Free Winterveil by Jenna Burtenshaw

can share the memories of the dead and draw upon the energies of the veil to heal the physical body. A rare few can see into the second level, where wandering souls wait to die. Even fewer can see beyond that, and barely one or two of us can peer into places that human imagination would find difficult to describe. I have seen every level there is. I have stepped beyond the shallows of the half-life and witnessed what lies beneath it. Death is beautiful, Kate, but there is another place, a more distant and powerful place. Death cannot save souls who are pulled into its heart.”
    Kate and Ravik were forced closer by the encroaching dark. Whatever Dalliah planned to do, Kate feared that what was left of Ravik was not meant to survive it.
    â€œThe veil confuses the soul, but the darkness at its depths tears it apart,” said Dalliah. “Walkers referred to that place only as ‘the black.’ It severs every link to the physical world, steals every memory, and leaves a soul with everything that the living mind thought it had forgotten. The unspoken lies, the regrets, the fear, and the pain. The black makes a soul doubt that the living world exists. It removes every memory of the life it once had until only fragments are left behind. Death embraces the soul. The black destroys it. That is where the soul from this wheel must go.”
    Ravik was so close Kate could feel echoes of fear trembling through him. Dalliah’s link with the wheel drew the darkness closer. There was nowhere to go. The emptiness touched Ravik, and his soul gave out a whispered cry. Kate had never heard a sound like that before. It was a gasp of anguish and panic, the cry of someone who was used to being alone, knowing that no one would come to help. Kate did not know what to do, and then it was too late. The depths pulled Ravik in, and his spirit fell silent, dissipating into white haze.
    Wherever that darkness came from, it was filled with threat. The airless force nipped like acid on her skin, exploring her flesh and stinging her eyes. It felt as if she were standing in the jaws of a creature that was deciding whether or not to swallow her. Instinct made her hold her breath, not wanting to invite any of it into her lungs. The tower contained it. The stones formed its cage. Her soul, still bound to a living body, could barely resist it, and its touch had already taken Ravik away.
    Dalliah reached through the blackness and took hold of Kate’s hand. Her touch felt like hot needles, pulling her toward the wheel.
    â€œYou will see what this girl can do,” said Dalliah, addressing the spirit in the stones. Her voice sounded dull and strange, as though Kate were listening to it underwater. “Your time is over.” Dalliah pressed her fingers firmly against Kate’s throat, forcing her to breathe in the black mist; then she thrust Kate’s hand deep into the hole in the wall.
    Kate expected the blackness to overwhelm her, but instead everything around her slowed and hung within one silent moment: Dalliah watching her; the spirit wheel illuminated in a blaze of orange, every symbol shining with a fiery light.
    â€œDalliah has returned.” A voice spoke within Kate’s mind, sad yet proud, drawing her consciousness into the veil. “She is ending us.”
    â€œThe veil is falling,” Kate answered. “I don’t know how to stop it.”
    â€œWe know this.”
    â€œWhat can I do?”
    The wheel’s glow faded from every tile except one. The snowflake symbol of Kate’s family. Then, on either side of the circle, two more illuminated: the bird and the bear.
    â€œI don’t know where Silas is,” said Kate, recognizing the bird’s meaning at once. “And Edgar . . . Edgar is gone.”
    â€œ No ,” said the soul. “You are three.”
    â€œEdgar died. The Blackwatch . . . I couldn’t help him. I left him there.”
    â€œHe lives, as you do. His body