She didn’t say anything.

Ross looked around, took in the nearby diners. “Let’s continue this somewhere else.”

She charged the bill to her room, and they went out into the lobby. There was a small library bar on the other side and no one inside. They went in and took a table at the back on the upper level. The bartender, who was working the bar alone, came up and took their order for two iced cappuccinos and left. Surrounded by shelves of books and a cloud of suspicion and doubt, they faced each other anew.

“She saved all those people last night,” Ross insisted. “She risked her life, Nest. A demon wouldn’t do that.”

“A demon would do anything that suited its purpose.”

“It isn’t possible,” he said again.

“This demon is a changeling. A very adept changeling.”

Ross shook his head. “I would know. I could be fooled, but not that completely.”

She wasn’t going to change his mind. Besides, she wanted to believe him. “So the demon found out where I was going and what I was doing some other way. What way would that be?”

Ross rubbed his lean jaw with one hand and shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. None of this makes much sense. There’s something not right about all of it. If the Void wanted to turn me, why wouldn’t it take a more direct approach? Just suppose for a moment the dream comes to pass, and I do kill Simon Lawrence. That would be a terrible thing, but it wouldn’t persuade me to begin serving the Void. It would probably do just the opposite.”

Nest looked at him doubtfully. “But the Lady said it begins with a single misstep. You don’t change all at once. You change gradually.”

They stared at each other some more, neither speaking. Nest thought suddenly of Two Bears, and the reason he was in Seattle. Perhaps she should tell Ross. But what would that accomplish? How would it help him at this point?

His green eyes were intense. “Remember when I said earlier I wanted to come after you, but something happened and I couldn’t? There was something wrong with me yesterday after I left you. I went back to the apartment and practically passed out. Stef stopped off just long enough to give me your message. Then I seem to recall Simon being there, too. That’s the last thing I remember before waking up at midnight. It’s been bothering me. I don’t even remember going to bed. I just remember sitting in the living room, thinking it was odd that Simon was there, then waking up in bed when Stef shook me.”

He hesitated. “I was pretty well out of it. Maybe there was someone else there, too. Maybe I said something about your message, and I can’t remember.”

He was looking for help from her, but she had none to give. He waited a moment, then leaned forward. “When are you scheduled to fly back to Chicago?”