The limo moved quickly through the empty streets and was so comfortable that Nolan almost did fall asleep. He jolted to full alertness as the driver stopped before a large, shuttered house that showed no gleam of light at any door or window.

“Looks like they’re all asleep in there,” the driver remarked.

Nolan counted out a few bills and handed them over. “Not for long,” he said with dry humor. “Be the last time anyone in that house sleeps for a good long while.”

On the porch, he sounded the door gong repeatedly to send the sense of urgency through the house. Even so, the limo had disappeared before lights came on in the front rooms, and a tousled male servant opened the door.

“The hela is sleeping,” the servant said. “What message may I convey to her in the morning?”

“No message,” Nolan said, brushing by him to step into the hallway. He had never been inside this house, but its opulence for a moment stopped him—black-and-white marble in the foyer, a curved stairway sweeping up to the second floor, glimpses of rooms off to either side filled with massive antique furniture. “Tell her I must see her tonight.”

“I do not wish to disturb the hela,” the servant said a little more forcefully.

A voice spoke from the top of the stairs. “It’s all right, Coto, I’ve already been disturbed.” It was Cerisa, speaking with her usual acerbic aplomb. “Well, Nolan, your behavior has been increasingly erratic of late, but this may be your most outrageous episode yet. Coming to my house in the middle of the night.”

Nolan gazed up at her. She had never been a beautiful woman, but her patrician features and haughty bearing always made her arresting. Even now, startled from sleep and in no good humor, the colors and contours of her face spoke a strength of will that was almost unopposable. He had been afraid of her since he had met her—they all were, even Pakt. But tonight, she inspired in Nolan not the slightest tendril of panic or alarm. Her hold on him had been broken irrevocably.

“It’s the last time I’ll trouble you,” he said. “But I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

“If it’s to tell me you’re resigning, you could have left me a note,” she said. “I prefer my histrionics at one remove.”

“I’m resigning,” he said, “but you are, too.”

The dark brows arched over the black eyes. “You are mad,” she said calmly. “Shall I call the servants?”

“Call them if you want,” he said. “But I think you’d prefer to hear me out first.”

“There is nothing you could say to me at this hour that I would be interested in hearing.”