‘‘Not at all. I myself prefer the southern climes, but business concerns frequently keep me in the Northern Hemisphere. I do not wish to part with you, Mayling, but it will relieve my mind to know you are safe at home. There is enough room for your twin to stay as well—I’d be easier in my mind if you had company with you there. I expect to follow you tomorrow, at the latest. Until then’’—his head dipped down as he bit my lower lip—‘‘I will miss you greatly.’’

The scene played in my mind as I sat alone in the empty, echoing conservatory. Rain pattered down lightly on the windows as indigo claimed the sky. I touched my lips, shivering, but whether it was from the relative cold of an early spring London night, or from a suspicion that what Gabriel would miss was his mate rather than me specifically, I couldn’t say.

‘‘This isn’t doing you any good,’’ I said aloud, my voice eerily thin. I cleared my throat and tried again. ‘‘What you need is a plan of action. Let’s put that mind to work and come up with something useful.’’

Cyrene’s faint voice, chirping happily away in the bathroom upstairs, drifted down as I pulled out the blackmail letter she had given me earlier. It was brief and to the point, demanding that I render a service or else the blackmailer would hand over the videotape to the appropriate authorities.

With reluctance, I punched in the phone number the blackmailer had given.

‘‘What?’’ a gruff male voice answered.

‘‘This is Cyrene Northcott’s twin. I understand you wished to speak with me.’’

‘‘Oh, the doppelganger.’’ The man’s voice had a harsh midwestern U.S. twang to it. ‘‘About time you called. There’s a job I want you to do for me. Something I want you to steal.’’

I was no stranger to bluntness, so I ignored everything but what was important—I needed to make sure that he didn’t know I was also Mei Ling. ‘‘What makes you think I’m going to condone an illegal act?’’

The man grunted. ‘‘Saw you at that oracle’s with your hand up his ass, didn’t I? You were there for the same thing I was—the arcanum.’’

‘‘I would hardly refer to being in the oracle’s book room as having my hand up his ass, but we’ll let that go.’’

‘‘You’re a doppelganger. I looked that up—you can go invisible and get into places normal people can’t. So don’t come over all high and mighty on me.’’