“This room is for visitors, and most evenings Mrs. Stirling and her grandson, Deacon, and I like to play a round of cards after dessert. You should join us tonight.” He indicated the card table that sat between two couches, and I nodded, thinking I should definitely not play cards with them. My competitive nature would emerge, and who knew what I might do to win.

Phelan glanced at me, as if he read my thoughts. “I take it you like cards?”

“A little. I don’t play very often.”

He nodded but seemed unconvinced. I followed him through the drawing room until I saw the great mirror hanging on the wall, positioned above the game cupboard. I froze, staring at the hungry glass. Why did he need such a large, obtrusive mirror in his drawing room?

Thanks to the thick rug, he didn’t hear me come to a frantic halt, and his eyes were set directly ahead, where he was leading me to an open archway. I hurried past the mirror, praying he wouldn’t turn. And I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass. A reflection of wild auburn hair and large brown eyes and pressed lips, as if I were holding a song in my chest.

“This leads to the library, where I do most of my work,” he said, guiding me through the archway into a back corridor, which wound to a set of double doors with panels of stained glass.

I exhaled, following him into a spacious library. The shelves rose from floor to ceiling, carved from mahogany wood. There was a hearth, swept clean of ashes, and a desk in the center of the room, where a tome sat beside a vase of swan quills and an herbarium. His book of nightmares, I presumed, and I approached it, measuring its thickness, the tattered edge of its pages, the weight it gave to the room.

“How long have you been warden here?” I asked.

“For five months.”

“So you have faced multiple new moons in your appointed streets?”

He hesitated, a shadow in his expression. “Not exactly. I’ve only faced one of the five.”

I was intrigued by his response. “Why only one?”

“This most recent new moon I was away due to travel, so I hired an independent magician to cover the streets for me,” he explained in a stilted voice. I knew exactly where he had been that moon, but I maintained my pleasant facade. “And on my first new moon . . . I was overwhelmed and wounded. It took me a while to recover, and while I was healing, my twin brother fought on my behalf.”