Curran half rose in his seat. I knew exactly what he saw. Twenty minutes ago I’d left for the bathroom. Now torn shreds of my dress hung from my side, drenched in red. Blood stained my face and hands. Behind me Andrea supported Desandra, who was pale as a sheet.

I raised the head. “Who does this belong to?”

You could hear a pin drop.

“Who owns this man?”

No answer.

“He turns into a feline creature with wings. Someone has to know him.”

A sound of slow, measured clapping broke the silence. Jarek Kral grinned at me. “Nice joke. Very funny.”

I would kill that man before this was over.

“Do you know this man?”

Jarek spread his arms. “Nobody knows this man. You bring this to us and tell us this wild story and we’re supposed to do what with it?”

“It was a monster,” Andrea said.

“We are all monsters here. Or did you forget?” Jarek chuckled. His shapeshifters grinned.

Desandra screamed something in a language I didn’t understand. Jarek barked a derisive reply.

“This could be a servant’s head for all we know.” Jarek leaned over and looked at Curran. “Perhaps you should tell your pet human to stop hacking heads from castle staff or we might not get any wine.”

People laughed.

Gray fur dashed down Curran’s arms and melted.

“What?” Jarek rose. “What, boy? Are you going to do something?”

Curran locked his hands on the table. It was an enormous table. It had to weigh over two thousand pounds.

The table creaked and left the ground.

The snickering died. People stared, slack-faced.

Curran held the table a foot off the ground for a long second. His face didn’t look strained.

Someone made a choking noise.

Curran set the table down, pushing it sideways, toward Jarek’s side.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” he said. “I think we’re done eating for the day.”

He stepped down. Our people rose. He led them across the hall, then wrapped his arm around me, and we walked the hell out of there.

* * *

“What did it look like?” Mahon asked.

We’d dropped Desandra off in her rooms. Aunt B and George decided to spend the night there. The rest of us gathered in our room. The moment Doolittle saw me, I had to submit to having my side examined. Then I was poked, my wounds were rinsed, and now he was chanting them into magical healing under his breath.

“About sixty-five inches at the shoulder, definitely feline, covered in amber scales. The scales were really thick and translucent, with sharp edges. It had wings.” I shook my head. “I have no idea what it is. What he is.”

Mahon looked at Andrea. “And you saw it?”

“Are you calling Kate a liar?” Barabas asked, his voice dry.

“Yes, I saw it,” Andrea said. “She sawed through his neck with a silver chain. It wasn’t a hallucination.”