In the Heart of the Fire (Nameless: Season One, #1)

by Dean Koontz

Her lips are pressed tight as she considers his words. It’s what she wants to believe.

She regards him in silence. Her stare is clear and blue. In spite of her losses, there is nothing drowned in those eyes. Her spirit is buoyant and breathing.

A sea of emerald grass shimmers on both sides of the highway, and the sky is bigger than the land below, the few early clouds having been burned off by the sun.

Webs quiver in the corners of the ceiling. Spiders react to his entrance, legs plucking gossamer harp strings without making music.

The sky is empty of birds, no insects buzz, no traffic sounds reach him from the distant highway, as if everything that once lived has perished—or as if he has died and is condemned to wander alone through an uninhabited netherworld.