But then he paused, his gaze darting to Laila’s blank face and the blood on Enrique’s neck, to Zofia’s bound hands and finally to the colorful fog at the edge of the ice where, for the first time, Zofia noticed the smashed-up mechanism of a Mnemo bug.

The smile slid off Hypnos’s face.

FOR THE PAST eighty-seven seconds and counting, Hypnos had not said a word.

Enrique had just finished explaining what happened between them and Séverin, how he’d taken the divine lyre and left with Ruslan before faking their deaths. Hypnos wrapped his arms around himself, staring at the floor for another seven seconds before he finally raised his head, his eyes going straight to Laila.

His voice broke. “You’re dying?”

“She will not die,” said Zofia sharply. “Death depends on variables that we will change.”

Laila smiled at her, before giving a small nod. She had not said much since Hypnos arrived. She’d barely looked at him either. Her eyes kept going to her garnet ring and the smashed Mnemo bug on the ice.

“The lyre doesn’t work how we thought it would,” said Enrique. “Remember the writing on the grotto wall? To play at God’s instrument will summon the unmaking. In this case, the unmaking is everything Forged, unless the lyre is played in a specific location, but we don’t know where—”

Hypnos cut in: “Somewhere beneath Poveglia, one of the islands near Venice—”

“Poveglia?” repeated Enrique, paling.

Zofia frowned. She knew that name. Years ago, Séverin had referred to it as Plague Island. They had almost accepted an acquisition there before deciding against it. Enrique had seemed very relieved they did not go because he found graveyards unsettling. Zofia remembered Tristan playing a joke on Enrique while they’d discussed the matter, sending creeping vines to wrap around his ankles. Enrique had not found it amusing.

“The matriarch told me,” said Hypnos quickly. “She said the maps to the locations of other entrances have been lost and this is all that’s left. I know the Tezcat routes to Italy. We could be there by tonight. The matriarch even has a safe house waiting for us in Venice, a place she said will have all the answers we need, but the location is mind Forged.”

“Then how will we find it?” asked Enrique.

“She gave me a hint about where we could find the key and its address,” said Hypnos. “Once we’re settled, we can meet Séverin. He left instructions on the Mnemo bug about how to…”

His eyes went to the smashed Mnemo bug on the ice.

“… find him,” he finished, wide-eyed, then looked around them. His gaze fixed on Laila. “I still don’t understand why you broke it!”

Laila frowned and color rushed to her face. “He took a knife to Zofia and then Enrique, and I thought he … he…”

Hypnos’s eyebrows shot up. “How could you believe Séverin wanted us all dead?”

“Because he lost his mind and his current plan is to turn into a god?” said Enrique.