We explored the perimeter until we found an entrance clear enough to get through, as most of the doors and windows on the ground level were blocked by debris and thick vines. We crossed through a tall double door with one side barely clinging to its hinge and entered a once-grand hall. The ceiling had collapsed long ago, and now patches of green and small, young trees grew from the floor, peeking out between chunks of the roof and heavy wooden beams.

“It’s too dangerous to cross through here,” Will said. “Let’s find another corridor.”

I followed him back through the door and down another dark hall. This one was lined with large windows, their frames intricate and lovely, but the glass was mostly broken and sprinkled across the floor. Chunks of plaster in the walls had been torn away to reveal ancient brick beneath.

“You should not be here.” A young English woman’s voice echoed from somewhere down the black hallway and my heart lurched into my throat. The sound frightened unseen birds and they scattered in the debris and vegetation.

“Hello?” I called, searching the darkness for signs of movement. “Are you the relic guardian? We are here for the Pentalpha.”

Silence. I squinted, but still I could see nothing. I looked at Will, whose right hand was open, ready to call his sword. And then a shadow moved within the shadows and neither of us could draw our swords before a cloaked figure lunged at us from the blackness, dark wings spreading as wide as they could, filling up the corridor. A hand appeared from beneath the cloak’s sleeve and a palm slammed into Will’s chest, smashing him into the wall. Dust and chips of paint exploded in the thick air as he hit with a thud and a grunt. Most of the reaper’s face was hidden beneath the hood, but full lips and a feminine build under her cloak gave away that she was female. The reaper threw a fist at me, but I blocked her. She threw a flurry of additional strikes that I managed to deflect off the hard bones of my forearms. She was fast—and strong. Every time I tried to draw breath and tell her who I was, I had to concentrate on blocking another attack.

I was forced to back away from her assault, all the way until my heel found the edge of the staircase we’d just ascended. I gasped as my momentum dragged me off my feet. The reaper leaped into the air above me to strike me down hard, but I kicked a foot into her chest as I fell down the flight of stairs, launching her over my head. My hands grappled for the wrought iron railing and my body swung to a stop, crumpling against the hard steps. The reaper’s wings beat once in the high ceiling of the stairwell, taking control of her flight as she faced me from above, and her feet touched the far wall. Her knees bent and her power erupted; the folds of her cloak billowed in the smoky flares of energy and clouds of dust and debris. Then she launched herself at me. I twisted, hoping to dodge her fists again and afraid that if I called my swords, the guardian would feel even more threatened.

Before I could meet the reaper’s attack, Will appeared above me. He grabbed the guardian’s throat and threw her over the railing with a roar. I jumped up only to watch her land on her feet and bound out of sight. Will hopped the rail to dart after her and I followed him. As we rounded the corner of the stairwell to dash into the dark corridor, the reaper’s black cloak swung into the space between us from a room on our right.

“Will!” I called to his back.

He whirled just in time to meet her blow, blocking her fist before it connected with his head. Clearly this reaper preferred to ambush. I grabbed her shoulder and yanked her around to get her away from him, but she deflected my fist and managed to block everything Will and I threw at her together. She was precise, moving as if she anticipated our moves, and I could sense some uncanny familiarity in her style. I jumped out of reach and she focused her attention on Will.

The relic guardian stopped suddenly, and as Will swung a fist, she stepped aside. Her face was full of recognition, but she also appeared puzzled and disbelieving. Was she surprised that the Preliator and her Guardian would try to take what she protected? However, it didn’t seem like both of us surprised her—only Will. He was all she could stare at, and instead of striking her again, Will slowed to a pause and gaped back at the other reaper.

She pulled the hood from over her head and at last I could see how astonishingly beautiful she was. Long, wavy hair the color of dark walnut framed a lovely face with large, almond-shaped eyes as extraordinarily green as Will’s.

“William?” the relic guardian asked. “Is that you?”

He stared at her, disbelieving, as though he thought she was a phantom. At last he spoke.

“Mother?”

22

I GAPED AT BOTH OF THEM, BACK AND FORTH between their faces, their identical eyes—even the way they carried themselves was the same. I replayed their movements in my head, how graceful and calculated they both were, and I had no doubt that this reaper was Will’s mother, Madeleine.

She rushed into Will, cupping his face in her hands, touching his cheeks. He stared down at her and his body was stiff in her arms, still in a state of shock. I couldn’t imagine what he felt as his mother, whom he believed had been dead for most of his life, embraced him.

Will was breathless, frozen by astonishment. “You’re alive.”

“Yes,” she answered, and tears rolled over her cheeks. “Yes, my son. I’m alive.”

“How is this possible?” he asked, his voice breaking. “Where have you been? I thought you were dead.”

Madeleine smiled, a gesture so like Will’s that it threw me off for an instant. “I became a guardian of a most powerful relic.”