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. It happened to be coming from the direction we were heading.
     
    What is that? Simon wondered.
     
    A light at the end of the tunnel, I told him. Quiet now, I’m going to try to gather some people.
     
    Simon did as he was told.
     
    My first two targets were in the village: Soraya, and her mother, Catherine. I sifted through the pot of souls there, my energy snaking around them as fast as light, like the streaks of comets, rummaging around as one might dig into a box of small things, brushing each of them with my soul’s fingers. More tears leaked from our eyes, the pain of the villagers so palpable. I found their light easily, drawn to it in a way that bugs are to the electric glow of a bug-zapper. I grabbed Catherine first, then Soraya.
     
    Come.
     
    No resistance. They were on their way. I could feel it. Five more to go.
     
    I made my selections quickly, hardly allowing myself time to think about who I was calling. If I thought too hard, I would not be able to make the awful decision of who to take and who to leave behind. Simon, the Queen and I were passing through the trees now, the east wall some fifty yards in the distance.
     
    Daniel, Gavin, Tommy, Jack-
     
    I stopped there, remembering Jackson’s betrayal. I withdrew my mental hand. Jackson would not be accompanying us. I tried again.
     
    Daniel, Gavin, Tommy, Patterson… Victoria…COME.
     
    I tugged them all to me as one might pull a rope, hand over hand. Their confusion thrummed through the ropes and raced through me, but I still found no resistance. Now, they too, belonged to me. Another whisper, a tiny twinge telling me this was wrong. Another dismissal.
     
    A few moments later, I heard twigs and branches snapping somewhere off to our left. My eyes were still closed, but I opened them when Victoria stepped out into the open. Her blond hair stuck out around her head, bedraggled along with her pink tank-top and pajama pants. Her eyes were lit up Wolf-gold, and when they met my own black ones, they filled with the same awe and wonder as my current companion’s. Without word or question, she came to me and wrapped her arm around me on my free side, holding me up straighter still. We marched on.
     
    Far behind us now, but not far enough, King William was still fighting to wake up. I shoved him back down once more. My companions groaned as I did so. My strength was evaporating, and I was running off the fumes of theirs. They didn’t mind at all. In fact, they wanted me to take it. Now I didn’t need that inner voice to tell me I was heading fast over the edge of a cliff, where jagged rocks and shards of glass waited below. I had taken their free will. There was no doubt that this was wrong. And I couldn’t seem to care.
     
    Patterson reached us next, twenty-five yards between us and the east wall. More awe, more wonder, more soul-swallowing. He fell into step with Victoria. Next, Tommy joined us. More question-less following. Then Daniel showed up.
     
    He stopped when he saw us, when he saw me, his eyes going wide and bulging out as if some invisible hand were squeezing the bottom half of him. When I realized that this was exactly what was happening, my fingers wrapped around his soul, I released him. I held onto the others, but they all followed me willingly now. What I saw in Daniel’s mind hurt me. Hurt me bad.
     
    All he saw were my black eyes, my bared fangs, the people around me gawking at me as if I had just performed the most magnificent miracle. Really, I suppose I had. By controlling them, I was letting them touch my soul as well, and they could feel the power there, and they lapped at it, so eager to be a part of it. And Daniel was afraid. He was afraid of me. Another stab of pain went through my heart.
     
    We were at the east wall now. Daniel followed. I wanted to stop, to explain myself to him, but there was no time. I would not make him come. A lead weight fell off my shoulders when I saw that he was coming willingly, if not