After I got out of the hotel, I went on a quick tour of the property, including the lavish gardens outside the glass hall, looking for Zane, but there was no sign of him. That just made me angrier. I was looking forward to giving him a piece of my mind, after he’d just sabotaged my whole evening.

It wasn’t about the dinner and dance part, really. I would’ve been fine without that. But I needed Vincent in a relaxed state if I wanted to fish for information about the Imen and the Maras’ treatment of them. It was meant to be a gradual thing—from a casual dinner and conversation to, hopefully, getting more insights on the Imen’s lives in Azure City. Given that we were doing our best to avoid a diplomatic crisis while helping the Maras against the daemon threat, I had to tread carefully, and Zane’s interference was downright sabotage.

I cursed under my breath and proceeded to walk back to the Broken Bow Inn and call it a night. My feet hurt, as I wasn’t used to wearing heels, but I could hold my own until I reached my room. The streets were relatively quiet, since it was past midnight. Several Maras were still out, along with Imen leaving the taverns and heading back to their homes—some were rowdy patrons, but most were servants and chambermaids coming from their evening shifts.

I reached the third floor with a feeling that I was being watched. I glanced over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see anything. The midnight winds started rising, bringing a chill to my bones. The memory of my encounter with Zane back at Lemuel’s bookstore kept replaying in my head. It was becoming increasingly difficult to get his scent off my mind.

“You look ravishing in that dress.” Zane’s voice startled me.

His presence suddenly weighed on me, and I turned around and faced him. My anger returned in waves of hot and cold, filling me up with the energy I needed to confront him. I scowled at him, though I had to crane my neck back in order to look him in the eyes. His red gaze burned through me.

“What the hell were you thinking back there?” I poked him in the chest with my finger. It seemed to amuse him, as his lips stretched into a lascivious smile. “What is it that you want from me? Why are you stalking me?”

Zane shrugged, giving me an innocent look. My palms were itching, and I wondered if I could slap him and get away with it.

“I’m not sure yet,” he replied, his eyes narrowing as he scanned my face for a reaction, “but I am interested in you. At least until I figure out what to do with you. You are still quite an enigma, but I’m sure I’ll get my answers soon.”

“Can you be a little bit more specific?” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “I’ve already told you what I am, what I can do, and where I’m from. In fact, you have seen some of my skills in action, if I’m not mistaken.”

“You know what? I’m not really interested in talking about it… at least not right now,” he said. “How about I walk you home instead?”

“I don’t have a home here. What I do have is a room at the inn down below,” I retorted, feeling irritated. My temperature spiked. “But there is absolutely no need for you to accompany me there. I am perfectly capable of walking back to my room without any assistance. Especially from you.”

“Are you sure?” He raised an eyebrow at me, making me doubt my own decision. What are you thinking? Of course you can walk back on your own! “These are dangerous streets, you know…”

I kept walking, turning my back on him. “It feels pretty safe for me around these parts, since we set up that protection spell and—"

I came to a halt, my muscles suddenly clenching as I broke into a cold sweat, realizing something that I should have noticed since my encounter with Zane at the bookstore. The protection spell did not work at all. Even with all the modifications, Patrik’s spell did not keep the daemons out of Azure Heights. Zane was living proof.

“Oh no…” I gasped, slowly turning around to face my devilishly handsome nightmare. “Oh no, no, no! You have got to be kidding me...”

His eyes flared red, watching quietly as I struggled to cope with the reality that the city was still open to daemon attacks. With everything that had been going on, it wasn’t exactly surprising that I had lost track of this one tiny but extremely important detail. It wasn’t like I could just summon a daemon to test the protective spell…

“Took you long enough.” Zane smirked.

I could have slapped myself. I should’ve realized this sooner.

“Why didn’t I see this? Why didn’t I notice it earlier?” I mumbled, walking away in a daze. I nearly flew down the stairs, the urgency hitting me hard, like ice water against my bare skin. “I should have seen this…”

I needed to tell Patrik. It meant that we had to be extra vigilant once more. And there goes my sleep for the night…

Zane decided to accompany me anyway, walking by my side as I rushed toward the second level. I felt his eyes on me but refused to look at him. I was way too angry—at myself, but also at him.

“So what’s going on between you and the redhead?” he asked. Assuming he meant Vincent but not willing to play into this scheme, whatever it was, I shrugged and decided to play the ingénue instead.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Vincent. Of House Roho,” he replied bluntly, adding weight to each word. “Is he courting you?”

Aha! So he does know more than he is letting on!

“Do you know him? You know the other Maras, too? How much do you know about this city?” I shot back, my fists so tight that my nails were digging into my skin. I looked at him, and he averted his gaze and focused on a distant point ahead. Something told me I’d hit a soft spot.

“No, I just have very good hearing,” he muttered. “You mentioned his name more than once during dinner. Which, by the way, smelled quite nice from outside, though I kind of feel sorry for your species. You don’t eat souls, you can’t eat meat… It just feels drab, if all you get to enjoy is blood.”

I scoffed once more, and kept walking, increasing my speed in order to get away from him. He wasn’t being helpful, yet he was asking a lot of questions. I had to tip the scales a little bit. He kept up with me as we reached the bottom of the stairs. The Broken Bow Inn was just a few minutes away, farther down.

“You seem upset,” Zane said.

“I just don’t understand why you’re so interested in me and my relationship to the people around me,” I replied.

“I am simply making assessments as to whether you are worth saving or not, ahead of what is coming.”

I stopped walking again, and turned to look at him once more. It was becoming increasingly frustrating to try to get any information out of Zane. He was so cryptic and unwilling to tell me anything that could be of use to us, and yet he could not stay away. Meanwhile, an ominous feeling crept up my spine. I knew for a fact that what he wasn’t telling me made the difference between us walking out of this alive and us getting carried out, feet forward.

“You love talking in riddles, don’t you?” I muttered, my hand slipping into a secret pocket that I had cut into my dress. I’d slipped a knife in there earlier, for just such an occasion. He gave me a half-smile and inched closer, enough for the air between us to get thicker and heavier.

“I just don’t like giving away all my secrets at once,” he breathed.

With one swift move, I brought my blade up to his throat, the sharp metal digging into his tan skin. He stilled, slowly raising his hands in a defensive gesture. A grin slit his face, but it was all he could do.

“Oh my, well done,” Zane said. “Impressive speed. You’re learning fast…”

“Tell me the truth, unless you want me to slit your throat and let you bleed to death right here,” I hissed, menacingly baring my fangs. Judging by the glimmer in his eyes, he seemed to like that, which immediately made me press my lips together in a thin line. I couldn’t give him any sort of satisfaction.

A couple of moments went by in sinister silence. I wondered if my knife against his throat might make him talk. He didn’t seem bothered. If anything, he was amused. That just riled me up even more.

Something hit the cobblestone behind me with a sharp noise. I instinctively glanced over my shoulder, just to make sure that I wasn’t going to get attacked by someone else—especially not another daemon.

It was all Zane needed to blow more yellow powder in my face as soon as I turned my head.

Damn it, how many more times am I going to fall for this?

“Crap, not again…” I wheezed and coughed, and everything went dark.