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“How do you know that?” Reni screams

I shrug This hasn’t gone like I wanted it to I hoped to ease her pain, but instead I’ve terrified her

Reni starts to say so athideous and foul It’s how people in ht that person was an agent of evil She backs into a tree, juht, then turns and flees

I watch until she vanishes behind the houses of Carcery Vale, then slowly return through the forest for another lonely night with the aloof and morbid Dervish

SPONGE

Beranabus is only half huainst her will In later life, Beranabus tracked the htered him He took the beast’s head as a trophy Held it close to his chest that night and wept for hours, stroking his dead father’s face, hating andhim in equal measures

Meera loved Dervish when they were younger She wanted totheir kids to be Disciples, the entire fa the world But she kneould never father a baby He was afraid any child of his ht catch the curse of the Gradys and turn into a olf So she never confessed her love or told anybody

Reni saw herthing she experienced until Loch died She spent ht have stolen, worrying about ould happen if she was caught She wanted to discuss it with so she could talk about, so she kept it to herself

I know these things because I’ve touched those people and absorbed their inner thoughts I’e—I soak up memories

I beca after I returned to life I spent hours with Beranabus that night, hugging and holding him Mereat confusion and I wasn’t able to separate his memories from Bill-E’s until later

It took me a few days to es of the distant past swirling around insidewith his wretched birth in the Labyrinth—and I wasn’t sure where they’d coht it was a temporary side-effect of my miraculous return to life Or maybe Beranabus had fed his memories to me, to help me cope with the neorld

I didn’t touch anybody else until Meera huggedAs soon as we touched, I began absorbing When I realised as happening, I broke contact I felt like a thief, stealing her innero

I learnt less about Meera than Beranabus, since ere in contact for only a handful of seconds The flow of infor secrets and recent er life

I hadn’t touched anyone since then I don’t like this power It’s intrusive and sneaky, and I can’t control it I don’t seem to do any harm I think the person retains their me tihts and they’d end up a mindless zombie

I wish I could experiift, but I can’t without the risk of da those I touch If I was in the Deh I’et inside a demon’s head!