Out of the bookshelves and from along the walls, shadows flowed forward, separating from the natural shadows that remained behind. Sam started as they bobbed in the air, connected to nothing except the ground, cast by no object and caused by no light. They were just...hovering there, existing without any reason to.

It really freaked him out.

"The Shadows," the Grim Reaper seethed. "Of course."

"The Shadows?" Marcus repeated in an undertone. "Real original."

"Of course we're here," the shadows all hissed, in eerie synchronicity. "We always serve her bidding."

There's that ominous "her" again.

Sinclair lifted his hands. "I told you, Thanatos. You can't change anything now."

The Shadows all hissed as they pivoted, seeming to look at Sam. He couldn't quite tell due to the lack of faces. "The anomaly has joined us. You brought him here to her, just like she said."

Brought me here to who?

Then a thought struck him. Cate and the Grim Reaper had mentioned a group they had been watching, who had been watching him. Were these Shadows the group?

That would explain the weird shadows I've seen recently.

"Damn," Cate muttered. "She knew."

The Grim Reaper shushed her, his eyes still pinned on Sinclair. But Sinclair was looking at Sam. "Sam Walker. Finally find out what happened to your roommate?"

"You killed him," Sam accused, tightening his hands into fists until his knuckles turned white. Sinclair laughed.

"Why, yes, I did, Mr. Walker. I needed a victim and my confederates here assured me he was the perfect one."

Stepping out from behind the bookshelves, the cluster of emo kids Sam had seen at the café leered at him. Sinclair gestured to them. "They aren't much, but they wished to see a murder and I showed them one."

Jake's "friends" had sold him out – all to watch him die.

Sam's blood boiled.

"I see you're the anomaly I've heard so much about," Sinclair continued, giving Sam a slight, wicked smile. "I was told you'd come, in the end. My lady would want to see you, and so you are here." His gaze flicked to Cate. "Ah, Hecate, the beautiful, dark sorceress. You could be so much, hold so much power, and yet you confine yourself to serving Thanatos. Why?"

Cate glared at him but said nothing.

"Why is he using the Greek names?" Selena wondered.

"He's a classic myth professor," Raj said in a low voice.

The Greeks were the closest, Sam remembered, thinking back to what the Grim Reaper and Cate had told him. The Greeks knew the most about death.

....And Sinclair is an expert on the Greek myths.

Damn.

"I've always been fascinated by the fight between you and Heracles," Sinclair said, flicking his eyes back to the Grim Reaper. "Care for a rematch of sorts?"

He lunged.

The Grim Reaper fell backwards as Sinclair's hands closed around his throat, slamming him to the ground. Cate's sword was off her back faster than Sam could blink as her hands glowed with the dark blue, nearly black energy she had wielded against the Restless Dead. She hurled herself at the struggling forms of her brother and the serial killer.

The emos rushed Sam, Marcus, Raj, and Selena, who drew their swords and brandished them at the kids. The emos immediately slowed their pace, eyeing the swords uncertainly. They were unarmed, at least as far as Sam could tell.

Sam felt pretty good as the kids backed off until the Shadows began to move again.

They flooded together, forming a single, vast shape that surrounded the four. Cate and the Grim Reaper were battling with Sinclair, but the serial killer was holding his ground, which was almost surprising considering he was fighting with Death and his sister. But they had said serial killers could hold their own with the Grim Reaper.

They can beat death.

"What now?" Raj asked, panic filling his voice as he glanced wildly at the Shadows hemming them in.

"Swords up," Sam said grimly. "Stick together. And don't die."

"Thanks," Marcus muttered. "I think that was already on our list of things to do today, Sam."

Blue blasts of magic illuminated the area behind the Shadows briefly, but their dark mass blocked it out almost immediately. Sam tightened his grip on his sword, gritting his teeth determinedly. Beside him, Selena and Raj stood, Selena looking resolute, Raj scared out of his mind. He couldn't see Marcus, who stood on the other side of their small circle.

The Shadows charged.

Sam whipped his sword up, swinging it with all the force he could muster as he stepped forward to meet the threat. His blade whistled through the air, slicing through the nearest Shadow as the large mass separated back into individual figures again. The sword did absolutely nothing at all; the Shadow slid around it and engulfed him.

For a single moment, Sam felt like he was choking, his lungs filled with a petrifying iciness. Then it was gone, and the Shadow was as well. He stopped dead, turning as he tried to figure out where his enemy had gone.

But that particular Shadow had vanished.

Selena, Marcus, and Raj were currently fending off their own attackers, Marcus hopping backward away from one of them as Selena managed to dodge and weave between two Shadows, their mist doing nothing to harm her. But Raj's first swing had done nothing and he was standing in the middle of a Shadow, clutching his throat as he gagged, his sword on the floor by his sneakers.

Sam charged toward his friend, jumping at the Shadow and Raj. He slid through the Shadow, the black mist dissipating into his skin, as his knees slammed into Raj's chest and knocked him to the ground. Sam also hit the hard floor, rolling to the side as he panted for breath.

Raj coughed, sucking in oxygen as Sam pulled himself onto his knees, doubled over. Again, the Shadow had vanished on contact with him, the momentary coldness passing swiftly. But Raj hadn't made the Shadow disappear; instead, it had seemed to be killing him.

Selena and Marcus were back to back; one of the Shadows tried to engulf Selena but after a moment of contact with her skin, it fell back, bobbing erratically in midair. But it didn't vanish, either; just tried to attack again.

Sam rose, brow furrowed. He and Selena didn't seem too affected by the Shadows' touch, but Raj had been completely incapacitated. He glanced at Marcus, whose sword was just barely keeping back the Shadows.

Another Shadow approached Sam and he lunged at it, his sword cutting through its darkness. A shriek filled the air and then the Shadow was gone, disappearing as Sam touched it.

Marcus yelped behind him and he turned in time to see his roommate stagger and fall, a Shadow slithering up his arm. All the blood had drained from Marcus' face as he choked. Selena twisted, thrusting her sword down and through the Shadow attacking Marcus, forcing it to recede.

So only Selena and I can really fight them.

Selena has the Death Defect, so that makes sense, but me? Does this have anything to do with me being an anomaly?

There were no answers for any of his questions, so Sam threw himself back into fighting the Shadows. Every time he touched one, it disappeared, gone completely from the battlefield, and it didn't reappear. Slowly, he thinned the mass as he and Selena did their best to protect Marcus and Raj from the debilitating touch of the Shadows.

Meanwhile, Cate and the Grim Reaper were still fighting with Sinclair. For a professor, Sinclair sure could fight, holding his own against the Grim Reaper's scythe and Cate's sword, her magic entwined around the blade. With only a dagger and his bare hands, he was giving the Reaper siblings a run for their money, his blows just as forceful as theirs.

The emos had started throwing books at the four students, which made Raj cry out in anger as the books ended up getting cut and stepped on as Sam sought to finish off the rest of the Shadows, which grew tricky as they began to avoid him.

We might be able to do this, Sam thought, glancing around the space. Shadows are almost gone, the emos are no match, and soon Sinclair will be really outnumbered. An uneasy feeling, however, clung to him. I'm missing someone. There's something I missed.

Wait.

Selena's mom. Where is she?

Sam glanced around. He didn't see anybody else. Wouldn't she have joined the fighting? What else could she be doing?

His eyes fell on the body of the jokester kid from class, lying dead on the desk. Blood stained the front of his T-shirt and his skin, dried and dark. Sam narrowed his eyes. He remembered the dried puddle of blood that had bathed the floor surrounding Jake's body from where he had bled out at the wrists and throat. But although spatters of blood could be seen on the desktop and the floor, there was no puddle, no sign any large quantity of blood had been spilled.

He was just killed. There should be more blood.

Something hard hit Sam in the head and he staggered, tripping over his own feet and hitting the floor hard. Dazed, he lifted his hand to his head and glanced around, seeing the hardcover book lying nearby that had most likely been the object that had just made contact with his skull. Shaking his head, Sam glanced up and saw one of the emo kids, lifting another book to throw.

Sam clambered to his feet, ducking the next book, and charged the emo kid. It took a moment for the kid's eyes to widen in fear as Sam launched himself into the air, shifting to a backhand grip on the sword so he could utilize the hilt instead of the blade. These kids sucked, but they didn't deserve to die.

Just to be in some really good pain.

Sam's knees crashed into the kid's chest, sending him sprawling backward into the bookshelf as he clobbered the emo over the head with the butt of the hilt. The bookshelf wobbled but didn't fall as the kid crumbled at the base of it, eyes thudding closed.

Sam rolled to the side, catapulting back onto his feet. Marcus had taken to throwing books back at the remaining emos, turning the library into a really bizarre game of dodgeball. Four emo kids against his two roommates, since Selena was still keeping the remaining Shadows at bay. Sinclair was still fending off Cate and the Grim Reaper, Cate bleeding from a nasty gash across her cheek.

Charging at one of the other emo kids, Sam repeated the same move, jumping and knocking them over, slamming his hilt against their skull for good measure. He had no idea how he was able to get the height in his jumps that he was getting, but he wasn't complaining.

He noticed a Shadow creeping by the partially closed door of a study room, moving toward Raj as he reluctantly hurled a book at one of the emo girls. Marcus had grabbed a chair and, holding it before him, charged at the other girl, yelling at the top of his lungs as Raj made to follow him. Selena hadn't seen the Shadow; she was fending off another one, her face drawn into a look of intense concentration.

Sam ran at the Shadow, diving into its darkness. It vanished as he hit the door and it slammed open, sending him spilling into the study room. Hitting his knees hard against the floor, he panted for breath, glancing up.

Crouched on the floor of the study room, a familiar looking woman held a bloodstained bowl in her crimson spattered hands, swirling the dark contents as she murmured strange words under her breath. Sam stared at her, realizing after a moment she only looked familiar because she was an older, less bored version of Selena.

Her daughter.

Gabrielle, Sam's ex-CDA, looked up at him, her dark eyes narrowed. Her long blonde hair hung on either side of her face, the same color and thickness as Selena's. Except where Selena's expression was bored, not caring, her mother had more darkness behind her eyes, written in her features.

"You're Selena's mom."

The Norn started, blood spilling over the edges of the bowl. With a curse, she set the bowl aside and then moved forward swiftly, the tips of her fingers glowing with golden light. Sam raised his sword and slapped her hand away, rolling to the side and shooting to his feet. He had a bad feeling he didn't want that light to touch him.

His eyes fell to the bowl of blood again. They drained that kid of his blood for some reason. Why?

A thought pricked his mind. Cate mentioning how Elias Gates had called his victims a gift flashed through his head. He had been someone they desperately wanted caught before Halloween, the same as Sinclair.

He killed those kids as gifts.

Gifts for who? That "her" they keep mentioning?

"Stay out of the way, anomaly," Gabrielle hissed, the tips of her fingers continuing to glow. "You should be bowing to her, not working against her. She made you who you are."

"Who are you talking about?" Sam asked in exasperation.

Gabrielle didn't answer, just lifted her hands, wrists crossed.

Golden light flashed and filled the study room. Sam yelped and toppled over, his head banging against the wall. His vision blurred as he fought against the urge to pass out. Sharp prickles of pain danced across his skin, golden points of light exploding in the haziness of his vision. A flicker of movement crossed his line of sight and then the door slammed shut.

Groaning, Sam shoved himself up, swallowing against the wave of nausea that swept over him. The blast had seemed to have struck every single part of him with tiny bits of pain, exploding like firecrackers. When he opened his eyes, a weird glyph hovered in the air, glowing golden as it shimmered.

Sam forced himself onto his feet, staggering slightly. What did she do to me? He tried to open the door but found the handle had been melted shut.

He looked at the glyph again, poking at it cautiously with the tip of his sword. It spun in the air, a soft voice murmuring unintelligible words. They needled at his skin and stung his ears, but the only meaning he got from them was a grim sense of foreboding.

Sam turned back to the door, glancing through the glass. Another glyph, same as the first one, hung in the air outside, casting golden light over the bookshelves, desks, and floor. Sinclair and Gabrielle were the only two people standing, Gabrielle clutching the bowl of blood in her stained hands.

"The offering is ready," she stated, holding out the bowl to Sinclair. "We can begin the summoning."

The Grim Reaper struggled to sit up, clutching his sides and wincing in pain. "No," he uttered fiercely, his eyes glaring daggers at the two.

Sinclair ignored him as Sam lifted his sword, slamming the blade against the glass with all his strength. To his surprise, the glass shattered and he jumped through the gaping hole, ignoring the drops of blood beading on his arms from the shards of glass that had struck him. Sam staggered as he landed, his momentum carrying him forward, and hit the ground, still dizzy from the golden blast.

But Sinclair had already taken the bowl of blood and poured it down his chest, soaking his shirt in the scarlet liquid. "Lady Death, my forever lady, hear my cry," he said fervently. "I summon you on the weight of my gifts, those I've sacrificed to your dark power. This blood builds a bridge between my world and yours, which you may use to cross to me and accept the gifts I have collected for you over my years of service. Come, my lady!"

They could only watch, motionless and injured from Gabrielle's glyph, as a dark hole tore open in the air beside the desk, directly in front of Sinclair. Then a form filled the portal, darker than the darkness it stood in, before stepping out onto the floor and looking around.

The mysterious "she" had arrived.

"Lady Death," Sinclair whispered, almost reverently.