Chapter 776: Chapter 776: Raising Ghosts

I gaped at her for a long, long time. It felt like forever as the tiny hope I'd fought bloomed like a rose, flared and woke inside me while my soul leaped up and shouted in joy.

Gabriel.

Not his bones.

My egos freaked out, shouting, buzzing with power, so violently I had to hold myself very still for fear I'd fly apart. We reached out for him, found nothing, not a trace, a sniff.

If he was alive, if I could let myself believe... where was he?

Alison continued to watch me, concern on her face, breathing heavily as she, too, must have fought her emotions.

I finally felt my egos still a little, reined them in.

Listen, I snarled.

And they did.

"Whose bones are they?" Teeth clenched, throat tight, barely able to force the words out.

I managed.

Alison shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Usually bones carry an imprint of the person who lived in them." Shiver. "But these felt blank. Black."

Empty.

Sharp pain wrenched at my insides as truth woke and punched me in the gut.