Maria stood by the door of her room, looking at the small bag Nara had given her. It had two sets of clothes, a thing for cleaning teeth, and a comb made of wood.

  "These are yours to keep," Nara had said. "For the trip."

  Maria didn't understand. In Blood Farm #17, blood bags didn't own things. They just had the gray clothes, and even those were taken away when blood bags were processed.

  "Ready?" Nara asked, coming into the hallway.

  Maria nodded, holding the bag tight against her chest. She wasn't sure what was happening, just that she was going to a new pce with someone called Viscount Gabriel who knew about light and faith.

  "The Baron wants to talk to you before we go," Nara said, taking Maria down the long hallway.

  The demon lord—Baron, they called him—was writing when they came in. He looked up and moved his head.

  "Maria," he said in his quiet voice. "You're going to Viscount Gabriel's pce today. Nara will go with you so you won't be alone."

  "Why are you sending me away?" Maria asked. She hadn't meant to talk right to a demon, but she needed to know.

  "Viscount Gabriel might understand your beliefs better," the Baron said. "And help you understand things better too."

  Maria moved her head up and down, though she didn't really know what he meant. Was this demon sending her to another demon because of The Promise? Was this a punishment for telling the cursed ones about the light?

  "Thank you for the food," she said, thinking about the orange root—carrot, they called it—that tasted so good. "And the soft bed."

  Something moved across the Baron's face, gone too fast for Maria to understand. "You're welcome, Maria. I hope your trip helps you learn."

  As they walked out of the big house to the waiting car, Maria saw some of the cursed ones watching from far away. The man with tiger eyes who had ughed at her words moved his head at her, and a woman with silver in her hair lifted her hand in the way that meant goodbye.

  "They don't hate me anymore?" she asked Nara.

  "They never hated you," Nara said, helping Maria into the car. "They just didn't understand. Now they do."

  The trip started on quiet roads between green hills. Maria put her face against the window, still amazed by all the open space outside. Blood Farm #17 had walls everywhere—hard white walls that seemed to get closer every year as more blood bags were put in the same space.

  "What are those?" Maria asked, pointing at fluffy white things in a field they passed.

  "Those are sheep," Nara expined. "Animals that grow hair we use to make clothes, and we eat them too."

  "Animals for eating?" Maria's eyes got big. "Not people?"

  "No, not people," Nara said quickly. "Just animals."

  "At the farm, the food was all the same," Maria said. "White bars that didn't taste like much. But they kept us alive."

  "Here, food comes in many different kinds," Nara said. "Like the carrot you tried."

  Maria was quiet for a while, watching the world go by outside the window. Then she pointed again.

  "What's that big blue thing?" she asked.

  Nara looked where she was pointing. "That's a ke. It's water, like in the sinks and baths, but much bigger."

  "Why is it there?" Maria asked, frowning. "Is it for cleaning?"

  "It's just... there," Nara said. "From rain. People can swim in it—move through the water. Fish live in it."

  "Fish?" Maria asked.

  "Small animals that live in water," Nara expined. "We eat them too."

  Maria's frown got deeper. "The world is very strange," she decided.

  Nara made a sound that Maria had learned was a ugh. "Yes, it is."

  The car went over a hill, and suddenly there were many more cars on a bigger road. Maria stared at them all, worried they might hit each other.

  "So many moving boxes," she said. "Why don't they crash?"

  "They stay on their side of the road," Nara expined. "See the lines painted there? They show where each car should go."

  "Like the lines on the floor at the farm?" Maria asked. "The ones that showed where to walk during extraction time?"

  Nara was quiet for a moment. "Something like that, yes."

  As they traveled, Maria asked about everything she saw. Tall poles with wires between them. Birds flying in the sky. Trees that were all the same in straight lines. A rge animal pulling a wooden thing through dirt.

  Nara answered each question simply, sometimes needing to find different words when Maria didn't understand. But some things were hard to expin to someone who had never seen the world outside a blood farm.

  "Why is that man sitting on the animal?" Maria asked, pointing at a person riding a horse in a field they passed.

  "It's called riding," Nara said. "The animal—a horse—carries the person where they want to go. Like the car carries us, but horses are alive."

  "Does it hurt the animal?" Maria asked, her face worried.

  "No, if done right," Nara said. "Horses are strong. They were used for carrying people for thousands of years before cars."

  "Thousands?" Maria repeated, not understanding such a big number.

  "Many, many years," Nara simplified. "Long before demons—I mean, before vampires."

  The mention of the time before demons made Maria think about The Promise. Thomas had said the light existed before demons came. Before the punishment began. She wondered if the new pce she was going would have more people with the curse. More people who needed to hear The Promise.

  "Will there be others like me where we're going?" she asked.

  Nara seemed to think about her answer. "No," she said finally. "Viscount Gabriel doesn't keep people with the curse. He's different from other demons."

  "Then why is he taking me?" Maria asked, confused.

  "He knows about faith and light," Nara expined carefully. "About promises and beliefs. The Baron thinks he can help you understand things better."

  Maria tried to make sense of this. A demon who knew about light? That didn't match what Thomas had told her. But nothing in this strange world seemed to match what she'd been taught in Blood Farm #17.

  "The light will break the dark," she whispered, looking out at the strange world passing by. "And demons will turn to ice."

  Nara didn't say anything to that, but Maria saw her hands get tighter on the wheel of the car.

  They stopped when the sun was high to eat food Nara had brought in a box. Maria tried something called "sandwich" that had yers of different foods between bread. The taste was so strong it made her eyes water, but she liked it.

  As they sat on the ground next to the car, Maria pointed up. "What are those white lines in the sky?"

  "Those are trails left by airpnes," Nara said. "Big machines that fly through the air carrying people inside."

  Maria stared at her. "People can fly? Like birds?"

  "Not people themselves," Nara expined. "They build machines that can fly and then ride inside them."

  Maria thought about this for a long time. "Demons can't fly?"

  Nara shook her head. "No. They need cars and airpnes like anyone else."

  This didn't match what Thomas had told her about demons and their powers. He had said they could do many strange, scary things. But these demons seemed limited in ways she hadn't expected.

  Back in the car, they drove for many more hours. Maria saw tall buildings in the distance—much taller than anything at Blood Farm #17. She saw fields with different colored pnts growing. She saw water falling from high rocks. Each new thing made the world seem bigger and stranger.

  "How much farther?" she asked when the sun started going down.

  "We'll be there tomorrow," Nara said. "We'll stop tonight to sleep."

  "Sleep where?" Maria asked, suddenly worried. She had gotten used to her room with the soft bed.

  "A pce for travelers," Nara said. "It's called a hotel. It has beds and food for people who are on long trips."

  The hotel was a big building with many rooms. A person at a desk gave Nara a small piece of metal, which she used to open a door to their room. Inside were two beds, smaller than the one at the Baron's house but still softer than anything at the farm.

  Maria washed in the small room with water that came from a wall pipe. The hot water still surprised her—at the farm, water was always cold. When she finished, she found Nara sitting on one of the beds, looking at a small ft box with light coming from it.

  "What's that?" Maria asked, pointing.

  "It's called a phone," Nara said. "It lets me talk to people who are far away."

  Maria sat on the other bed, trying to understand. "You talk to the box?"

  "Yes, and they hear me through their box," Nara said. "I'm letting the Baron know we're safe and where we are."

  Maria thought about this. Could demons talk through boxes? Was that one of their powers? Or was it something else? The world beyond the farm had so many strange things that seemed like magic but weren't.

  That night, lying in the hotel bed, Maria tried to make sense of everything she'd seen. None of it fit with what she knew about demons and punishment and the curse. The world was bigger and more confusing than Thomas had ever said.

  But The Promise still felt true to her. Whatever else had been wrong, she still believed the light would return when enough blood was paid. She had to believe it. She repeated the words to herself as she fell asleep, holding onto the one thing that still made sense.

  "When we've suffered enough, when our blood has paid the price," she whispered into the dark room, "the light will break the dark, and demons will turn to ice."

  In the other bed, Nara pretended to be asleep.

  The next morning, they continued their journey. The roads got smaller again, winding through hills and forests. Maria watched a ball of light in the sky—Nara called it the sun—move slowly higher.

  "Is the sun the light?" Maria asked suddenly. "The one from The Promise?"

  "I don't think so," Nara said after a moment. "The sun has always been there. Even when demons—vampires—came."

  Maria nodded. That made sense. The true light was something different. Something that went away when demons came to punish humans. Something that would return when the punishment was done.

  "We're getting close," Nara said as the car turned onto a narrow road between tall trees. "Viscount Gabriel's pce is just ahead."

  Maria felt nervous suddenly. A new pce. A new demon. New people with the curse, who might not want to hear The Promise.

  "Will this Viscount Gabriel be angry if I tell about The Promise?" she asked.

  "No," Nara said. "I think he'll want to hear all about it."

  That made Maria feel a little better. Maybe this demon was different. Maybe he would listen.

  As the car rounded a turn, a building came into view. It wasn't as big as the Baron's house, but it was the strangest building Maria had ever seen. It had high, pointed parts and windows made of many small colored pieces. The morning sun hit these windows and sent colored light across the ground in front of the building.

  "What is that?" Maria whispered, staring at the beautiful lights.

  "That's Viscount Gabriel's home," Nara said, slowing the car. "It used to be called a church, before the demon—I mean, before he lived there."

  Maria felt a strange feeling in her chest. She didn't have a word for it. "Church," she repeated softly. "What is church?"

  "It was a pce where people talked about light and faith," Nara said, stopping the car in front of the strange, beautiful building. "A pce where they shared promises."

  Maria's eyes got very big. Had the light brought her to the very pce where promises were shared? Was this part of the light's pn?

  She straightened her shoulders and picked up her small bag. Whatever this new pce held—whatever this Viscount Gabriel wanted—she would remember The Promise. She would tell others with the curse about the light's return.

  That was why she was here. That was her mission.

  As they walked toward the doors of the strange building with its colored windows, Maria prepared herself to face whatever demons waited inside.