My mother’s eyes gleamed as we crouched down closer to what was now our window into The Shade.

“Yes,” she breathed. “Now, we see through Silas’ eyes.”

Chapter 6: Csilla

As our view left Mona’s bedroom and glided down the stairs, toward the exit of the building, I couldn’t shake the worry that Silas might mess up.

Yes, we had access to his vision the whole time, but we were powerless to ensure that he actually obeyed the plan we’d discussed with him earlier. If he decided to be disobedient, we’d have to watch weeks of planning go to waste. My mother seemed to sense my nervousness.

“Silas would be a fool to fail this task. This is his last assignment. After this, his bond to us is broken and he is a free spirit.”

I breathed a little easier hearing this assurance from her. If she was not worried, I shouldn’t be either.

She was right of course. Silas would be a fool. I sat back on my chair and tried to relax a little more as Silas began zooming along a beach. Two thick hands pressed against his eyelids, blurring our vision for a moment, to wipe away the rain that was bucketing down.

His speed soon found us entering a dense forest. Silas raised his head upward, scanning the treetops.

“Good,” my mother muttered. “He remembers where to look first. We need not worry, Csilla. It’s in his interest as much as ours to complete this task successfully.”

I began to wonder how he wasn’t bashing into things since his focus was on the treetops the whole time and he never seemed to be looking where he was going. Although ghouls like Silas were subtle beings—they could fold into impossibly small spaces and manifest themselves at will—when they did manifest, as Silas had now, they were flesh and bone. I supposed he had extrasensory abilities, since he didn’t once smash into a tree. It helped that he was floating too—he didn’t need to look at the ground.

“He’s going too fast,” I murmured. “He’s going to miss—”

My mother looked up, throwing me a glare. “Calm yourself, girl, or your nerves will drive me insane. Have some faith in him. He will not do wrong by us.”

I bit my lip, and averted my eyes back to the ghoul’s vision.

My mother squeezed my knee as the ghoul stopped short suddenly at the foot of a tree. “See? Up there. Those are the Residences. He’s spotted them now.”

My stomach clenched as Silas rushed toward a tree and began zooming upward with breathtaking speed. I began to feel dizzy just witnessing it. When he arrived at the top, he cast his eyes about. He was on a wide veranda with flower pots and ivy growing up the sides of the walls of a magnificent treehouse. Silas scanned the building and then, on spotting an open window, he lurched toward it. Two pale hands with sharp black nails reached out and pried the window open wider before he floated inside it.

Now we found ourselves looking around a living area of sorts—comfortable seating and various types of human technology, which led through to an open kitchen area.

I wondered whose penthouse we had entered first. I was relieved that he’d found the Residences so effortlessly. I doubted by the size and lavishness of the penthouses that they could be anything but housing for the royalty of the island. Now, we just needed to find our targets.

Silas drifted quickly from room to room. I had to keep my eyes peeled. He moved so fast it felt like I might miss something if I blinked.

Finally, after what felt like the sixth room, Silas exited the corridor by drifting through another wooden door and this time we appeared in the largest bedroom we’d seen so far.

A dark-haired vampire lay in the center of the bed with a beautiful red-haired woman in his arms, sheets wrapped loosely around their bare bodies. They both slept soundly.

I wasn’t sure what Silas was so interested in. I didn’t know who this man and woman were. It looked like the woman was a witch, but I didn’t recognize her. As for the vampire, I wasn’t sure who he was. But neither of these people were our targets, so I didn’t understand why Silas was bothering to linger so long in this room.

“Why doesn’t he leave?” I whispered.

My mother leaned forward, watching intently, as I did. To my surprise, he reached out his gnarled hands and their solidity began to fade until they became almost invisible. His black nails made it easier to locate their shape as they lowered toward the man’s head. I shivered as his ghostly hands sank right into the vampire’s skull. The vampire didn’t stir at all. Of course, he wouldn’t feel a thing—perhaps a faint breeze, a chill around his head. For Silas’ hands were now transparent, thin and light as air.

Silas was leaving his mark in this vampire’s mind, and I didn’t understand why. It seemed to me like he was wasting time tagging others when he should have been focusing on our targets.

My mother didn’t answer for several moments as she stared, her lips parted, barely breathing. Then they formed a small, knowing smile. “Silas is just having some fun.”

“What do you mean?”

My mother looked at me, now smiling more fully. “It’s harmless. As long as he doesn’t wait too long to reach our targets, we have nothing to worry about.”

Two minutes later, Silas lifted his hands away from the vampire—still sleeping—and exited the room. We headed straight out of the apartment and rushed back down to the forest ground. Even though I was sitting solidly in my seat, my stomach lurched at the thought of traveling that fast down those enormous trees.