Presently, Leah took a deep breath as she passed by the solemn edifice of that very cathedral. Its windows were boarded up, and through a gap in the planks, she saw that several of its stained-glass panes were shattered.

The loss of everything that night had, in a strange way, made the death of her family seem wholly unreal. There had been no goodbyes. No funerals. A part of her still thought it hadn't really happened-as if she'd simply been gone on a long trip away from home, and her ...