“How the hell did you get in here?”

Asima yawned. “I go where I wish to go. Not that I wished to go here, but a good intelligence agent goes where she must.”

Oh, boy. Cinn tried to ignore the cat as she parked the truck and then took the elevator up to her room. She wasn‘t in the mood to climb the winding stone steps to her floor.

Cinn stopped at her door. Wicked Intentions. Every room in the castle had a name, and they all began with the word wicked. After meeting Sparkle, she found it fitting.

She looked down at Asima, who stared up at her expectantly. “No, you can‘t come in with me. If you beam yourself into my room without my permission, I‘ll crack your little head with a lamp.”

Asima made a disappointed mewling sound. “Well, if you‘re going to get violent, then I suppose I‘ll have to wait outside your door. In the cold, cold hallway.”

“The hallway is warm.”

“And sleep on the hard, hard floor.”

“It‘s your choice.”

“You‘re a cruel…”

Wait for it, wait for it…

“But I suppose technically Sparkle is the cruel, cruel woman.”

“What a crappy day.” Cinn paused. “No, make that a crappy, crappy day.” Unlocking her door, she stepped inside and closed it in the cat‘s face.

Flinging herself onto her bed, she covered her eyes with her hand while her brain feverishly played back what had happened tonight. She could keep the Good Ship Denial afloat for just so long before it sank beneath the weight of piled-up proof. Right now she was sinking fast.

Okay, she could dismiss Edge, Bain, and Holgarth because they hadn‘t done anything. Talk didn‘t mean anything. But the other stuff…

If Dacian‘s fangs and eyes were fake, then whoever had made them was a genius. She‘d gotten a close-up of the fangs. They were too long to be human teeth filed to a point, and she would‘ve been able to tell if they were fakes. And his eyes…She shuddered. The last time she‘d looked at him, all the rage in the world lived in those eyes. Nothing phony about them. So put a check in the real column for Dacian.

Next, Sparkle. No matter how much Cinn wanted to believe that the invisible wall hadn‘t been there, she couldn‘t. She‘d pounded and kicked it. Another check beside real.

Finally, the two cats. Even if the cats had been wired for sound, no one could make cats act the way they had. Cinn knew cats. They didn‘t take direction well. Another check beside real.

Cinn wouldn‘t examine what Sparkle had said about Airmid. She‘d accepted all her mind would allow for the night.