‘‘I’m sorry! I was picking bugs off my arm and didn’t see the car pull up. What’s going on? Why are all the lights in the house on? Oh, no—I think one of the men is a mage. He’s . . . yes, he’s a mage! He’s probably the owner! Mayling, you have to get out of there!’’

She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know. I leaped to my feet as the doorknob started to turn, jamming a chair underneath it to keep the door from opening.

‘‘Mayling!’’ Cyrene yelled in my ear, in her excitement using her nickname for me once again.

I ran for the window, praying I could make it outside into the darkness before the door opened. The door burst into a thousand pieces, turned to ash, and drifted slowly to the ground as I jumped onto the table next to the glass.

‘‘Mayling!’’ Cyrene’s bellow was loud enough to hurt. A man’s shape appeared in the doorway, pausing for a moment as he evidently heard my twin.

‘‘Mei Ling!’’ he cried, running forward, obviously hearing Cyrene but misinterpreting my nickname for a proper name. It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. ‘‘It’s the thief Mei Ling!’’

Instinctively, I shadowed when I heard the men’s voices, but the room was too bright to remain hidden. Just as soon as he looked toward the window, the man would see me. I had no choice but to go through the window.

‘‘Agathos daimon,’’ I repeated softly to myself as I put my hands over my head and flung myself through the glass.

‘‘There!’’ the man cried as pain burst into being all over my body. ‘‘She’s there! I heard someone say her name! It’s the thief Mei Ling on the ledge outside!’’

The blessed warm darkness of a late March Greek evening embraced me, making me all but invisible to watchful eyes as I raced down the narrow ledge, shinnying down a pipe to the ground.

‘‘Where are you? Are you all right? Mayling!’’

‘‘I’m fine. I’m outside the house, but stop yelling or the mage’s people will find you,’’ I hissed into the microphone. ‘‘Can you get out of the tree without being seen?’’

‘‘Oh, thank the gods you’re all right. I just about had a heart attack! Yes, I think I can get down. There’s a handy branch right . . . oomph!’’

Across the street from the elegant villa located in Nea Makri, a small resort town outside of Athens, a black, vaguely human shape fell to the ground. I hurried around the edges of the square, avoiding pools of light from the houses until I reached my twin.

Her face, lit dimly from the lights at the nearest house, looked up at me as I stopped next to her. ‘‘I fell.’’

‘‘I saw. You all right?’’