I stood there a while and thought about what he’d said. Did it make me feel better about what he’d done? Maybe. A little. Trying to escape a death threat was a less-bad motive than greed or ambition, I guess. I remembered how I’d gone haring off to Nebraska after Williams had assaulted me. Profound fear could make you do things ranging from idiotic to evil.

Then again, why was I believing him? I opened my mouth to question his story. What came out was, “Did you really seduce Kara when she was fifteen?”

A second later, my brain came back on line. Why the hell had I said that?

“Yeah.” He shrugged, as though it was no big deal.

“Because you wanted to control her?”

He looked at me like I was nuts. “No, because I wanted to screw her. Isn’t that why that kind of thing usually happens?”

Wow, classy.

“She was just a kid. It’s statutory rape.”

“Not where I’m from,” he said, sounding exasperated. “I probably shouldn’t have done it. Whatever. It’s all water under the bridge, now.”

Unsteadily, he stood and walked over to the window, clearly annoyed with my moralizing. A silence stretched between us.

“What’s Lord Cordus going to do with you?”

“Hang onto me, for the time being,” Graham said. “He has a dispute with the elder beast over my ownership. Once he gets clear title, he’ll execute me himself.”

I frowned, confused. “Elder beast?”

“Giant wolf, a million years old, no feet. I think you know him.”

A million years old?

“You mean Ghosteater?”

“Yeah. He hunted me down in the city and claimed me. Cordus found some loophole. I think they’re deadlocked, at this point. I’m being held until they find a neutral arbitrator.”

I turned and walked to the door, then looked back. Graham was watching me. The soft June sunlight illuminated one side of his face. The other side was contoured with shadow. Even pale and sick, he was striking.

“Good luck, Graham.”

“Beth,” he said, as I reached for the doorknob.

I turned back one last time.

“That mouse you picked up on Rib Mountain? Don’t tell anyone about that.”

“Why?”

“Just don’t.”

An apprehensive shiver passed over me. I stared at him for several long beats, but he’d looked away. Disturbed, I opened the door and left.

“Are you certain, Miss Ryder? Your visit was an anomaly in Mr. Ryzik’s schedule — the only anomaly, in fact. Are you sure he said nothing of an impending escape?”

I was sitting on one of the straight-backed chairs in front of Cordus’s desk. The man was doing something I’d never seen him do: he was pacing. He strolled from one side of the bay window behind his desk to the other, hands clasped behind his back, gaze distant. It looked leisurely and contemplative. I wasn’t fooled for a moment.