In three strides, he crossed the front hall and stood in front of her. “What did they look like?”
“The hand?” she asked, confused.
“It was just a hand?” He blinked.
“Yeah. A hand, covered in something dark. Like a glove, I guess, but thinner, somehow.”
Walker’s shoulders sagged. “That’s very smart, actually. They knew you wouldn’t be able to identify the Seeker. And it also means they know I’ve turned.”
Walker wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head under his chin. The security of being pressed against him, of not being alone, was like stepping into a hot shower on an icy morning. Even though it stung, bit by bit, she felt herself thawing.
He turned his head, his cheek resting against her hair. “At least you’re okay. I swear, Keira, if anything had happened to you . . . ”
“Anything like what?” she asked, her voice muffled against his shirtfront. His scent surrounded her and she breathed it in, letting it calm her. She stepped back, barely holding herself together as she stared at him.
She was dizzy with questions. “What’s going on, Walker? I know this is my own stupid fault for running away today, but I need you to tell me exactly what’s happening. What’s a Seeker? Who are the Reformers? And what do you mean you’ve ‘turned’?” Her voice rose higher, cracking on the last word. “And what about Smith and Susan? Are they coming for her, too?”
Walker stepped back a few inches and stared at her. “So you believe me now, about Darkside?” he asked. “You’re not going to freak out?”
“I don’t want to believe you, but I do,” Keira said. “And I’m not making any promises about the freaking out bit. I won’t run away again, though.”
“It’s a start.” He kept his arm around her as he steered her toward the living room.
They sat on the couch. Keira’s eyes swept the room again and again, looking for signs that there was someone else there with them.
Walker reached out and twined his hand around hers. “You don’t have to worry. I’m watching now.”
“But what about Susan?”
Walker laced his fingers more firmly through hers. “Susan’s human. She’s of no interest to the Darklings. Well, except Smith, and I really think he’s only seeing her in order to get more information about you. He might break her heart, but nothing in Darkside is coming for her.”
“So . . . ” Keira licked her lower lip, trying to get the words out. “You can see it all the time? That other world?”
Walker nodded, his gaze never leaving her face. “I don’t have to see it all the time, though. It gets sort of schizophrenic trying to watch two realities at once.”
Keira let out a bitter laugh. “I know. That’s what I’ve thought, all these weeks, seeing all this weird crap. I thought I was losing my mind.”
Pain streaked across Walker’s features, like a burning star across the night sky. “Oh, Keira. I’m sorry. It’ll get better.” He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at his curls. “Well, actually it’s going to get worse. But you’ll learn to control it.”
“Why is it happening all of a sudden? If I’m really not human, if I’m really like you, why haven’t I always been able to see this stuff?” she asked. It seemed like as good a place to start as any.
“It might have something to do with you being raised here, in the human world. I don’t know for sure, though.”
“Then tell me what you do know for sure,” Keira said.
“The whole mess is really about that. . . . ” Walker gestured to the piano.
“My piano?” Keira felt her eyebrows shoot up in disbelief.
“Not your piano, specifically. Music. Didn’t you notice, in the park? The whole church was built around the music box. Darklings worship music. It’s their god—our god.”
In spite of her terror and confusion, a little smile crept across Keira’s face. Whatever this other world was, at least she understood its religion.
“So, I’m part of a race of musicians?” she ventured.
Walker shook his head. “That’s the thing. Darklings can’t create music. Humans have this one part of the brain that’s missing in Darklings. At least, it’s missing now. Like, a billion generations ago, we could make music, but eventually, the ability got lost. Once our kind realized what had happened, it was too late.”
“How long ago was that?” Keira asked.
“About a hundred thousand years,” Walker answered seriously.
Keira’s mouth dropped open.