She jumped into the hall, slammed the door behind her, and sprinted toward the front of the building before suddenly turning a corner. Malachi scooped the paper from the table and started after her, but I grabbed him as he wrenched the door open, throwing my arms around his waist. “You can’t run,” I said, wishing we could. “It’ll draw too much attention.”

As I walked quickly into the hall, I pried my cell from my pocket and texted Jim and Henry that she was on her way out of the building—and not by the main entrance. “Please see her,” I whispered, knowing they weren’t expecting the meeting to end this quickly. “Or we’re going to lose her.”

As we got to the front of the building, the sky was steely dark, and the rain was so heavy I could barely see the street. There was no sign of Rita. My phone buzzed with texts from Jim and Henry that came in almost simultaneously:

By side entrance didnt see her come out

One block down. Saw someone come out fire exit but unable to follow in car

We’d failed.

I slammed my way through the first set of double doors and stood in the damp, tiled space, gazing out the last set of glass doors at the pouring rain. Malachi joined me a second later. He handed me the piece of paper, on which was written a phone number. I crammed it into my pocket.

“Nice translating,” I snarled at him. “I still don’t know half of what she said.”

Malachi stared out at the rain, his face a carefully disciplined blank mask. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need your sorry. I needed you to do your job, Malachi! What the hell was that?”

He inhaled a slow, strained breath. “She said Sil wants you in exchange for the promise that they will not possess the people you care most about.”

“Got that part. What else?”

“She said that if you go to them, you can be with your mother.”

I squinted at him. “What?”

He didn’t look at me, and his words were controlled, like he was fighting to keep his voice steady. “She meant they will take your body and send your soul to the Mazikin city, where your mother is.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “She won’t be there long. We’re going to kill that body and set my mom free.”

Malachi turned to me. “Lela … she said that nothing, even killing the human body, can set a human soul free once it’s trapped in the Mazikin city.”