this?”

Was he seeing them, too?

“Do you see the ghosts?”

“I see something.”

The entire area illuminated as if we were across the Veil instead of some high-end suburban neighborhood. The yard and house twisted, warping the architecture and colors until I wondered if we were across the Veil or not. I had to close my eyes to the brightness as my eyes stung.

“Please tell me you’re not here for the necromancer,” Victor asked.

I jolted, wondering just who he was talking to, and turned to find Nat a few feet away. And not only Nat. Scattered among the shadows were at least four other Reapers. All looking mostly human rather than skeletal.

My heart flipped over with worry. But I met Nat’s gaze with resolve and said, “I’m not leaving without him.”

I was surprised to see him at all. Wait—neither Victor nor I should be able to see them. We weren’t across the Veil. Not unless Death was coming for us.

Were we dead?

Maybe the blast had killed us too?

Nat turned his tired gaze my way, face shifting from the Reaper skeleton back to his nerdy professor look. “A door opened for him,” he admitted. “But it’s always a choice.” He let out a long sigh. “The longer he stays, the less of him will remain.”

“I know we aren’t dead,” Victor said. “Why can we see both the dead and you?”