Lex raised one hand and shook her head. “I have no idea. She’s been seeing things that are invisible to the rest of us lately—must be her sheut maturing.”

Like Nik, Reni was one of the few Nejerets to have been born of two Nejeret parents, thanks to a little loophole in that whole Nejeret reproductive snag. Lex and Heru were what Nejerets called a “bonded pair,” a rare set of true soul mates, their bas resonating perfectly with one another. As a result, they were one of the few Nejeret couples able to reproduce together. They were also addicted to each other—physically—and would die if separated for too long. A tough bargain, but one they seemed content with. And unlike Lex, Heru, Aset, and me, who’d all gained sheuts later in life by Susie and Syris, Reni had been born with hers, courtesy of her unique parentage. She was growing up with a sheut, giving her access to unknown powers at a very early age. She fit into the small fraction of the Nejeret population born with sheuts—Nik, Mei, and Mari, among them—and it would be a while before the full extent of Reni’s innate powers was clear.

I exchanged another look with Nik, frowning this time. What did Reni see when she looked at me? Or at us? “Right, well . . .” I pushed my chair back and stood, and Nik did the same. Lex followed a moment later. “We’re taking Constance with us, but we promise to bring her back.”

“Fair enough,” Lex said. She followed us to the front door, standing in the opening as we made our way down the porch stairs. “You don’t want to see Garth before you go?”

The muscles in my shoulders bunched up. The thought of facing him without having a way to save him made my stomach turn. Guilt. Dread. Flat-out fear. I was sick with all of it. But not as sick as Garth would be soon, especially if this didn’t work.

I shook my head, unable to turn around to look my sister in the eye.

Lex sighed. “Alright, well, will you tell Heru to come join me when he’s finished?” He was in the dungeon, where Nik and I were headed to pick up Constance, the third member of our impromptu ambush-Mari team. He’d been leading the charge on interrogating the board members ever since we started sending them through the bedsheet gateway, and I had no doubt he was extracting some pretty juicy information.

I nodded, turning partially to wave at her. “And you’ll have Dom pass on whatever you learn from the twins, yeah?”

“Of course,” Lex said with a nod. At the sound of a high-pitched shriek from within the house—either a laugh or a cry, I couldn’t tell—she cringed, then shut the door. I loved Reni, but man, the kid was just so very toddler.

I passed through the gateway I’d drawn on the wall of the garage, right on top of Heru’s dungeon, and stepped into a crowded pub. Constance followed me, Nik right behind her. I’d been nervous about creating the gateway to the Pike Brewing Company, an always-bustling brewery and eatery located in the warren beneath Pike Place Market—I wasn’t eager about exposing so many people to the now-infectious Constance, but so long as she kept her hands and her fluids to herself, all of the innocent humans would be safe.