“They’re always watching,” he said. “What else do they have to do? Yes, they’re watching. And they wonder what I’ve done, just as I wondered what Amel had done. And how many more will descend?”

I moved to help him to his feet, but he begged me to wait, to give him another moment. His breathing was uneven and his heartbeat had a ragged edge to it.

Finally he was ready. Surely no mortal on the planet would think him anything but human, except perhaps some gifted witch who knew all the many mysteries, she might see through him, but not the others. And Amel had been right that Gremt could no longer disperse the particles. I didn’t have to ask. I knew it was true. Because if the particles could have been sent flying, it would have happened when I broke into his blood.

I led him back into the swirling golden light and music of the ballroom. He was sleepy, sluggish, but otherwise unharmed. We brushed past dancers, and those who stood stranded on the edge, and Avicus appeared in the corner of my eye and beside him the red-haired Thorne, and Cyril’s dark faintly amused face.

“All hail the mighty Prince,” Cyril muttered. But the smile wasn’t mocking and neither were the words. Just Cyril commenting on the state of things. And Cyril’s comments always had an ironic twang. Tonight he was dressed for the ball in black-and-white finery, and it was amusing to see that—Cyril, the haunter of caves and shallow graves, all decked out to the golden cuff links. I almost laughed.

“Yeah, the mighty Prince,” I said in a low snarling voice. “Just what we all need right now, right?” That was my best New York gangster imitation and Cyril loved it, and laughed under his breath.

I helped Gremt to sit down on the only couch I could find in deep shadow, a brocade settee lost beneath a sconce of burnt dead candles and wisps of acrid smoke. I held him steady.

“What did you see?” I asked. “What did you see in me?”

“Hope,” Gremt said. “Hope, you’ll get us all through this.”

Not at all what I expected.

“And you didn’t see him?”

“I saw you.”