More sounds. It took the second splash for Tess to identify that the Elders were batting human remains into the water-filled street. She would try to warn Montgomery and his men before they went out and found... whatever they would find.

Then she heard another sound that had her struggling to stand up. They were going into the Liaison’s Office? Why?

<Nyx!>

<I know. Another one came in through the back door and is sniffing around.>

<Can you get out?>

<Smoke isn’t tasty, so I’m not that worried.> A pause. <I think a couple of them are in the sorting room now.>

One of Meg’s constant places that helped her deal with all the things in the Courtyard that changed. Well, she and Nyx would have to put it back together before they let Meg see it.

Assuming the Elders weren’t caching special meat in the cupboards.

Tess tested the sore leg. Hurt but not broken, and not bleeding.

<Tess, get down,> Henry said.

Her hair had changed to more green than black, so she dared glance in the direction of the studio, confident that a look wouldn’t harm the Grizzly. He stood at the studio door, watching the Liaison’s Office.

She caught a whiff of that wild scent that had never been touched by anything human—until now. Then it was gone without so much as a splash, and the oppressive silence, like the fog, lifted.

Henry stepped out of his studio and approached Tess. “Foolish to take on six enemies when they couldn’t see you well enough to die.”

She shrugged. “Wasn’t going to let them into the Courtyard.”

A light came on in the sorting room, and the window cranked open a bit.

Tess limped to the window with Henry politely following.

“Nyx?”

A sigh before the Sanguinati said, “Come to the back door.”

Henry didn’t wait for Tess this time. He was out of his yard and entering the office before she reached the wooden gate.

When she limped into the Liaison’s Office, a hurried look around the back room didn’t reveal any obvious damage—more like things had been shoved out of place by something large sniffing around.

Nothing torn up in the sorting room either, but...

“I heard one of them growl something about the howling not-Wolf and how this place smelled like one of her dens,” Nyx said.

“Meg’s scent is strong here,” Henry said. “Maybe they liked it.” He didn’t sound pleased about that.

Tess wasn’t pleased either. The Elders were already sufficiently intrigued by Meg’s relationships with the Others in the Courtyard without giving them more reasons to be curious about her and Simon.

“That’s not all they liked.” Nyx dropped two clawed and mangled plastic containers on the sorting room table. “They ate all the Wolf cookies.”

•••