Unlike my old neighbors, none of my new ones were respectable. I’d found most of them three months ago in the far-off city of Larimont, where I’d been sent to find a new supplier for my father’s metalwork. Instead, I’d returned with two family members we’d never met before, unexpected information about my own late mother’s fey heritage, and a whole group of equally unnatural strangers who were desperate to find themselves a safe haven from the magic-haters who had taken over their formerly cosmopolitan city.

Obviously, I couldn’t turn any of them away. Equally obviously, I had no idea how to deal with any of them.

“Ah...” A shower of metal clattered to the floor around me as I released my mental grip and blinked out at the worried-looking crowd in the bright mid-morning light. “Is there something you all need? Leander’s minions can’t come out until after dark, but Leander’s still awake, so—”

“Actually, we were hoping to talk to you, Mia.” Jasper—my newly-met cousin by marriage—smiled ruefully as he stepped forward, carrying his baby daughter Ruby in a vibrant raspberry-colored sling. I hadn’t seen this particular device before, but to my critical eye, it looked well designed to keep her safely pinned to his chest. That was a crucial point when it came to any half-fey infant who could fly...as she quite often did at the most inconvenient moments. “Your father said we could find you here.”

“Dad’s probably the one you want anyway,” I said hopefully, edging closer to the corner of the doorway so I could slip around all of them and escape. “If you’re looking for someone to chat to—”

“It’s about the safety of this entire community.” The slim, straight-backed and fierce older woman just behind him crossed her arms over her truly fabulous, hip-length, black-and-silver velvet jacket. “As the de-facto leader of the community, you—”

“I’m not the leader!” I protested. “I just happen to live here. We don’t even have a leader—”

“As I was saying,” continued Eliza de Mornay, dark eyes glinting forbiddingly in her striking brown face, “we thought you ought to know when any danger threatens—especially when it involves your fiancé.”

“Leander?” I stopped trying to sidle away from the conversation and crossed my own arms in a mirror of her threatening position. “I know he doesn’t always get along with other necromancers—and most of you here haven’t had any real opportunity to get to know him yet—but he lived here before any of the rest of us. He worked hard to protect all of you back in Larimont, and—”