“Yes. The demon comes and takes the child through the window,” he replied.

We would have to climb after it on the trellis, which would be difficult with our shields. Phelan shed his buckler in the street and I followed suit. Together, we approached the town house.

“Is there anything else that happens?” I asked.

He waded through a bush to reach the base of the trellis, taking hold of the lattice. He glanced at me and said, “No. Just the demon and the kidnapping.”

The demon finally noticed us.

He hissed from his perch on a second-story window ledge before flying to the next house.

“We’ll have to be more discreet.” Phelan headed to the path that wound to the backyard.

But the demon had his eye on us now, watching with a taunting glare.

“Wait, Phelan,” I said. “We need to set a trap for it, or else we’ll be chasing it from town house to town house until dawn.”

Phelan paused. “What sort of trap?”

I was already taking a step back, returning to the street, my eyes on his house.

“Anna?” He hurried after me.

“I’m going to sit in my room with the window open and the shutters unlatched,” I said, breathless. “You need to be in the backyard, prepared in case the demon manages to drag me out the window.”

I waited for him to protest. To my surprise, he didn’t. I slipped in the front door and locked it behind me, and Phelan went to the garden in the back, where he could see my bedroom window.

I hurried to light a candle in my chamber. I opened the window and unlatched the shutters, and I drew a chair up center to it and sat.

The rain continued to fall, a quiet melody. I was frozen to the bone, waiting to hear the demon’s claws rap on my shutters.

It didn’t take long.

The demon burst into my room with needles of rain. He expected to find me in bed, so I had a moment of surprise to cast my magical net. He screeched and flung himself against the wall, attempting to cut through the binds I had draped over him. They held, and I watched for a moment, until the demon had tired himself. I sought the golden key, thinking it should be somewhere on the demon’s body. A place to stab him.

There was no golden weakness.

But from the corner of my eye, there was an alluring gleam.

I turned to my open window, the casement slick with rain. There was a hint of gold at the edges, and I suddenly understood, although it seemed very reckless.