Book excerpt: With the six sacrifices of the first night claimed, Beatrice, the Golden Witch, turns her attention to selecting the sacrifices for the second night: the "Two Who Are Close." As the corpses begin to pile up, Battler struggles to disprove that the deaths can only be explained by the existence of magic, and the crafty Beatrice is using every strategy in her playbook to trip him up. Logic and truth perform an acrobatic dance in which a single misstep could spell certain death. Can Battler defeat Beatrice in this match of wits and wills? Or will he find himself kneeling at the witch's feet?!