Black mist drifted from Linus’s shoulders, a slow curl of living darkness that threatened to unfurl into his tattered wraith’s cloak. His hold tightened, and he angled me an unfathomable look from full-black eyes.

“Don’t tell me to hide,” I warned him. “Or run. I’m not leaving you.”

The brush of his cool fingers across my cheek was achingly tender. “I won’t ever ask you to be less than you are again.”

“Good.” I crushed the fluttering of my heart to focus on this newest threat. “Let’s greet our guest.”

Escorted by Linus, I strode toward Balewa, aware of Hood and Lethe circulating through the crowd, winding closer. So much for schmoozing. Maybe Linus had had better luck collecting gossip. Between all the dancing and confrontations, I was out of time to mingle.

“Dame Balewa,” I greeted her. “What an unexpected pleasure.”

“Where is Clarice?” Her gaze never touched us. “I demand to speak with her.”

“This is my party.” I forced a laugh. “Why don’t you give me the message, and I’ll pass it along?”

“Clarice will hear me out,” Balewa said coldly, “or she will condemn you all to death.”

“Forgive my rudeness, but you weren’t invited.” I spared a glance for the vampires hunched against the walls. Their presence heralded the death of all the guards positioned between us and them. “Neither were your friends.” The sheen rolling over their eyes iced my spine. “Are they all…fledglings?”

“Clarice and I made a bargain.” She focused on me at last, her stare making it obvious I was the heart of their deal. “Women like us don’t have friends, but she was my ally, and she has turned against me. Our original terms aren’t enough to sustain me. I demand recompense for the loss of my good name, for the tarnishing of my reputation. None of the clans will petition me. I am ruined.”

“I was in the Lyceum a month ago,” I said carefully. “Your name was on a resuscitation room door.”

There was every reason to think it was a precaution, as Maud had taught Linus, that it didn’t mean anything. Just a relic from a cancelled petition. One of many. But her smug grin told me otherwise.

“The clans might have blacklisted me,” she said, “but there will always be humans who don’t care about pedigree. All they want is their shot at immortality, fleeting as it may be.”

A quick headcount gave me fourteen vampires, and I bet there were more on the grounds. “How did you hide so many if you made them under the Grande Dame’s nose?”

“Yes, Abayomi,” the Grande Dame purred, “how did you create your progeny without leaving a trace?”

The Grande Dame might have been away on an extended business trip, but she hadn’t been gone long enough for Balewa to accomplish all this in her absence.

“There are ways of avoiding the elevators,” Balewa answered, “as we both well know.”

Such as secret tunnels reserved for the Grande Dame, and those who once held the title.

“It was you,” I breathed. “You sent the vampire after me in the Lyceum.”

“Resuscitation on this scale requires sacrifice,” she replied without a hint of remorse. “I had to make do, and I lost fifteen candidates thanks to their weaker blood.”

That explained the strophalos left at each scene of vandalism. She had been laying the groundwork for a sacrifice to the goddess in the hopes Hecate would imbue her with strength to resuscitate en masse.

“This was never about me, or Maud.” I laughed, oddly relieved. “This was about sticking it to the Grande Dame.”

“That’s why you struck Maud’s favorite places to gather your supplies,” Linus surmised. “You wanted to hurt my mother by attacking her sister’s memory.” Understanding darkened his features. “Her legacy.”

“This spectacle is beneath you, Abayomi.” More airing of dirty laundry in public had the Grande Dame wrinkling her nose. “Why don’t you make an appointment for later in the week, and I’ll see to it that—”

“—I never darken your doorway again.” Bitter laughter peppered the air. “You don’t answer my calls, or my texts or my emails. I came here tonight, in advance of the ball, as a courtesy to you and your sense of propriety, and you had me escorted out by thugs. Now that I have your attention, you will listen to me.”

“The Society required a change,” the Grande Dame challenged, “and I am that change.”

“You are exactly like Maud.” Disgust twisted Balewa’s face. “Blood certainly does tell.”

“I fail to see the insult in being compared to my sister.”

“She thought she was invincible too.” Balewa laughed softly. “I don’t see her standing here tonight.”

An uncomfortable sensation spread through me that had me looking to Linus, who nodded just once.

“Abayomi, darling, was that a threat?” the Grande Dame asked in a silky voice that raised chills.

Shock blasted through the crowd, and they started shuffling back, finally realizing the danger.

“Ladies.” I eased between them. “Let’s move this conversation to the library, shall we?”

The vampires in her party twitched at the sudden liveliness of the necromancers around them, and I got a bad feeling about their control. Or the lack thereof.

“Tell them the truth,” Balewa snarled around me. “Or I will expose you for what you truly are.”

“I believe my granddaughter asked you to take your argument elsewhere,” Lacroix said smoothly.

“Your granddaughter…” Balewa’s eyes rounded as they settled on me. “You’re goddess-touched?”

The scattering prey froze, ears attuned for details. Only the Society would prize gossip above their lives.

“I knew there had to be a reason,” Balewa breathed. “And to think I almost…” She pressed her fingers to her lips, her horror plain. I wish it was my life she valued so highly, but I was betting it was the thought of all that precious blood her assassin almost spilled. “But you survived.”

“I ought to kill you for your crimes,” Lacroix growled, “but I will leave you to your Society justice.”

Balewa trembled before him. “There is no justice here.”

Much to my regret, I couldn’t agree with her more. “Go with the Elite of your own free will.”

“And end up in Atramentous, like you?” Her temper blazed, burning away her fear. “Take her.”

Feral hisses met her order as her progeny cut paths toward me. The closer they got, the better I detected their scent. Herbs and blood. They were so new, they still smelled like the room where Balewa had resuscitated them.

“They’re one hard push from a feeding frenzy,” I warned Linus under my breath. “I need to bleed.”

Tension ratcheted his shoulders tighter. “How will the scent of fresh blood help?”

I shifted closer, until our shoulders brushed. “You’ll have to trust me.”

Without another word, Linus pressed a small blade the length of his index finger into my palm. He must have kept it in his pocket. I needed to ask him where he got it and if I could have one too.

“I will do what I can to mitigate the loss of life,” Lacroix offered, inserting himself into our conversation with a put-upon sigh, “but these are fledglings. They are not of my blood, and they are running on pure instinct. They won’t succumb to my lure for long.”

“You can do that?” I cut him a look. “Use your lure on them?”

Tugging on blood or clan bonds, the lure of a master vampire lulled his underlings into a meditative state. The ability to soothe enabled them to control large clans where old ideologies clashed with modern ideals that resulted in conflicts of governance. Their powers eased new vampires into a life of gut-gnawing thirst rather than let it smack them upside the head the way Balewa had done by creating her own clan of rogues with no one to call master.

Amusement that I might have assumed otherwise glinted in his eyes. “I can.”

That talent might explain the more jaw-dropping defections of the affluent Undead Coalition clans, but I couldn’t stop to ask if his predilection toward kidnapping necromancers extended to mind controlling his own kind.

“Hold them in thrall on the count of three,” I told him before addressing Linus. “I need to take the fight outside, away from the guests. Meet me in the garden?”

Linus frowned, clearly unhappy, but he kept his objections to himself. “It’s a date.”

“One, two…” Leaning in, I rose on my tiptoes and pressed a featherlight kiss to his lips. “Three.”

Poor Linus stood frozen on the spot, exactly as I’d hoped, while Lacroix chuckled behind me.

Before I had a chance to feel too smug, the call hit me in a creeping wave that burrowed under my skin. I would have fallen at Lacroix’s feet if Linus hadn’t tattooed me. As it was, Linus and I were the only clear-eyed necromancers in the room. Everyone else, even the Grande Dame, had gone glassy.

Using the distraction for all it was worth, I sliced open my hand and drew protective sigils down my arm.

With blood warming my palm, I kicked off my heels and sprinted for the yard.

Once I hit the mosaic walkway leading up to the fountain, I bled myself enough to anchor a circle, not daring to trust the red-tinged veil that saved me in the bath at the Lyceum to work on so many undead.

And then I waited on the vampires to come.

They didn’t keep me in suspense.

I counted ten who had escaped Linus. Eyes full black, fangs distended, they sprinted down the steps toward me. A dozen more crawled from their hiding spots in the gardens, their incisors scraping in a nails-on-chalkboard sound that made me wince.

There was no point wasting breath in trying to negotiate with them. They were too young and too hungry to hold to any bargain they made. As more of my blood dripped onto the bright tiles, strengthening my wards, I noticed the glint of saliva stringing their jaws.

Balewa had compounded her crimes by not supplying her progeny with their first meal. The writhing lot of them were ravenous, confused, and losing the fight with their newly awakened lizard brains.

“This is going to get ugly,” I told Cletus as he materialized on my right, nails clacking.

Linus burst from the house within thirty seconds of the last vampire, and Lacroix kept pace with him. I didn’t see Hood or Lethe, but I didn’t have to put eyes on them to know they were closing in.

“These haven’t fed,” I called. “They’re starving.”

Each step cloaked Linus in midnight, until his tattered wraith’s cloak and hood rippled above the grass. A scythe with a blade of moonlight hung from his fingertips, the weapon a familiar one, and it glinted with a palpable thirst for him to wet its blade.

Lacroix strode forward, his jaw almost unhinged to expose the knifelike teeth of an ancient.

Quick as my trembling fingers allowed, I drew sigils along the inside of my wards, as many as I could fit in front of me.

Necromancers fleeing the party stood transfixed on the lawn at what must have appeared to be floating sigils, which should have been an impossibility, given one of the fundamentals of our practice was skin as canvas.

What did it matter at this point? After Balewa blabbed, the news would spread like wildfire. There were already rumors. This would substantiate them. And I had to wonder if Lacroix hadn’t meant for that to happen when he claimed me as his kin at a Society ball.

Fledglings hurled themselves at the circle, and I smacked my palm against the sigils, knocking them back with bursts of energy. But each strike drained me. I had never used more than two or three at once. I had never considered I possessed a well of power that might be drained if I drew from it too often.

Baying twin challenges, Hood and Lethe barreled into the vampires, ripping them apart on their way to me. Beyond them, Linus relieved the outliers of their heads while Lacroix ripped out the throats of those too foolish to flee. The blood on my hands baited the remaining fledglings until my allies finished them.

Wiping sweat from my eyes, I saw Boaz restraining Balewa where she had tried to escape to her driver.

A sick feeling curled through me at seeing him do the Grande Dame’s bidding, and I regretted ever drawing her attention to him. The secret that had bound him to me—to her—was out. I hoped that freed him too.

“I should go.” Lacroix surveyed the chaos before smiling at me. “I will be in touch.” He smudged his bloody lips with his fingers. “I would kiss your cheek, but young women are so particular about their makeup.”

“Thank you for coming.” I swept my gaze over the corpses. “And for the help.”

Tendrils of night curled around my feet in playful swirls as Linus joined us.

“Think nothing of it.” He shook hands with Linus. “What is family for if not this?”

“Indeed,” Linus agreed coolly.

“I scent you all over her.” Lacroix tapped the side of his nose. “You’ve been feeding my granddaughter, and I thank you for that. Not everyone would be so understanding about her dietary requirements.”

A flush warmed my cheeks, which burned hotter when my gaze clashed with Linus’s.

“I’m happy to provide for her as long as she requires,” Linus assured him, though he was talking to me.

Pleased with his night, Lacroix strolled across the lawn to be devoured by shadows.

“How did he get here?” I wondered. “He didn’t bring a single vampire with him that I saw.”

“I’m not sure,” Linus said, watching him go. “Arriving alone makes a powerful statement.”

The Society had turned out in force tonight, and he walked in unarmed and left unscathed.

With a lure as potent as his, he might have answered that question for us. The ability to bend people to your will with a touch, with a word, meant you pretty much did whatever you wanted, and no one gave you lip over it.

“The Marchands never showed.” I tucked myself against his side. “Do you think they had a hand in this?”

“I’m not sure.” He draped his arm across my shoulders, his touch more certain, more possessive than in days past, and brushed his lips across my temple. “There’s still the bounty to consider.”

“No one wants to take credit for that,” I agreed, “but I’m running out of enemies.”

The price on my head appeared to infuriate Lacroix, but he was a gifted actor. Only my conviction he wanted more from me than a familial relationship swayed me toward the Marchands being responsible. But they stood to gain nothing with my death. I was worth more to everyone alive.

“One thing still bothers me.” I chewed my bottom lip. “We followed the blood from the marsh to the B&B. It makes no sense for Balewa to rent a room when she lives in Savannah, and the matron in charge would have recognized her. Whoever Angie Dearborn is, she’s not Abayomi Balewa.”

“She had help from another necromancer,” he agreed. “Even with a sacrifice, Balewa was a political appointment. She doesn’t have the strength to resuscitate that many vampires, even in a year.”

“These were all fledglings, so she hasn’t been steadily building her army for a rainy day.”

“Seven necromancers were killed tonight, a dozen more injured. Her accomplice won’t escape unscathed.”

A slobbery kiss on my hand brought my attention to the dog-lizard things sitting at my feet.

“Good work, you two.” I reached down and scratched them both behind the ears. “Better make yourselves scarce, though. You’re drawing looks.”

The assumption would be they were fae, and that could cause an Incident with a capital I if the Society believed the fair folk had walked among them.

Tongues lolling, they trotted off to shift and make themselves presentable again.

And if they carried a jean-clad thigh between them, well, at least the meat was still relatively fresh.

Pretty sure eating vampire wouldn’t hurt them. Their stomachs appeared to be lined with cast-iron.

“Life just keeps getting weirder.” I pursed my lips. “I keep thinking it has to bottom out but…”

“You might be about to get your wish.” Linus tightened his hold on me. “You’ve got some latecomers.”

The man striding toward me matched the pictures Linus had shown me of Richelieu Deneau, Eloise Marchand’s fiancé. Theirs was, if you can believe it, a love match. Perhaps a carefully orchestrated one, but a union of mutual affection all the same. And I could tell by the fury crackling in his pale eyes that he despised me on sight.

“Grier Woolworth,” he snapped, halting six feet away. “What have you done with my fiancée?”

“Whatever fate has befallen Eloise,” Linus said calmly, “Grier had no part in it.”

“You must be the Lawson scion.” Deneau stared down his bladelike nose. “You have your mother’s look about you. No doubt you have her morals as well. I have no reason to trust your word.”

Bristling on Linus’s account, I bit out, “I haven’t seen Eloise since she initiated contact, months ago.”

“I tracked her to Savannah.” Deneau glared around us like he expected one stern look from him to quell the chaos. “I know she’s here, and I know you have her.”

Patience at an end, I let my temper off its leash. “Then you don’t know much.”

“Return her to me, or you will face the consequences.” His knuckles whitened down at his sides. “This second insult to the Marchand family will not stand.”

“Threaten Grier again,” Linus invited, his eyes full black and bottomless.

Pallor washed the redness from Deneau’s face as he reevaluated his opponents and took a step back.

“You and I are not done,” he promised me. “There will be a reckoning.”

An older man stood behind him wearing an apologetic smile. I had forgotten him until Deneau exposed him with his exit, and that seemed like a talent all its own. He had perfected blending with shadows.

“Forgive Richelieu. His concern for Eloise has consumed him.” He extended his hand, and I took it. “I’m Johan, Severine’s current husband. Fourth in her bed, first in her heart.” The joke landed with a dull thud on the grass at our feet. “Humor is in poor taste under the circumstances, I know, but I can’t seem to help myself.”

Smiling at him, I withdrew into the safety of Linus’s arms. “We all cope in our own ways.”

Linus held me close, one arm draped across my collarbone and the other beneath my ribs, forming the first cage I didn’t mind enclosing me.

An awkward silence fell between us, one Johan attempted to fill after clearing his throat twice.

“Severine remained at the hotel,” he explained. “As much as she looked forward to meeting you…”

“She blames me for the death of her grandchild.” And she didn’t consider me hers by blood but hers to use.

“Heloise was a troubled child,” he sighed out, almost an apology, “but she wouldn’t have harmed you.”

Polite as you please, I refused to concede the point. “We’ll have to agree to disagree.”

“Would you pay me the small courtesy of calling if you happen to see Eloise?” He passed me a business card Linus intercepted with a polite twist of his wrist. “Given the circumstances, she might attempt to make contact again.”

“I can do that,” I allowed as Linus pocketed his information. “It was nice meeting you, Johan. I hope your granddaughter is found safe and returned to you quickly.”

“Thank you.” He inhaled and let it go with a gusty sigh. “Good luck.”

Johan joined Richelieu at their car, and they drove off in a plume of dust and kick of gravel.

“Nice guy,” I commented. “Too bad he seems to be in the minority where Marchands are concerned.”

Linus, smiling a bit, turned me toward the house. “His parting wishes could use some work as well.”

We entered his family home, which sat eerily silent in the aftermath of the attack. The guests had all gone home, except for the ones hoping to catch the tidbit of gossip that would earn them elite status.

Meanwhile, the Grande Dame had vanished in a swirl of red silk with Boaz and the spitting-mad Balewa.

“Ending the night with a bloodbath worked against the whole white-virgin-innocence theme,” I remarked, frowning at the blood spatter flecking my gown. “Neely would murder me if he saw this.”

“He would forgive you, under the circumstances.”

“Thank the goddess, we’ll never have to find out which of us is right.”

“The night could have gone worse,” he said, his lips curving to one side.

“The food could have been poisoned. The guests could have stepped in steaming piles of gwyllgi poo. A maniac could have unleashed a horde of ravenous undead on the party. Oh wait. That last part happened.”

“You accomplished your goals. You parlayed with the master, learned your father’s identity, and ended the night with a show of force that might persuade him a willing relationship is better than a forced one. Your call to arms will also act as a deterrent for anyone within the Society looking to emulate Balewa.”

True fear kindled in my heart. “Especially now that they know what I am.”

His touched soothed as he lamented, “It was only a matter of time.”

“Yeah.” There was no use crying over spilled milk—or blood—so I let my thoughts spin out in a different direction. “I wonder where Eloise has been all this time, what she’s been doing. Why did she come to Savannah alone instead of traveling with her family?”

“Grief causes us to behave in strange ways,” he said quietly. “I expect we’ll see Eloise again, and soon.”

This time, there would be no hugs or offers of reconciliation. We would each stand on one side of a divide with Heloise a gaping hole in her twin’s heart that we could never cross.

Linus’s words proved all too prophetic, and prickling foreboding swamped me as Hood pulled up to the gate at Woolworth House. A slim figure knelt on the front lawn, her hands pressed to her face, sobbing.

I didn’t ask Linus to wait for me in the van. I wouldn’t have done it for him if he had asked. I was learning a true partnership went both ways, and I didn’t mind having someone I could trust at my back. He did, however, give me distance to approach Eloise on my own.

Dressed in jeans and a tee, she was almost unrecognizable as the High Society poster girl I first met. Her hair was scraped back in a greasy tail, and raccoon eyes didn’t begin to describe the disaster of her face. It was clear she was grieving, had been grieving, and that she wasn’t finished purging yet, that she might never be done with this soul-deep pain constricting her features.

“She died here,” my cousin said softly. “I had to see for myself.” She lifted her head, and her eyes swam with glittering tears. “I thought…maybe…I would come here and…”

Aware of Cletus on my periphery, I inched closer. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“What she did was an unforgivable thing,” she said instead of acknowledging my platitude, “but what you did was worse.”

“I lost five years of my life.” That didn’t include the time I spent with Volkov on my grandfather’s estate. “I won’t be taken prisoner again. I’m willing to defend my life with force, if necessary.”

“I understand.” She rose and dusted off her knees. “I’m sorry I missed your ball. I intended to go.” She smoothed a hand down the front of her shirt. “I ordered a gown. It’s lovely. But I couldn’t make myself put it on. I couldn’t act normal. I couldn’t pretend everything was okay when nothing ever will be again.”

Things were looking up on the Marchand front at last. Eloise had been found. The gwyllgi had been with me at the ball, so she didn’t get eaten for trespassing. She must not have attempted to enter the house, so Woolly hadn’t zapped her into unconsciousness. All in all, I could return her to her family unharmed.

I could dial up Johan, tell him to collect her, and earn some goodwill in the bargain.

A peek at Linus, who held his cell and the business card, told me he was thinking along the same lines.

“I spent weeks preparing.” She sniffled when she looked at me. “I thought I could…but I couldn’t.”

“Facing the Society can be daunting,” I said quietly. “I understand—”

“I wasn’t nervous about facing the Society without Heloise.” Eloise glared daggers at me. “I was afraid of becoming like you. I came here instead of the ball tonight because I couldn’t stand aside while innocents died because of me. I couldn’t watch families grieving when I feel that same agony so keenly.”

While innocents died because of me…

“You’re Angie Dearborn.” A brittle numbness spread through my chest. “You helped Balewa resuscitate all those fledglings. You were her assistant. She was going to sacrifice me, and you were okay with that.”

“A life for a life,” she whispered. “You survived, so the debt is still owed.”

“Balewa sent the vampire after me in the Lyceum.” I watched her carefully. “Are the archers yours?”

“We needed your blood.” A crease marred her brow. “Arrows would have defeated the purpose.”

“Not quite a denial,” I sighed, “but I’ll take it. Care to not-confess to bribing Tony while you’re at it?”

“Tony?”

“Drives a white van. Wears pajamas. Smells like armpit funk, unwashed feet, and pepperoni.”

Recognition brightened her eyes, and more tears fell. “Heloise paid him to report on your movements.”

No wonder Atlanta had been such a flaming ball of disaster. At this rate, I might have to forgive the city.

I hoped the payoff was worth him losing the steady income from Linus. Then again, no. I didn’t. We had been good to him, and this was the thanks we got. I hoped the tires fell off his van, I hoped his speakers blew out, I hoped he developed a sudden allergy to dairy that presented itself after he had eaten a whole cheese pizza with stuffed crust, and I hoped energy drinks lost their kick.

A sleek car pulled up to the gates, its headlights casting our shadows across the lawn.

The speed of their arrival made me wonder if they hadn’t been following us. A comforting thought.

“That will be Richelieu,” she said, her voice soft. “Thank you for calling him.”

“Your family has been worried about you.”

“All things considered, I’m glad we got this opportunity to clear the air.” She drew herself up taller, an echo of her former grace returning. “I wanted to see you one last time.” Finality rang through the sentiment as she soaked in my appearance. “I wanted to tell you myself.”

A prickle raised the hairs down my nape. “Tell me what?”

“I wanted things to be different between us, but I see now my mother was right when she let yours go.” She wiped her eyes dry then gathered my hands in her damp ones. “This is me letting you go, Grier.”

Before the driver could round the hood, the rear passenger door swung open, and Richelieu sprinted toward us. Johan followed at a more sedate pace.

“Eloise,” Richelieu shouted. “My love.”

Tears fell thick and fast down her face. “I’m here.”

“Are you well?” He wrapped her in his arms, and they both trembled. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“Thank you for your service,” Johan told Linus. “I owe you a boon.”

“You honor me.” Linus inclined his head. “Grier and I were relieved to find Eloise safe.”

“Find her? Find her?” Richelieu vibrated with anger. “You claimed ignorance as to her location, yet you stumbled across her on the same lawn where her sister was murdered?”

“I came here of my own free will,” Eloise murmured, shushing him.

The fight drained from his face and understanding pinched the skin around his mouth. “Very well.” He scooped her up in a bridal carry. “You are safe now. I will take you home.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Linus interjected. “Eloise admitted to being Abayomi Balewa’s accomplice. They conspired to murder Grier, to use her as a sacrifice to Hecate, and that I won’t forgive. There are also damages owed to innocents their scheming harmed. I will see her held accountable for her crimes.”

“You defend a murderer, or as good as,” Richelieu countered. “Eloise will not suffer for your vanity. I won’t allow it. Not even your vaunted mother can pry her from my arms again.”

“I regret the necessity,” Johan said on a sigh, “but the boy is right. My own wife won’t see her granddaughter harmed. You will let us leave with Eloise, or we will declare war on both your houses.”

Cletus drifted down to rest a bony hand on my shoulder. “What happened to the boon you owe Linus?”

“The boon will be chosen for him, if you persist. I will allow him a chance to defend you, and himself, by walking away. For tonight, let us be done with this mess.”

“Yes, let us be done with this.” Black mist cascaded from Linus’s shoulders as he took an even step forward, and his rictus grin belonged on a corpse. “I will defend myself, here and now. Grier doesn’t need my help. She can take care of herself.”

“Let them go.” I placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m done with blood and death.”

Johan’s shrewd eyes noted how Linus obeyed me, and the calculation there tightened my gut.

“Get off my lawn and out of my life,” I told the Marchands. “Heloise sealed her own fate. She hunted me, and she died for it.” I cut my eyes to Richelieu. “Keep your fiancée close, cousin, and if you love her, if you have ever loved her, you will convince her to put this behind her.”

Richelieu seethed at me. “You dare—?”

A blink or less and Linus stood before Richelieu with his moonlit scythe pressed against the man’s throat. “I have slain a great many more men and beasts for far less than what you have done, and I exacted that vengeance for faces I have never seen and voices I have never heard. Imagine what I might do for Grier.”

“Walk away,” Johan pleaded with Richelieu. “Think of Eloise.”

The hot-tempered man nodded once at his future grandfather-in-law then set out for the car.

“Take my life,” Johan offered. “Bleed me out, call this feud dead before it begins in earnest.”

“How can you think killing two Marchands would even the score in the eyes of your family?” I cocked my head at him, sliding on my Dame Woolworth persona. “Forgive me, Grandfather, but no one as nice as you appear to be would have survived that family this long. We aren’t going to do you the favor of cutting you down in front of witnesses so that your wife can cry war when your body is returned to her. If she put you up to this, I can see why she’s had so many husbands before you. Have a care. It’s obvious she doesn’t.”

A hard glint sparked behind his eyes, but he kept his tone mellow. “Goddess keep you, Grier Woolworth.”

“And you,” I said, matching him for sweetness. “Give my regards to Grandmother.”

Johan strolled to the car, waited on the driver to open his door, then got in like a man with all the time in the world and no reason to hurry despite the furtive glance Richelieu shot him from across the bench.

We stood together as their taillights died, Woolly a silent presence behind us, the night gone peaceful.

“Eloise denied responsibility for the archers,” I said quietly. “Have the results come back on the poison?”

“The arrow was dipped in wraith’s bane,” he confirmed. “Without a sample from the blade to compare against the arrow, we can’t be certain the attacker at Strophalos and the archers are using a chemically identical compound. But few are aware wraith’s bane exists. Even fewer are able to create it.”

Wraith’s bane. Having a name for it might help me hone my sigil for him. A task for another day.

“They have a supplier in common, even if they aren’t taking their orders from the same place.”

“It’s not proof Lacroix condoned the Strophalos attack,” he said carefully. “His underling might have taken the initiative, the same as the vampires in Atlanta who drove you and Neely off the road. But it does mean someone out there knows how to brew a rare poison and has no problem distributing it to competing factions.”

“I don’t like this.” Exposing his vulnerabilities made me want to bind him in bubble wrap as well as sigils.

“I don’t much care for anything we learned tonight. The Marchands will be a problem now that they’ve openly declared you their enemy.” He tilted his head, thinking. “Dame Marchand will claim grief drove her granddaughter to drastic action. She is also within her rights to admonish Richelieu and even Johan for courting a blood feud without their matriarch’s blessing.”

Allowing the threat to hang over my head would prove too tempting for Dame Marchand. The pronouncement gave her family license to act against me—and me against them—while giving her plenty of wiggle room. The second things swung my way, Dame Marchand could apologize and end the whole thing. At least as far as the Society was concerned.

“There are no laws against declaring blood feuds.” I reflected on what we had learned. “There are no laws against what Eloise helped Balewa do either, so long as the candidates’ paperwork is in order. We have no proof, aside from our testimony, that she was involved in the rest.” Linus’s word was golden, but mine was more gold-plated. “Given the Marchands’ recent loss, I doubt the Society pursues Eloise on either count. She wasn’t present for the attack, so her hands are technically clean. She’s got plausible deniability on her side.”

“I’m certain she believed in her heart that Balewa was raising an undead army with the best intentions.”

“Linus Lawson, was that…snark? Directed at the Society?” I swooned against him. “My heart flutters.”

I was such a bad influence on him.

“The Marchands brought this down on their heads, but one of their own paid the ultimate price.” His lips thinned. “This will unify them in the belief you deserve to be caged, that your blood is theirs by right, and blaming you for Heloise’s death will dehumanize you enough even the more softhearted Marchands, if any exist, won’t cry foul if you get hurt in the process.”

As softhearted as Eloise struck me at the start, I wondered if her grandmother hadn’t guided us toward this precipice. Heloise might not have been meant to topple over the edge, but Dame Marchand had done everything but give her a firm push.

“Family is strange.” And I had never had so much of it. Family or strangeness.

“Families are odd.” Slowly, giving me time to shift away if I wanted, he wrapped his arms around my waist. “The lucky ones complement each other’s peculiarities.”

I sank against him. “I like that.”

Woolly flickered her lights in question when we continued to stand there, curled around each other.

“We’re coming, we’re coming.” I broke free of Linus and hauled him in after me. “Feel free to dig around in my head,” I told her. “I’m too tired to answer questions. It’s been a heck of a night.” I hesitated in the foyer long enough to draw his attention. “Shower, and then meet me back here.”

His gaze roved my face. “All right.”

The whisperlight touch of Woolly pulling on our connection followed me to my bathroom, where I scrubbed the night off me. Dressed in pajama shorts and a strappy top, I raided the drawer in my desk then padded downstairs to find Linus freshly showered and wearing his nightly uniform of striped pants and a soft tee.

“I have a confession to make.” I flashed the skeleton key in my hand. “I figured out how to access the basement.”

His attention flicked between my hand and my face. “Why is that a confession and not a statement?”

“I made the breakthrough weeks ago.” And I had been rooting around down there ever since.

His expression didn’t change. “You didn’t trust me.”

“The night Cletus broke into Woolworth House, the basement was his first stop. I’ve been paranoid that your mother made one of your mission objectives to gain access to what’s down there.” I curled my fingers around the dormant key. “Maud’s personal library, the contents of her office, half-finished experiments in the lab that could be recreated with her notes.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And there are probably journals…about me.”

My condition, my family, my abilities, my weaknesses. A wealth of information that could destroy me.

“Balewa proved one thing tonight,” he said gently. “Mother believes her sister was infallible. She did ask me to check the basement, and I reported back that it was secure. She’s aware of the blood wards Maud set, that they weren’t keyed to you. She’s confident you can’t gain access to the basement. She hasn’t asked me about it again.”

“You kept pushing.” I scratched the tarnished key with my thumbnail. “So, I assumed…”

A mischievous light entered his eyes that made him look younger, more like the real Linus.

“One of the bookcases is filled with my notes from Maud’s lessons. I would like to have those back.” His fingertips grazed my arm. “And, I believe you’re right. There must be some research on your condition. It would save us a lot of trial and error if we could build on what Maud—and perhaps Evangeline—already knew.”

I sucked in a breath and then let it out slowly. “I agree.”

“As long as I wear the city seal, I am beholden to my mother.” He placed a hand over his heart. “There will always be things I can’t tell you. There will always be things she asks of me that I would rather not do but will. That’s the vow I made, and I keep my promises.”

Nodding, I kept my nerves steady. “I understand.”

“But I won’t give her this.” He cupped my hands, and the key, within his. “I won’t give her you or your secrets. You have my word.”

“I believe you.” I searched his face. “I trust you, Linus, and that doesn’t come easy for me.”

The endorsement left him speechless, his lips parted on a half-formed thought, and I decided to take advantage. One of us had to, and Linus… He would never be the one to initiate. He allowed himself to enjoy liberties with me I had already granted, but he waited and watched for my cues.

For whatever reason, Linus viewed himself as less, and he couldn’t imagine me wanting more of him.

With our hands trapped between us, I leaned forward. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes,” he rasped, his eyes dilating.

The first brush of my mouth over his gave me chills, and I smiled against him. “Your lips are cold.”

“I’m sorry,” he breathed, easing away from me. “I can—”

“I like it.” I yanked him back with my hands fisted in his tee then set his hands on my hips. “But I do feel a little like I’m kissing myself here.”

“This is what you want?” he asked with heartbreaking need that curled his fingers into my skin.

“You,” I whispered. “You’re what I want.”

Forehead pressed against mine, he simply breathed. “You’re sure?”

“Linus,” I sighed, tugging on his shirt. “What’s a girl got to do to get kissed around here?”

This close, his eyes were dark seas under turbulent skies. “All she ever had to do was ask.”

All masks removed, he closed the distance between us. The longing in him poured into me as he claimed my mouth. He cradled my jaw in one hand while the other swept across my lower back, anchoring me to him. A moan rose up the back of my throat, and I tasted his smile. Spearing my fingers through his hair, I hauled him down harder to me and kissed him until our teeth clacked, our mouths bruised, and I tasted blood from the sharp nip I couldn’t stop myself from giving him.

Unable to help myself, I sucked on his bottom lip, tasting him, and I trembled at the rush.

“Grier,” he groaned, voice tight and body hard where I pressed against him.

“I had to go and make this weird,” I panted, clinging to him since my legs kept wobbling.

Laughter moved through his shoulders into me, and he pressed a lingering kiss to my carotid, which I swear hadn’t been an erogenous zone until three seconds ago.

“Come on.” Shivering, I led him after me toward the basement. “Let me make it up to you.”

Key in hand, I fed the lock and twisted my wrist. Welcoming darkness yawned below us.

Linus grasped the knob…and shut the door. “Watch a movie with me.”

“What?” I whipped my head toward him. “I thought…”

“I’ll make popcorn.”

Sweet relief sang through me, and I couldn’t stop the smile curling my lips. “Extra butter?”

“Of course,” he agreed with proper solemnity as he led me toward the couch.

Setting the mood, the old house flipped off all but the kitchen light.

“Woolly seems to think ‘watch a movie’ is code for Let’s neck in the dark like a couple of teenagers.”

A flush stained his cheeks. “I would never take advantage of—”

“Lucky for you, I can’t say the same.”

We reached the couch, and I shoved him down with a palm to his chest. I climbed on his lap sideways, linking my arms behind his neck and stretching my legs down the cushions. Nuzzling the hollow beneath his ear, I licked the column of his throat and relished the way his fingers dug into my thighs, how my name burst from his lips on a groan.

Once upon a time, I had wanted to corrupt the boy next door.

From here, the boy down the hall was looking ripe for debauching to me.

But I would settle for warm popcorn and more of his cool kisses in the dark.

For now.