It’d given me a chill to see the Time Warner Center, with its twin spires, down the block. Cordus held court — the kind of court a king has, not a judge — in a penthouse suite near the top of the northern tower. Before he left town, he’d taken me along to court events a couple times. It clearly gave him no small satisfaction to show me off as his newest possession. I hated it.

Hated it, and yet the memory rose of standing in the elevator with Cordus as he slowly looked me over, taking in the results of the estate staff’s ministrations to my hair, skin, and dress. The image was powerful enough to make my heart rate spike. Something tightened like a hot fist deep in my belly.

Damn. I shook my head.

We reached the car, and Yellin settled sullenly into his seat. After a few seconds, he shot me a frown.

“Are we leaving any time soon, Miss Ryder?”

“I was just thinking … should we go check out the building where they found that little boy? The one in the article?”

I flashed my phone at him, so he’d know I knew what the article said.

He made an exasperated noise. “No. That would be too dangerous for someone in training. I will send a team to investigate the building this evening.”

That seemed overly cautious, to me. After all, if I went with him, I’d have the protection of an actual Second.

“What might’ve made Miss Sturluson think she was being framed for the boy’s death?”

What I really wanted to ask was, What the hell is she? But Seconds were quite touchy about questions like that. I could see that even the more indirect phrasing I’d used rubbed Yellin the wrong way.

“Miss Ryder, the matter of Miss Sturluson is not your concern.”

“I can’t do anything to help?”

He laughed. It was a bizarre sound.

“She is of the Thirsting Ground — an entity of great power, far beyond the likes of you.”

The words “or me” seemed to hover unspoken at the end of his sentence. I shivered.

“What’s the Thirsting Ground? Does she hunt people?”

“Indeed, Miss Ryder, she hunts everything that lives. It is her nature.”

“Well, don’t we have to stop her?”

Yellin gave me an utterly fed-up look. “She has always been perfectly discreet. Please, Miss Ryder, let us not dawdle any longer. I have much work waiting back at the estate.”

I shouldn’t have been shocked. I knew Seconds didn’t care about human life for its own sake. But to hear it stated so baldly, with no apology or embarrassment — I was disgusted. And angry.

Yellin shot me another annoyed glance, then did a sort of double-take, really focusing on me. I watched his face register confusion, surprise, and finally fear.

I stared back at him until he abruptly looked away.