“You got Hood’s tail in a twist,” Lethe called from the couch she had plopped down on. “He wouldn’t even tell me what happened. He just snarled and took off for the woods.”

“I prevented him from protecting me.” I dropped beside her and tipped my head back. “Trapped him in a protective circle, actually.”

“Ouch.” She winced. “That had to sting his pride.”

“I didn’t realize he couldn’t get out. All I needed was a head start.” I held up my hands and wiggled my fingers. “I’m still figuring out what I can do.”

“Might I suggest apologizing in the manner to which he has become accustomed?”

I quirked an eyebrow. “You’ve got ideas?”

“I’ve always got ideas.”

And then she told me how to walk the quickest path to forgiveness.

Following her advice, I placed a call that left my debit card smoking.

“How is Linus?” She cast her gaze toward the stairs. “I saw you guys shuffle in.”

“They drugged him.” I found myself staring in that direction too. “This has happened twice. Twice.”

“You healed him both times,” she reminded me. “He’s lucky you’ve got his back.”

“It’s not going to happen again.” I reached for the pad and pen I had left on the side table earlier and started drawing. “Basic healing sigils have done well flushing the toxins from his system. I’m going to modify the most effective one, and I’m going to draw it on him every time he leaves the house.”

“Rawr.”

“What?” I tore myself from the design itching in my fingertips. “I’m being proactive.”

“Fierce is what you’re being.” She clapped. “I like it.”

A pleased glow spread through me that dimmed when I remembered why I had been hoping to catch one of the Kinases currently not mad at me. “I granted permission for Boaz to visit Amelie.”

“I’ll let the guys know.”

I kicked up an eyebrow. “Let them know not to hurt him, right?”

“We will only attack if he moves to harm you.” She pouted at the restriction. “What happens to him if he breaks the golden rule is his own damn fault. You made it obvious he’s not welcome, and we’ll make it obvious you’re protected.”

“He’s cleared for the carriage house only. He can’t hang around and smell the roses.”

“We’ll show him the ropes.” Her grin edged toward feral. “Wouldn’t want him getting lost.”

I worried my smile read like encouragement for her bad behavior, but I couldn’t help myself.

She wrinkled her nose at me, and I started feeling more self-conscious than exhausted.

“This stuff is antique, right?” She patted the couch. “Should you lounge on the furniture when you’re dirty?”

“Crap.” I sprung up then whirled to inspect the damage. “Thanks for the reminder. I forgot.”

“How could you forget?” She leaned closer. “You smell like blood, dirt, and grass.”

I plucked at my stained top. “I was washing Linus’s hair and—”

Lethe fell off the couch. “What?”

Heat washed up my neck into my cheeks. “I just forgot, okay?”

The smile she flashed me was wicked. “It was that good?”

“He could barely walk, Lethe. What do you think we did?” I held up a hand. “Don’t answer that.”

“It’s the hair.” She clucked her tongue. “Women can’t resist a man with long hair.”

A melodious chime saved me from admitting she was right. He did have very pretty hair.

Woolly played doorbell a second time, alerting us to a guest while conveying they were welcome.

Lethe gained her feet and stood beside me in a blink. “Are you expecting anyone?”

“No.” We started for the door. “Midas is on patrol?”

“Yeah.” She stalked beside me. “Better safe than sorry, though.”

She flattened her back against the wall on the right side of the door before nodding the all-clear.

“I have a sample invitation ready for approval,” Matron Orestes announced. “Might I come in?”

Proving how well she had known Maud, she directed the question to Woolly instead of me.

The old house opened the door a fraction wider, inviting her in, then captured her on the threshold.

“This won’t take but a minute,” I assured her. “Woolly is growing more cautious in her old—”

The door swung inward, popping me on the butt with the heavy brass doorknob.

That was going to leave a mark.

“—young age,” I finished with a grimace. “That’s what I meant to say.”

Orestes, frozen as she was, made no comment. A full minute later, Woolly released her, and she cackled as if I had told the most fantastic joke. But me and my upcoming bruise weren’t laughing.

“It tickles,” she explained. “Her magic is stronger than I recall, but it’s been ages since I visited.”

Stronger than when Maud maintained the wards? As much as I wanted to ask, I decided against drawing attention to my own talents when there was no easy answer for how a skill of mine could surpass Maud’s.

“Who is this now?” Orestes stared at Lethe, who blanched at the eyeless face scanning hers.

“Matron Orestes, this is Lethe Kinase.” I clapped her on the shoulder to jerk her from her shock. “Lethe, this is Matron Orestes.”

“A pleasure,” Orestes said, aware of her effect on people. “Will you be joining us?”

“I could use a second opinion,” I mentioned before Lethe made her excuses. “I suck at girly stuff.”

“Sure.” Lethe rolled a shoulder. “I’ve got time.”

Orestes shuffled into the living room and seated herself without my help while Lethe gawked behind her back. “I brought two samples. One on white and one on ivory. I wasn’t sure which you would prefer.”

The swatches didn’t look that different to me. “Does it matter?”

“White signifies a fresh start. Think white wedding dress. Virginal,” Lethe said. “Ivory is more subdued, comfortable with showing its age. Think business as usual. Seasoned.”

“She’s not wrong.” Orestes gave her a second look. “White tells your guests you’re the new power behind the Woolworth name. Ivory says you’re comfortable in Maud’s shadow.”

“I am comfortable in her shadow.”

“You tell yourself that now, it might even be true, but one day you may want to break free of tradition and establish your own reign,” Lethe counseled. “Begin how you intend to go on.”

“I’m the head of a house, not a queen.”

“You could ignore the symbolism and go with the one you like best,” Orestes offered. “It’s your choice.”

“I wish that were the case.” I massaged my temples, gaze arrowing toward the stairs. Linus would know what to do, but I wasn’t about to disturb him for a second—or third—opinion. “Let’s go white.”

“Excellent choice,” Orestes praised, passing over the full sample. “What do you think?”

“I like this paper.” I smoothed my thumbs over the material. “The font is elegant, and the design…” I couldn’t stop the smile from kicking up my lips. “It’s perfect. This is exactly what I didn’t know I wanted.”

“It’s beautiful.” Lethe cocked her head. “I recognize that symbol. Where have I seen it?”

Shaking my head an infinitesimal amount, I killed that line of questioning in present company.

Matron Orestes leaned forward. “Have you set a date?”

“I want this shindig to go down ASAP.” I tapped the invitation against my bottom lip. “How soon can we make this happen?”

“Poor little rich girl,” Lethe mused. “Are you really this naive?”

“With the Woolworth name and fortune at your disposal, you could throw a ball tonight if you wished.” Orestes adjusted her robe. “Though not all of your guests could attend on such short notice. I would suggest a thirty-day window to allow for travel plans and custom dress orders.”

“She’s not wrong.” Lethe shot me an apologetic glance. “Thirty days is cutting it close, depending on the turnout you want.”

Telling Lethe I had one special guest in mind in front of Orestes was a no-go, so I caved. “All right.”

“Excellent.” Orestes stood. “I’ll set the date for a month from Saturday.”

“Do you mind if I keep this?” I held up the sample. “I’d like to show Linus.”

Hmm. Or maybe I would let it be a surprise. Asking forgiveness instead of permission and all that.

“He didn’t come down to say hello?” She glanced around. “He is High Society, I suppose.”

“He’s running an errand,” I lied. “He’ll be sorry he missed you.”

“That I doubt very much.” She flipped her hand. “Keep it. I have the template at my shop.”

Putting my plan into action, I pressed my luck. “Did Maud have any enemies you can name?”

“Goddess,” she wheezed out on a laugh. “Check the register at the Lyceum.”

“You mean the names for all the High and Low Society members?”

“That’s the one.” The corners of her eyes crinkled. “That’s your list.”

“Ah.” Blinking at the quick mental tally, I absorbed the grim news. “That narrows it down, huh?”

“Maud was the pinnacle. You don’t climb that high without stepping on a lot of stairs.” She clicked her tongue. “Most people—I mean, stairs—don’t appreciate the footprints on their heads. Treads?”

Smiling weakly, I escorted Orestes onto the porch. She shrugged me off when I tried helping her down the stairs then got in her waiting taxi and left. Lethe had followed us out, and she and I sank onto the swing.

She leaned over and tapped the symbol. “Why don’t you want her to know about the connection to your tattoo?”

I suppose it was too much to hope she would forget, but the design was bold and eye-catching.

“I’m inviting a special guest, and it’s safer for me if word of its meaning doesn’t leak ahead of time.” I used the invitation to fan myself. “How do you know so much about party planning?”

“Mom is alpha of the Atlanta gwyllgi pack.” She rolled her eyes. “All we do is plan cookouts, parties, dinners, blah blah blah. Our people enjoy any excuse to get together and eat free food. As the eldest daughter, I get roped into helping.”

“You’re shifter royalty?” I dropped my jaw. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m no princess.” She smoothed her thumb down the chain beside her. “I hate when I’m treated like one. At the Faraday, I get to do work I love, and the clients never know who’s on the payroll. These short missions are even better. Total anonymity. I get treated like one of the guys.”

“That’s what I had at Haint Misbehavin’. I got to dress up, pretend to be someone else for a few hours.” I tipped back my head to watch the fan whir above us. “Without that outlet, I’m forced to be me twenty-four seven.”

“Then we’ll just have to find you a new outlet.”

Easier said than done. “On the topic of party planning…I’ve decided to throw your baby shower.”

“Are you serious?” Her eyes bulged. “Do you have any idea how much something like that costs?”

“To be fair, when I dreamed up the idea, I thought I was catering for maybe six or seven total.”

“Multiply that by four, and you’ll have an idea what to expect.” She threw an arm around me and squeezed. “I won’t hold you to it, but it was a very kind offer.”

That was a lot of meat. “Your pack would travel this far?”

“For the alpha’s firstborn grandchild?” She snorted so hard I worried she might choke. “They would rocket to the moon if it meant currying favor with Mom.”

The hug felt nice, genuine, and I leaned into her embrace. “Your friends will be there, right?”

“I don’t have many,” she admitted. “Most just want to be pals with the pack princess, not with me.”

“I knew they called you a princess.” I laughed out loud. “That’s why you hate it so much.”

“I’m not, though,” she protested. “It’s ridiculous. We’re not over here sipping tea and eating crumpets. I don’t even know what the hell a crumpet is. Mom is alpha. Dad is the alpha’s mate or the alpha male. I ought to be the alphas’ daughter or the alphas’ kickass daughter. Whoever thought they were being cute with the pack princess nonsense can stuff their teacup where the sun don’t shine.”

“What brought this up?” Midas climbed the steps onto the porch. “Did you ask her to wear a tiara to the shower or something?”

“You knew?” She made claws with her hands that she raked in the air at him. “Grr.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Doesn’t that make you the pack prince?”

The mantle of spare heir might explain why he was so quick to suggest a political match for me. It made me wonder if one had been arranged for him, if the gwyllgi brokered marriage deals the way the Society did, and if that made me view the practice as more—or less—savage.

“I’m the heir. I get all the shit,” Lethe snarled, disgusted. “He’s the spare. The worst anyone mumbles about him is calling him Golden Boy behind his back.”

“Actually, you’re the only one who calls me that, and you do it to my face.” He tucked a wayward lock of golden hair behind his ear. “After I ate that kid in elementary school, no one else has dared mock my name.”

I laughed.

They didn’t.

I glanced between them. “You’re not serious.”

“So Grier was offering to throw me a baby shower,” Lethe forged ahead, false brightness in her voice. “I told her she couldn’t possibly since gwyllgi eat their weight in, well, really anything.”

“And I was about to tell her to start making her guest list. I want to do something nice for you guys, and Woolly does too.” The overhead lights brightened. “She loves kids, the tinier the better. Trust me, you’re doing us a favor. She’ll be thrilled to play hostess.”

“If you’re sure…”

I squeezed her hand. “I’m positive.”

Her happy squee vibrated my right eardrum. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Midas looked on, amused. “Just wanted to let you know Hood returned to the den. He’s still pissed, but he’s less pissed than he was when he got home.”

“I better go talk to him.” She patted my knee. “He’ll come around. He’s got…issues…when it comes to failing those he feels responsible for. This flared them up, that’s all.”

“Issues linked to the reason he felt the hit to his honor so hard in Atlanta?” I hazarded a guess.

Lethe closed her eyes for a beat longer than a blink while pressing her lips together. “He’ll tell you when he’s ready.” She gave her brother a pointed glare. “It’s Hood’s choice. He’s not the only one with secrets.”

Absently, Midas played his fingers up the crosshatch scars on his arms. “No, he’s not.”

Clearly, the sibs needed a moment alone. “I have to check on Linus.”

“Shower first,” Lethe advised. “You look like a pro mud wrestler after a championship match.”

A thumb rubbed over my pants flaked mud onto the porch. “Do I look like I won?”

“Hmm.” She tapped her chin. “You are bloody. That means you’re a finisher. I’ll award you the belt.”

Oddly buoyed, I left them to their conversation. Woolly, the meddler, kept her nose stuck in their business until I cleared my throat pointedly. She followed me up the stairs, steps creaking in irritation—she hated missing out on gossip—then kept me company while I showered and changed into pajamas. I might be biased, but I thought her drawings on the steamy windows were improving. Maybe Linus was working with her too.

Together, we checked on our guest, who wasn’t sleeping but propped up in bed reading.

Gone was the plush towel. He wore striped cotton pajama pants and a plain white tee in its place.

Before I lost my nerve, I popped my head in the room. “Are you good for the day?”

“I have everything I need.” He marked his place then closed the book. “We need to gather blessed water and dried sage tomorrow. I would understand if you—”

“You’re not going alone.” I planted myself in the doorway. “You could have been killed tonight.”

“But I wasn’t.”

“Thanks to me.”

He ducked his head, his smile almost hidden. “Thanks to you.”

“The archer used a brass-tipped arrow to take out Hood on the Cora Ann. Tonight the archer dipped his arrowhead in poison before shooting you. He must have. It’s the only thing that makes sense. You weren’t hurt otherwise.” I drifted closer. “How hard is it to take you down, really?”

“More difficult than you might expect.”

“What are the odds the archer used the same poison as the acolyte who cut you in Atlanta?”

The knife hadn’t gone in, that wasn’t the plan, but it had sliced him across the chest, introducing the toxin into his system.

“High.” He set the book aside. “Bonding with a wraith grants me certain immunities.”

“You’re the potentate,” I reasoned. “Anyone who knows that is aware of Cletus.”

And anyone armed with that information could research how to circumvent their bond.

“I managed to snap the shaft and pocket the arrowhead,” he said. “I’m sending it to my team for analysis.”

“My stalkerpire took credit for the failed stabbing, and that casts blame on the master.” I sank onto the foot of his bed. “Does that mean the master is responsible for the archers after all?”

“I doubt it.” His fingers stretched like they might reach for mine, but they fell short. “The archers aren’t of the same caliber as the vampires the master has sent for you, or those who have hunted you of their own volition. These are trained assassins. They want you dead, and they’re willing to kill anyone who stands in their way. That includes Hood, and me.”

“They’re willing to incite the Grande Dame’s wrath.” I turned that over in my head. I had been focused on the fact they knew enough about Linus to take him down, but I wasn’t thinking big enough. For them to know that, they must have researched him. Meaning they knew who and what he was, and they didn’t care. “Killing you would be an open declaration of war between the Society and the faction responsible.”

“The resulting vendetta would destabilize the Society during a time when it’s experiencing growing pains under new leadership.”

I picked at the covers under me. “Do you think that’s the plan?”

“The Undead Coalition is crumbling thanks to the master establishing his own clan by absorbing others.” He folded his hands across his navel. “Who’s to say he won’t target the Society next?”

“What’s the point? He’s a vampire. Probably a Last Seed. Even if he wants to establish his own clan, he’s still beholden to necromancers. Only we can create more vampires. Without us to replenish their numbers, their race would be extinct within five hundred years. Minus the LS.”

“And the Deathless.”

“And the Deathless,” I agreed, feeling ill at the reminder. “There has to be more to this.”

“If all goes well, you’ll get your chance to interrogate the master soon enough.” He flicked his gaze up to the light fixture, its bulb humming with interest. “I heard you settled on a date for the ball. Thirty days from Saturday.”

Wondering just how much Woolly was spilling to Linus, I squinted up there too. “Yeah. Thirty days.”

“Have you decided on a color?” He leaned forward, like he might run after her if I had chosen wrong.

“White,” I grumbled. “Like a virgin on her wedding day.”

Linus bit his bottom lip to hold in his laugh.

“I’m going to bed.” I took the comforter from the foot of his bed, shook it out, and covered him up to the hips with it. “Do not leave without me.”

“I won’t.” He spread a palm over the quilt, a tiny smile blossoming. “Sleep well, Grier.”

I lifted my hand in a halfhearted wave that wished him the same.

That night the dream was waiting for me when my head hit the pillow, and it swallowed me whole.

He has a new girlfriend. His third one this week. Just as mundane as all the rest.

Why not me? Why won’t he ask me? I would say yes. He knows I would say yes. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I should play hard to get. Maybe then he would see we were meant to…

The carpet squishes under my feet, and cold slime seeps between my toes. I shiver, confused, my anger at Boaz forgotten. The smell hits me then, copper and rose water and thyme.

Maud.

I collapse to my knees beside her and scoop the icy blood back into the gaping hole in her chest.

“Maud?”

The sobs start, and I can’t stop them. I’m working as fast as I can, but her heart—her heart—it’s missing.

“Wake up. Please wake up. Please, Maud. Wake up. Please.”

Shivers dapple my arms, and my teeth chatter, but it doesn’t matter. None of it matters if she won’t open her eyes. I’ll be alone again. All alone. Maud is all I have, and she’s…

She’s gone.

She’s dead.

Dead.

Using her blood for my ink, I start drawing a sigil, one I’ve never seen in any textbooks.

“No, Grier,” a voice pleads behind me. “Stop before it’s too late.”

“I’m not losing her too. I won’t.” I kept going, slipping and sliding, covering her head to toe in the foreign sigils. “Come on, Maud. Try. For me.”

“You have to let her go.” Footsteps pound closer. “You don’t want her back. Not like this.”

Whoever it was, they were wrong, but it didn’t matter. Wishing couldn’t bring the dead to life.