Thirty yards along, down at ground level, the glass has been smashed out of a slim, rectangular window. It’s one I’m very familiar with, because it looks into the art room … and my skin hums as I walk toward it. My worlds are colliding again.

“Auggie, what are you doing?” Gunnar asks in an urgent whisper as I get down on my hands and knees, gauging the distance to the floor. “It could be a trap!”

“It’s not a trap.” The window is just a dark rectangle, the shadows inside too dense for me to see through, but I’m sure I haven’t been lured here. “There’s only one vampire inside, and I need to talk to him.”

“One vampire, and how many humans?” Gunnar asks, but he’s a hair too late, because I’m already sliding through the opening and dropping into the darkness.

My landing is clumsy and loud, and Gunnar touches down beside me before I’ve righted myself, his eyes glowing and his fangs extended—ready for a fight. It’s brave of him, because he was right a moment ago; if the Brotherhood has sent more Knights to town, they might be here to look through Mr. Strauss’s things. And if they really knew what they were doing, capturing a vampire I’ve had beef with and using him as bait to draw me out would be a smart move.

“I know you’re here.” My voice shakes a little, and Gunnar rises onto the balls of his feet. Moonlight slants through the broken window, and shadows bury the corners of the room—but two golden pinpricks hovering in the dark give my target away. “You have one chance to tell me where my parents are.”

I can’t see the man’s mouth, but I know he’s smiling. “Hmm … or else?”

“I’m older than you.” Gunnar’s voice is a deep growl I’ve never heard before, his face reshaped. “I could rip your head from your body with a flick of my wrist.”

“Do it, then,” the man taunts, stepping forward. The light picks him out—gaunt cheekbones and flyaway curls, dirty fingers clutching a tube of rolled-up paper. “Show me who’s boss, pretty boy, and my master will show you the same.”

“Your ‘master,’” Gunnar sneers. “Do you know how ridiculous you sound? He was a fraud as a human, a starfucker so corrupt and self-indulgent that even the favor of an empress couldn’t save him, and yet you grovel at his feet?”

“You do the bidding of a whore,” the man snarls back, “who would see us all crushed beneath the boot of mortal tyranny forever.” He’s close enough to the light now that when he grins, his jagged teeth shine. “When the Ascension comes, she’ll be the first to burn—and we will use her skull for a toilet.”