At least she looked it on the outside, even if she felt like a fraud inside.

The carriage came into view, the largest she’d ever seen, and ridiculously gilded. She knew that coach well: It had conveyed Lord Sergio Sammael to House Elal. Heir apparent to House Sammael—though not officially heir, as the current Lord Sammael was cagey about keeping his progeny on tenterhooks—Sergio had been Nic’s first suitor, and first lover, if one could dignify their copulation with that word. For the first time since Gabriel had collapsed, Nic was fervently glad for his unconscious state. If Sergio Sammael was in that carriage, Gabriel might have carried out his threat to kill the wizard.

It might not be Sergio, she reassured herself.

Wishful—and foolish—thinking. The carriage drew to a halt in the circular drive, the elementals powering it gliding the enormous thing to a smooth and soundless stop. Magic crackled in the air, emanating mostly from her motley collection of partially trained wizards, but with a powerful charge throbbing off the Sammael conveyance. They’d come prepared to fight.

Alise’s spirits hovered near Nic, unseen but prepared to protect her. Nic was desperately afraid they could do nothing to save her. Certainly not at a price Nic was willing to pay.

The doors slid open with a silken hiss that whispered of money and power. And out slunk a bevy of hunters. Beside Nic, Alise gasped, quickly swallowing the reaction. For her part, Nic flinched internally, though she refused to show any sign of weakness. Why did House Sammael have hunters at their command? Had the Convocation given them to Sammael in order to exact punishment? This did not bode well.

An unnatural creation, the hunters stood on two legs, had long, canine snouts, and moved like weasels. They sported fangs and claws, and couldn’t be killed by normal methods, as Nic knew from personal experience. The only thing that had completely nullified them was an enchanted blade Gabriel had made, and the illegality of that artifact infringing on House El-Adrel’s license had enabled Lady El-Adrel to strongarm them into taking on Jadren. Unfortunately for them at this moment, that lady had retained the knife as damning evidence against House Phel.

Really, that seemed like the least of their problems now.

The other method of disposing with hunters involved chopping them up into pieces so small that they couldn’t do any harm, although nothing seemed to stop them from regenerating again. It suddenly occurred to Nic that she had no idea what Gabriel had done with the pieces of the lone hunter that had pursued them from Wartson. Hopefully that wasn’t a bigger problem waiting to happen.

The hunters slunk out into a slavering circle, cutting off any avenue of escape for Nic, except for the house behind her. Well orchestrated, though they made no other move toward her. From the recesses of the carriage emerged a young woman with sleekly bobbed blond hair and wizard-black eyes. Correction: She was hardly a young woman, truly little more than a girl, though her arrogant mien well exceeded her youth. Nic didn’t remember Sabrina Sammael from Convocation Academy, but her resemblance to her older brother was unmistakable.