“I call it ‘nanoflage,’” Darby put in. “Nano-level camouflage. Magic does very weird things to the human body.”

“So I see.” And since he didn’t look weak or hungry, I guessed that wasn’t the only skill he’d mastered. “You can cast and bind?”

His smile went serious. This was the business of Sensitives, the most important tools in our arsenal. The things that kept us sane. “I can. You?”

“I’m learning.”

“Good,” Burke said. “That process will get easier. The goal is consistency.”

It occurred to me Burke was the first Sensitive I’d actually been able to talk to about being a Sensitive. It made me feel a little better—knowing I had someone who’d been down the road before.

“How did Materiel end up hiring a Sensitive?” Liam asked.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” Burke said. “They don’t know. And, speaking of PCC, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about—we understand you talked to Lorene Salas today.”

So they were the “PCC” reps who’d talked to her family.

“We took her daughter in last night,” Liam confirmed.

Burke nodded. “Lorene talked to Lizzie, who told her you were very good with Marla. Very gentle with her.”

“We got lucky,” Liam said, gestured to me. “Claire handled her, and handled her well. You’re Marla’s friends?”

“I was,” Darby said. “I knew she was a Sensitive, and hadn’t seen her in a few days. That’s when I went to visit her mother.”

“What took you there?” Burke asked.

“We found her nest,” Liam said. “We’d gone back to check it out, see if we could find any evidence.”

“Of?” Malachi asked.

“Wraith attacks are increasing,” I said. “Liam’s been tracking them. There have been more, and wraiths seem to be acting more like humans. We’re trying to figure out why.”

Malachi, Darby, and Burke looked at each other, then at us. “That’s quite a coincidence,” Burke said. “We’re missing Sensitives.”

Liam frowned. “What do you mean ‘missing’ them? As in, they’re disappearing from Devil’s Isle?”

“Not quite,” Malachi said, glancing at Darby. “Perhaps we should start at the beginning?”

She nodded. “So, the Veil was discovered forty-seven years ago.”

I didn’t let her go any farther. “Forty-seven years? The feds have known about the Veil for forty-seven years? How were we so unprepared?”

“It was still closed,” she said. “And it’s not like we can see through it. At that time, they weren’t entirely sure what it was, or what was behind it. That’s why Defense created a research team in the first place. When the Veil opened, Defense realized what was happening, what was behind it.”

“That’s when the Paranormal Combatant Command was created,” Burke said, and Darby nodded.

“And the Veil research agency was wrapped into PCC and became PCC Research. War was under way, of course, so Paranormals became the enemy, indivisibly. We didn’t know yet about conscription, or the Court, or Consularis.”

“And Sensitives?” I asked.

“That was more complicated,” Burke said. “Sensitives were too human to be considered true enemies, too Paranormal to be free, and too useful to be ignored. As you know, some were captured, interned. It wasn’t, unfortunately, the first time the feds have interned U.S. citizens, and people were afraid of magic, afraid of war. Unfortunately for them, PCC pretty quickly realized they needed Sensitives to close the Veil.”