City of Ghosts

Cassidy awakens to Jacob shouting her name. She can feel him gripping her shoulders; she can feel his touch for the first time. Her appearance is pallid and dim like that of the ghosts behind the Veil, and she remembers her missing light. Recalling Lara’s terrifying words about the Raven’s stealing her life, she stumbles to stand and searches for the lady in red amid all the other ghosts shuffling through the castle. When she tries to part the Veil, she cannot find the gap to pull it apart. Instead, the Veil bends and distorts around her hand. Spotting the Raven on the other side of the Veil, Cassidy tries to convince herself she is still an in-betweener who can pass from one side to another. Jacob’s voice finally pierces through her anxious thoughts, and he chides her for chasing after him into the Raven’s trap.

Dissolving into a panic, Cassidy fears what will happen to her without her light, and Jacob assures her she is not dead: “You are not the opposite of living. You are just temporarily without a life. And those are very different things” (204).