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No She wasn’t going to let herself think about Dakota)

Well, okay, she had been silly Back then she hadn’t knohat to look for in a horse: sureness, steadiness, the ability to know the person on its back as surely as any other hu ever could or would Eb had all that, and the star

I should hurry hoht Even in herhard Supposedly this was because their jobs were so de--which they were Skye knew that But she also knew that the real reason they’d buried the the past year was because they didn’t want to let themselves think about Dakota either Skye hadn’t quite realized how far they’d taken it until sheschool five weeks earlier She also hadn’t realized how badly she’d wanted them to be home

But they all had to deal with this in their oay If that ue and bringing in her heels, Skye got Eb h the snow Only about six inches of it on the ground at the ot in upstate New York in early January Soon it would be falling a foot or two at a time, maybe more All around her, the stark branches of leafless trees stretched up to claw at the low gray sky

"Noe know to avoid the cliff," she said aloud, her breathclouds in the crisp late-afternoon air "That’s one ured out a nice long track in the woods to ride on every day, one where nobody ever died, and I won’t have to see anything scary at all"

But already Skye felt as if she would never again be able to escape the presence of death

It had begun at Evernight, during that last terrible day As the va thehosts trapped within the building had been set free One of them--Lucas’s dead love, Bianca--had remained imprisoned Skye’s loyalty to him had led her to make a spontaneous offer--to take Bianca inside herself, to be possessed by her--in order to help her escape

What Skye hadn’t counted on was hoould feel to share a body with a dead person--how terrifying it was, even when it was someone she instinctively trusted And she definitely hadn’t realized that being possessed would leave her open to the spirits of the dead forever

As Eb took her through the heavy woods, Skye wondered if anybody besides her had ever seen these visions If anyone else understood that throughout Darby Glen, on the streets, in the buildings, even out here in the forest, the world reverberated with the echoes of death after death--

A snapping sound nearby startled her, but onlythe snow or deer foraging for what little food remained this tihts--better to lose herself in the moment, in the warmth of Eb, the rhythm of his stride, the beauty in the woods around her So she looked toward the sound with more relief than alarm--

Until she saw that the snap had been caused not by an ani at her If he had smiled, waved, or called out hello, Skye wouldn’t have found it unusual; this was state land, after all, and though she and Eb often had the trails to themselves this time of year, she wasn’t the only one who found the forest in wintertis He just stared at her with a flat, ally fao a bit faster, still only slightly shaken This guy, whoever he was, didn’t look good to her--but as a rider, she was faster than he could ever be

Or so she thought

Eb’s steps quickened further, and the muscles in her body tensed to hold her steady in her seat Twigs snapped beneath his hooves, and ice crunched--and yet she could hear lanced over her shoulder and saw the watcher in the brown coat, walking after them now, unusually sure-footed on the treacherous terrain His unnerving expression hadn’t changed at all, but his hands were no longer in his pockets He was clenching and spreading the for so somebody

Which was probably completely paranoid of her, she decided; she couldn’t allow her visions to bleed over into her every waking thought But she looked back at the trail ahead and wondered if she dared to urge Eb to move faster Rocky--snowy--but not too bad She jabbed her ankles into his sides, not too roughly, just hard enough for him to knoas time to move

Eb shifted into a brisk trot, or as brisk as he could h to leave behind any huain, Skye looked over her shoulder The guy was running after her Andup

This was real It wasn’t paranoia, or a supernatural vision of death, or some hysterical hallucination cooked up by what she’d been through at Evernight Thatafter her as fast as he could

Skye dug her heels into Eb’s sides and snapped the reins, the signal for hiround was, Eb responded i into a run She leaned forward, the better to avoid being s by her Her breath quickened, the air so brutally cold that her throat ached Fear lanced through her, but anger, too--fierce enough to alht How dare this jerk try to co creep and she wished she could take a horsewhip to hiet the hell out of here