"I didn't know psychics were real until Wil told me about them," I noted, looking around at Nathaniel's col ection of books.

"Oh, yes," he said. "If they don't go bad, they are invaluable al ies to us. Lauren's been most helpful since I met her. Your teacher, too. Frank Meyer."

My jaw dropped. "Mr. Meyer? You're joking."

"He was recently kil ed on a hunt," Nathaniel explained,

"as you know, of course. He was good for a human, but his age slowed him down. The reaper got the better of him."

"You're tel ing me that my economics teacher was a reaper-hunting psychic? That's kind of too badass for a high school teacher."

"Frank was one of the best," Wil said.

"Nuh-uh." My head spun. "I had no idea he was that cool."

Wil gave a smal laugh. "He was wild in his teens. Worse in his twenties."

"You knew him then?"

His laughter died. "So did you."

I stared at him. "I knew him in a past life?"

He shot Nathaniel a quick glance. "Yes, in Chicago. Around forty-five years ago. He was a good friend to us. I spoke to him recently, and he told me he recognized you on your first day of high school as a freshman. He never forgot you. He told me it was quite an experience seeing you again."

"I knew him?" I repeated, my mind juggling a thousand questions and thoughts. "He must have been about twenty, right? Why didn't he ever say anything to me? He went on pretending like I was just another student. He fought with us once? Of al the people in the world to run into in another life

--Mr. Meyer?" I wished I could remember his younger self, but I couldn't, and it broke my heart a little.

"True psychics are rare," Nathaniel explained. "Especial y ones who want to find reapers. And kil them. But these mortals who hunt reapers want to stop this as much as we do. It's an amazing loss we've suffered, losing Frank."

He and Wil were quiet for a moment. Nathaniel seemed consumed with thought. I wondered what Kate would think of Mr. Meyer's being so cool, but I could never tel her anything about my new life. She could never know. Dragging her or any of my friends and family into this would get them kil ed. Just like Mr. Meyer.

"I had no idea," I said. Things that I should have said and done haunted me.

Wil 's hand covered mine. "It's al right. He always said the only thing that would ever take him out in the end was a reaper. He never regretted any of it."

The warmth of his hand on mine made me jarringly aware of how cold I'd become since learning of Mr. Meyer's true identity. I thought back to the news reporter's description of his murder, and it made me sick to my stomach. I'd died that way countless times, but Mr. Meyer would never come back the way I did.

Desperate to talk about something else, I looked down at the book Nathaniel had out on the desk. "What is this place?

These books look ancient."

"They are," he said.

"Nathaniel is in charge of the rare books here," Wil explained.

"Correct," Nathaniel added. "I can basical y bring in any books I want and keep them here. I have a few volumes documenting reapers throughout history. I'm also a col ector of antiquities, and that's how I make my money since I only volunteer here. I like old things, probably because I am very old myself. You'd be surprised how lucrative it is to buy a few ugly paintings and sel them to bil ionaires a hundred years later. Tens of mil ions of dol ars for an original Picasso are nothing to sneeze at."

I nodded, imagining what I'd do with tens of mil ions of dol ars. Oh God--the shoes I could get with that. "So you've known us for a long time? Then, you're immortal like Wil ? He told me there were no other Guardians. Not now, at least. Didn't I have other Guardians before him?"

Nathaniel gave Wil an odd look. Wil only stared intently back and said nothing. "Yes . . . I am an immortal, and you have had other Guardians before. They have protected you until their deaths. The duty is for life."

He left me speechless. I stared at Wil , who avoided my gaze, and had to force myself to look away from him. Those people had died for me? How many?

Wil spoke suddenly, but I didn't hate him for changing the subject. "We fought a reaper who mentioned something about the Enshi. Does that ring a bel ?"

Nathaniel pursed his lips tight. "An Enshi? Lord of life--of what makes life, to be more correct; of souls."

"The Enshi," I corrected. "The reaper made it sound like there was only one."

"Only one, you say? Perhaps that's what Lauren sensed."

"Sounds likely," Wil said. "This might be big, Nathaniel. Do you think Bastian might have something to do with this?"

"Who is Bastian?" I asked.

When Wil didn't answer, Nathaniel spoke, flashing him another strange look. "Bastian is a very, very powerful vir, a humanlike reaper. A vir may appear as an ordinary man or woman, but they possess the shape-shifting power of reapers and often have strange eyes, claws, scales, tails, horns, wings . . . you name it. They can choose to hide these aspects or to reveal them at any moment. Some of them can shape-shift their entire bodies to look like someone completely different. The vir are also more powerful than any other reapers, and they wil often choose to control reapers like the one you kil ed at the school, as Bastian does. He is cruel and cunning and has been trying to figure out a way to destroy you for the better part of a mil ennium, El ie. He and his reapers have kil ed and taken the souls of more humans than can be counted."