Sassafras bounded onto the table before I could think of a response.

"Gone?" He pawed at Pagomaris while the others crowded close at the balcony door to listen. "What do you mean, gone?"

She shivered, releasing my hand with a guilty jerk. "Dark," she whispered. "As if it's no longer there."

I shuddered in turn, brain firing to catch up with this new development. "Tell me how you know," I said.

She wiped at tears on her cheeks, her flawless ...