Adelaide and I repaired both chairs and set them aside for the glue to dry, leaving us nowhere to sit. I could have asked Woolly to give her a temporary pass for the back porch so we could make use of the swing, but the old house had spotted Boaz on the grounds, and she was not happy about it. Introducing Adelaide as his fiancée might get the poor woman banned for life.

“He really does feel like an ass,” Adelaide confided while arranging our supplies in a neat pile.

“Good.” I cringed to remember the confrontation. “He ought to after the hissy he pitched.”

“He’s torn between wanting to throttle Linus for getting in your pants, the way an older brother would kill anyone who touched his little sister, and wanting to be the one who—”

“Yeah.” I cut her off with a sigh. “I get it.”

“Your first time is supposed to be memorable.” Her smile tried valiantly to salvage the awkwardness of the situation. “All things considered, I doubt any of us will forget yours.”

A groan rattled the back of my throat when I heard it framed that way, as a social event to be discussed.

I would never forget. That much was true. But the memory would forever be divided between the perfect day Linus and I spent tangled up together and the morning after when Boaz shattered the illusion that I could live in those perfect moments.

“You can always come bang on my door the night after I say I do and hurl accusations at me if it helps.”

I whipped my head toward her. “You’re a…?”

“Yep.” She angled her chin higher. “There was no time for boys. I was too busy taking care of my sister.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You’re looking at me like I’m on death row instead of engaged.” Her eyes glittered, laughter or tears, I didn’t know her well enough to guess. “Boaz has enough experience for both of us. I’m sure it will be fine.”

The door to the carriage house opening spared me from wondering if I had worn the same weary resignation on my face when discussing Boaz’s past conquests. The light tone, the sad eyes, the tight mouth. Yeah. I liked Adelaide. But I wondered how much of that was because I saw so much of myself in her.

“Amelie is resting,” Linus announced. “I used a sigil to help her sleep while her body adjusts.”

“Oh good.” Adelaide’s relief appeared to be genuine. “I’ll let Boaz know when he gets back.”

“I’ll tell him myself.” Linus cast me an amused glance when I stiffened. “I need to discuss the gwyllgi issue with him. It would save us a trip to the barracks.”

Uncertain how far to trust him, amusement or not, I inched closer. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“I can handle Boaz,” he assured me. “I can behave myself.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Linus was at his most dangerous while cool and collected. “Meet me in the library after?”

Linus couldn’t gain access to the basement without me, but I didn’t want to pique Adelaide’s curiosity.

“We can resume our filing,” he said without missing a beat. “I won’t be long.”

“I’ll go in and sit with Amelie.” Adelaide shifted her weight toward the carriage house. “We have to stay in this section unless we’re with you, correct?”

“Yes.” I pointed to the safe areas. “Don’t take the security measures personally.”

“I hate when Boaz barges into my house like he owns the place, so I understand.”

“As easy as he makes it, I can’t blame him for this. Not all of it anyway. The added layers of security are more to do with recent threats against me than anything personal.”

“Threats against your person sounds personal to me.”

“Right?” I laughed. “I better go. I have a lot of work ahead of me.”

“It was nice seeing you again.” Adelaide waved. “Maybe one of these days we’ll bump into each other on purpose.”

“Maybe so.”

Before I retired for the night, I took a moment to examine the gwyllgi issue. More of them crowded the lawn now than ever. They stood in small clumps, which was odd. Distant relatives lumped into family groups, maybe? Shrugging it off since Linus was on the job, I headed in the house and called out to Oscar. “You up for an adventure?”

“Sure.” He drifted through the ceiling until he landed on me and attached himself piggyback style. “Will there be gold doubloons or pieces of eight?”

“Not this time. You’ll have to finish your treasure hunt when you’re feeling better.”

“Can we pretend?”

“Sure thing, kid.”

The basement door decided to give me fits and expected me to spill blood to enter. Since it didn’t take much, I picked at the pinprick scab left from where Linus had drawn blood and smeared a crimson dot across the lock with a fingertip. It snicked open, and we entered the void.

A swirl of darkness more substantial than the rest swept past me.

Cletus.

Eager to hear news from Corbin, I jogged down to the library and waited for the wraith to find me.

“Do me a favor,” I said to Oscar. “Focus really hard and bring down the scrolls from that pile.”

The stack brushed the ceiling, and it was easier sending a ghost boy than pulling out a ladder.

As I turned to address the wraith, he enveloped me in his hood before I could blink.

Ice cold shattered through my veins, and my head swam. The faint scent of rose water coated the back of my throat, a phantom memory, and then Corbin wavered into view.

“Lacroix taught me to feed tonight. He took volunteers. Humans owned by vampires.” A vein bulged in his forehead. “Owned, Grier.” He wiped a hand over his mouth. “I learned to take what I need, and he taught me the cost of mercy. He killed them. Drank them down in front of me when I refused to kill them.”

Static fuzzed the picture, making me think time had lapsed between his first memo and his next.

“He spends more and more time in his quarters.” Corbin shifted his eyes to the door. “I’m under house arrest after I broke up a blood orgy in the parlor. I’m trying, Grier. God knows I am, but these people—these things—they’re hedonists. Every night is a spectacle, some new horror Lacroix dreamed up the day before. There’s a woman with him now.” He wet his lips. “She loves him. Real love. His lure isn’t to blame.” He gazed into the hood, right at me. “She’s not a vampire, definitely not human. Necromancer, maybe? They have history. Decades’ worth based on the fights they’ve been having.”

The door burst open behind him, and a vampire rushed in. “Who are you talking to?”

“No one,” Corbin said, and the vision ebbed to darkness, but not before the vampire in the doorway locked gazes with Cletus.

Expecting the wraith to cut me loose, I flailed when the void held on.

Muffled voices drifted to me, and the flicker of movement hinted at another vision, but it wasn’t Corbin.

“She won’t be controlled,” a woman protested. “You are a mad thing to believe it possible.”

A man countered her, “An impossible thing has merely yet to happen.”

“Fool.”

“For you, yes.” The figures intertwined. “Always.”

Lacroix.

Cletus was definitely spying on Lacroix and his mystery woman.

The sound quality was crap, but who else could it be?

I came aware on the floor of the library, staring up at the ceiling and the battle taking place there.

“You killed her,” Oscar shrieked at the wraith. “You killed Grier.”

Oscar held a scalpel tight in one fist and sliced the air in front of the wraith to keep it away from me.

A low moan was the only defense Cletus could manage, and it’s not like getting cut would hurt him.

“I’m…” I swallowed, tasting roses and dust, “…not dead.”

“You’re not?” The ghost boy froze with his weapon at the ready. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.” I rubbed the back of my head. “I don’t think it would hurt so much if I hadn’t survived.”

A blue-tinged missile launched at my chest, and I fell back, grimacing at the pain.

“I was so worried,” he cried against my throat, his black tears saturating my collar. “I couldn’t get him to stop. He wouldn’t listen. He just kept making you look.”

“He’s learned a new trick.” I patted Oscar’s back. “He’s not hurting me. He’s showing me things he’s seen that he thinks might help us.”

“Oh.” He drew back. “I guess that’s okay then.”

His outline wavered, and he grew lighter than air in my arms.

“Do you need to go rest?” I ruffled his hair. “You fought a hard battle.”

“You did promise me adventure.”

“I try to deliver.”

Yawning, he started drifting higher like he had been pumped full of helium. “See you later.”

“I’ll be here.”

After he left, I hauled myself into a chair I angled toward Cletus, head throbbing with my heartbeat.

“You’ve got to stop ambushing me. I could have hurt myself if I hit the table on the way down. Let’s make a rule that you don’t show me Corbin’s messages unless Linus is here to play witness, okay?”

The wraith bobbed once in acknowledgment then spread its hands, waiting.

“Corbin,” I addressed Cletus the way he always did. “We’re coming for you. Just hold on a little longer.”

Cletus groaned softly then vanished to relay his message.

Lacroix must not be used to dealing with someone who could form their own opinions and who held their own beliefs. He wasn’t winning over Corbin. He was alienating him. While he might be used to whispering conversion in someone’s ear, he would have to yell a lot louder before Corbin went deaf to the cries of the humans they toyed with away from the Society’s prying eyes.

There was nothing for it. We had to get Corbin out of there before Lacroix provoked him into a fight he couldn’t win.

Light taps on the door announced Linus had arrived, and I climbed the stairs to greet him.

“How did it go?” I massaged my scalp. “Will the Elite help with our gwyllgi infestation?”

“Yes.” He frowned at me. “There’s no pack in Savannah, so they can be rousted for causing a disturbance.” He touched my wrist. “Headache?”

“Cletus sucked me into the void. No one was here to catch me this time, so I bumped my head on the floor when I nailed the landing.”

Concern caused darkness to pool in his eyes. “Want me to take a look?”

“Let’s do this in the kitchen.” I entered the hall. “I’m fresh out of focus for tonight.”

He cupped my elbow and guided me onto my usual stool. “Are you sure you don’t have a concussion?”

“I didn’t fall that hard.” I patted the spot next to me until he sat. “Did Cletus check in with you this time?”

“No.” He twisted until our knees brushed. “You’ll have to fill me in on what your wraith reported.”

Tempted to laugh at the jab, I posed a theoretical instead. “Do you think Cletus knows?”

“That he’s Maud?” Linus scratched his thumbnail along one of the veins in the marble. “He must retain some knowledge of his former life. It’s obvious he cares for you, and he has habits that remind me of her. But it’s hard to say. Whoever he is now, he’s not her anymore. He’s someone else. Something else.”

“Oddly enough, that makes me feel better.” I covered his hand with mine, smiling to realize there was no difference in temperature between his skin and the stone. “I wouldn’t want her trapped in that form, aware of her diminished capacity.”

Linus watched me trace the length of his fingers. “What did he show you this time?”

While I filled in Linus, I noticed the volume rising outside and nudged Woolly to muffle the noise before it disturbed Lethe. Assuming she wasn’t hanging out the window, yelling obscenities at the gathering. Again. That would explain the increase in volume, actually.

“How about you?” I tapped the knuckle on his pointer finger. “How did it go with Boaz?”

“He left Adelaide to watch over Amelie while he reports in. I doubt he would have gone if the gwyllgi weren’t setting up camp so close to the carriage house.”

“He’s worried they might come for us with torches and pitchforks.”

“His sister is confined to the structure. She would be trapped if the pack embraced extreme measures to flush out Lethe.”

Dread licked along my insides at the thought. “A fire at the carriage house could spread to Woolly.”

Wards or no wards, Woolly would be at risk. We had never tested her against something as mundane as fire.

“It will never come to that,” Linus assured me.

“How can you be sure?” I got to my feet and started pacing. “It’s been wet lately but—”

A black cloak draped his shoulders, and he gazed at me with eternity in his eyes. “I will slay them all before I let them harm you or Woolly. You’ve lost enough. You won’t lose her too.”

Wrapping my arms around myself, I dipped my chin. “I wish the gwyllgi would see reason and leave.”

“Their instincts are screaming at them. They won’t move except by force or until the imagined debt is paid. The fight disrupted the pack hierarchy. They’ll be dangerous—Hood and Lethe too—until a new order is established.”

A shiver twitched in my shoulders, and I turned as Cletus swept into the room.

“I thought you had gone back to Corbin.” I smiled. “Did you want to see Linus before you left?”

The wraith shot out its arms, clamped onto my shoulders, and dunked me in the pool of shadows beneath its cowl.

Chills raced up my arms and through my body. Teeth chattering, I searched the dark for the message he must be carrying, but there was nothing. And then…there was light.

An empty ballroom. Corpses strewn across the floor. Humans. Dozens of them. Drained to empty shells.

I sucked in a gasp, breathing in more of that faint rosewater scent that screamed Maud, then the vision overtook me again.

“You have been reporting my movements to the Grande Dame.” Lacroix struck Corbin across the cheek. The resounding crack made me wince. Judging by the purpling bruises on his face, it wasn’t the first time. “How much of what you have seen have you told her? Confess, and I will show mercy.”

“I don’t report to the Grande Dame,” Corbin spat. “You’re paranoid.”

“Lies,” Lacroix hissed.

“Believe what you want, you will anyway.”

“We must strike before the Society moves against us,” Lacroix decided, then motioned a slender vampire to join him. “Rally our clansmen.” He clasped her on the shoulder. “We move tonight.”

“As you wish, Master.” She pivoted on her heel, facing Cletus, who must have been hovering in a shadowed doorway, and I swallowed a gasp of recognition. “What are our orders concerning your granddaughter?”

“Bring Grier to me.” He pointed a warning finger at her. “Do not harm her.”

“What about Scion Lawson?”

“Kill him.” He bared his fangs. “His corrupting influence has been the root of all this.”

The vampire tasked with rallying the clan passed beneath Cletus, and our gazes almost clashed.

“Set your strongest wards around Woolworth House,” she whispered. “The city won’t last the night.”

The vision swirled away, and I came aware with Linus supporting me.

“Get back to Corbin.” I swatted at the wraith. “Don’t let him out of your sight.”

Linus drew me closer. “Grier?”

Jaw tight, I gazed up at him. “We have to extract Corbin before Lacroix kills him.”

Eyebrows climbing his forehead, I recalled for once he was the one waiting for an update.

“They spotted Cletus.” I clawed at him to regain my balance. “Lacroix is mobilizing his clan.”

Linus swore under his breath. “Do you have any idea where they plan on striking?”

“No.” I propped my legs under me. “But I know someone who might.” I wobbled to the stool and sat. “I saw Becky. She’s posing as a vampire. She infiltrated the clan.”

Linus’s expression cleared when he understood. “Boaz’s partner.”

“She faked her way into the manor where I was being held by posing as a newly turned vampire. Her backstory painted her as a doctor in her previous life. She saw me once, to patch me up after I cut my foot on a piece of ceramic. She’s the one who kept urging me to take in the fresh air in the gardens out front. My keeper, Lena, grew suspicious of her and asked her to go. I never saw her in that role again.” Thinking back on her appearance in the vision, I admitted, “She looked the same. As Dr. Heath, she was already established within the clan. She must not have burned that identity in case she needed it in the future.”

“We need to go to the Lyceum.” He pulled out his phone. “I’ll call Mother. She must rally the council and the remaining masters.”

“Gathering all the biggest targets in one confined area is making it easy for Lacroix, don’t you think?”

“Not if we use the video conference suite.” He spared me half a glance, his lips curving. “The others will remain safe in their homes. We’ll be the only ones at risk.”

Video conference suite sounded far too modern for the Lyceum. Its addition must be his civilizing influence. Half the dames and matrons probably required tutors to navigate the system. Or hired tech wizards to cheat the learning curve.

“I’ll get Hood.” I could have called him for a pickup, but I needed to grab my bag. I didn’t want to be caught unprepared if the vampires beat us to the Lyceum. “Be right back.”

He wasn’t listening. His entire attention centered on his phone, on the warning he was conveying to his mother.

Upstairs, I knocked on Lethe’s door. “Hood?”

He came to the door barefoot with a book in his hand. “Everything okay?”

“Not exactly.” I filled him in on the vampire situation. “We need a ride to the Lyceum.”

“I’m going with you.” Lethe poked her head around the door. “I’m not letting you face that alone.”

Hood ground his teeth so hard I worried they might snap under the pressure. “Give us a minute.”

After nudging Lethe back, he shut the door. Their growled conversation grew heated, and I left them to battle it out while I gathered my kit from my room. I hesitated only a moment before reclaiming the goddess-touched artifact I had never returned to the basement and shoving it down the front of my bra. I made a pit stop in Linus’s room to pick up his bag, in case he needed it, then headed downstairs.

Linus waited at the front door, phone pressed to his ear, arguing with someone in another language.

I raised my eyebrows, but I don’t know why I was surprised to glimpse yet another of his facets.

Loaded for bear, I told Woolly to guard the fort then bounced off the door when she slammed it in my face.

“Fiddlesticks.” I checked my nose to see if it was broken. She did have a history of violent assault via wood panel. “That hurt.”

The locks snicked into place, and she curtained the windows to darken the room.

“We have to go to the Lyceum.” I rested my hand, thankfully not bloodied, on the wall. “People will die if we don’t help.”

The lights flickered as her resolve faltered, but she refused to bend.

“What’s goin’ on?” Oscar appeared at my side and rested his head on my shoulder. “Why’s she mad?”

“She doesn’t want me to leave. She worries I’ll get hurt.”

“Will you?” The ghost boy turned his bottomless black eyes on me. “Get hurt?”

“I’ll do my best not to come home with more holes in me than I’ve already got.”

Linus made a choking sound, but I was sure he would be fine.

That appeased Oscar, who drifted over and laid his hand over mine where I touched the wall. “You gotta let her go, Woolly.”

The old house groaned around us, refusing to budge on her stance.

“I would be dead if she hadn’t saved me. Really dead. Gone forever.” He mashed his cheek against the wall. “You have to let Grier go so she can save other people who need her.”

Slowly, the locks turned, and the door swung open.

“Thanks, girl.” I patted Oscar on the back and cast him a conspiratorial wink. “Keep an eye on Oscar while we’re gone.”

On cue, Oscar faded a few shades, and Woolly swaddled him in her consciousness.

“Thanks, kid,” I mouthed, and he grinned in response before she whisked him back to his room.

Yep. Definitely a bad influence.

Before Woolly thought better of it, I stepped onto the porch with Linus flanking me. We made our way to the driveway, and my eyes rounded at the number of gwyllgi congregating on the property. The number had swelled even more since yesterday.

We didn’t have to wait long for our ride to roll up to the curb, and I counted all three gwyllgi present. Shane passed on the ride, claiming he wanted to scout ahead. I wasn’t sure if that was code for get out of Dodge or if he meant the offer, and I didn’t press. I did not want land on the bad side of a fae.

Hood glanced back at me. “The Lyceum, you said?”

“Yep,” I confirmed. “Drive like there’s not a baby on board.”

Lethe reached across the console and rested her hand on his thigh. She slid her hand down to his knee, in a slow glide that made me blush. As I was averting my gaze, I saw her slam his foot down on the gas pedal with a maniacal spark in her eyes.

“I was wrong,” I cried when the back of my skull bounced off the window. “There’s a baby on board. A big one. Maybe more than one.”

Lethe just cackled and pressed Hood’s leg harder.