“Yeah. And she’s Valkyrie.” Sanguine frowned. “Well, she was. Now she’s the reflection … Listen, it’s complicated as hell. I’d love to explain everything, I really would, but we don’t have time. You killed someone, a nasty piece of work called Mercy. One of Vincent Foe’s people? You cut her head off, and Vincent is none too happy about it. I have a feeling he might be waiting till Darquesse is looking the other way and then he’s gonna come in here, wanting your head in compensation. You’ve gotta get outta here.” He reached for her.

“Touch me and you’ll never use that hand again.”

Sanguine froze, and pulled his hand back. “Tanith, a lot of stuff has happened since you been gone. Darquesse is here. There was a war between the Sanctuaries. The Remnants are out – again. They’ve taken over this little town called Thurles, or something like that. Things have happened and you gotta be ready for—”

“Why are you talking to me like we’re friends?”

“Because we’re …” He faltered. “Because I thought we were friends,” he said at last. “We’ve been through a lot together recently. We were partners, more or less.”

Tanith laughed. “Now I know you’re lying. I’d never partner up with someone like you.”

Colour rose in his cheeks. “Yeah, well, I guess your standards slipped. Listen, you can either let me get you outta those shackles, give you back your sword and let you hightail it outta here, or you can give me attitude and bad manners and wait for your head to be chopped off. Up to you, princess.”

“Why would you help me?”

He stared at her. “Like I said, we were friends.”

She didn’t trust Sanguine, but he’d been true to his word. She was free, with her sword on her back and her head on her shoulders. She didn’t understand it, though. Didn’t understand any of it. She leaped across rooftops until she came to the neighbourhood she was looking for. Across the street, a man took his dog for a midnight walk. Nothing suspicious about him. Nothing suspicious about his dog, either. It all looked very normal. Very civilian. Very mortal.

But this street was full of sorcerers – or it had been, the last time Tanith was here. Every one of these houses was more than it appeared and, as such, she had to be careful. If she had, in fact, spent the last two years as a Remnant, then who knew what kind of enemies she’d made?

When the man was gone and there was no one else around, Tanith dropped to street level. One hand on the hilt of the sword hidden beneath her coat, she hurried to the door of Bespoke Tailors, and slammed her fist against it.

The shop was dark. She knocked again, harder this time. No lights flicked on inside. No one home.