They certainly wouldn’t be hopeless and shipless, hungry and without any Krevs, hiding in the middle of some dingy street outside an abandoned shop in Solera.

He needed to tell her. Lon’s last words still haunted him. Tell her the truth. Tell her what she is.

But not now.

Not until they had a moment to regroup. To recover. He knew the news wouldn’t be welcome. She hated Arcardius, hated the people who had chased her from it years ago. No, the secret would remain his for a time—and the guilt over not telling her would remain, too.

Another demon to hang on Dex’s back.

Something in the shop window caught his eye. “Andi,” Dex breathed. “Look at that.”

She turned to face him as he pointed through the frosted glass. Inside the old shop window, hidden among the strange, useless items, was a painting. Everything else was old and covered in dust, but the painting was new.

A spider’s web, painted in bloodred against an expanse of black.

Klarisa’s words suddenly came back to Dex. Then Arachnid will welcome you into a tangled web of...

She’d never gotten to finish that statement, for the ice dragon had broken through the ice moments later. And then she’d died.

“That’s interesting,” Andi said. “It could mean nothing, but... Alfie, what is this place?”

“Out of business,” Alfie’s voice said a moment later. “Though it is labeled on the Craatian feeds as a speakeasy.”

Dex barked out a laugh. “Alfie, you idiot. That’s a pub. Just a hidden one.”

He smiled as he pushed away from the window and tried the shop’s ancient door handle. The door creaked open, revealing a tunnellike hallway. Inside, the shop itself was cold and empty of items. The rows of metal shelves had been cleared away, nothing but dust and empty boxes for the taking. But Dex was certain there was something else here. His spine tingled in anticipation, as if he were fresh on a blood trail.

“There,” Andi said. She pointed to the floor, where a mess of footprints had disturbed the dust. They led toward a heavy metal storage room door at the back of the shop. Just beneath the handle of that door was another small painting of a spider’s web, no larger than Dex’s fingertip.

Dex’s heartbeat was heavy in his chest. He looked over his shoulder, back at Andi. She nodded, her face barely visible in the shadows of the abandoned storefront. “What’s the matter, Guardian? Scared?”

“As hell,” Dex said, thinking honesty was always the best policy. But he stepped forward anyway and, with a deep breath, turned the handle. He heaved, pushing the heavy door inward...

And was greeted with a cold kiss of icy air, cool blue lighting and the rhythmic pulsing of dance music as the hidden ice pub was revealed.