“You didn’t need to pull the trigger. You had a whole gang of young men, just itching to do it, especially if there’s a pretty girl goading them on, so she can sit back and enjoy.”

“I didn’t—”

“Mr. Cortez hates stereotypes. He thinks you should take the measure of the man, not measure him by his type. But in some cases, the type is all that matters, and I know all about yours.”

“You know an Expisco?”

“Hope…” Karl began.

I wriggled from his grip and stepped closer to Griffin, consumed by the need to know, circumstances be damned.

“Are you still in touch with him? Could I talk to him?”

Griffin gave a harsh laugh. “Not without a necromancer.”

“He—he’s dead? How? No, just tell me. What was he like? Did he figure it all out? Did someone help him?”

“You want to know about Expisco half-demons? About yourself?” He stepped toward me. “Let me tell you about—”

Griffin staggered back, then collapsed to the floor. I wheeled to see Karl wiggling his fingers as if checking for damage. It took a moment to realize he must have clocked Griffin, the punch so fast I hadn’t seen it.

I turned to stare stupidly at Griffin, lying unconscious across the doorway.

“Whoops,” Karl said. “Benicio won’t be happy about that. But I did warn him. No sudden moves. As long as he’s out, though, no need to hang around.”

He grabbed me around the waist and swung me over Griffin into the hall. I took one last look at the fallen Ferratus.

“Is your hand—?” I began.

“Just fine. The trick, apparently, is to hit them before they see it coming.”

LUCAS 12

LUCAS

12

“THEY’RE ON THE FOURTH FLOOR,” the guard said. “They went down about ten minutes ago.”

I thanked him and headed for the elevators. Any would do. The fourth was staff level, meaning a simple card swipe or key code would allow us access.

As the car slowed, I stepped forward, waited for the doors to part and found myself nose to nose with Karl Marsten.

He had his arm around Hope, supporting her. Her face was drawn, and as her bleary eyes lifted to mine, she seemed to take a moment to recognize me.

I looked behind Karl. “Where’s Griffin?”

“Taking a nap.”

I must have looked alarmed, because he added, “I only knocked him out. But the man definitely needs to work on his people skills.”

“And William?” Paige asked.

Karl’s acerbity gave way to a look of genuine regret and he said gruffly, “I’m sorry, Lucas.”

“Someone shot him before we got here,” Hope whispered.

“Probably long before. The logs showed the elevator coming down a couple hours ago.”