Claudia leans her forearms on the rail, lifts her face to the breeze. “I had just run away from home. I was sixteen. Katia found me digging in trash cans for food. She felt me in that alley, knew what I was. I remember that night, so perfectly. She had just come from court, and I thought she was the most glamorous and exciting girl I had ever seen. She taught me how to survive. I loved Katia. But you were important to her in ways I never understood. I looked to her. She looked to you. I could tell there were secrets between you I never knew.” Claudia glances over her shoulder at me.

“What happened?”

“You were the last person to see her the night her hunter found her. You came and took me into hiding with you. Three weeks later, you were gone. But you brought Piotrek to me first, and for that, I suppose I should thank you.”

I hear her words, yet somehow I feel like “you’re welcome” might get me slapped.

“You don’t approve of Luka.”

“I saw him with you once, before you disappeared,” she says.

“You did?”

“It was obvious you were lovers.”

I don’t move. I barely breathe.

“It’s amazing what you learn living as an adopted stray, always looking in from the outside. I had seen Luka with you. I thought he was your hunter. I even warned you.”

“Why? Why not wait to see if you were right?”

Her head swivels toward me. “I’m not a murderer, Audra. I only wanted you to leave. And after Katia was killed, you did leave. Two more Utod died—friends of Katia’s—three months later. And then Andre, Katia’s lover, disappeared. I thought he was dead until we heard this summer he committed suicide before his memory could be stripped and served to the Historian like meat.” Her lips curl. “A month ago, everything in Zagreb fell apart. And I realized it wasn’t because Katia or Andre was dead, but because you were.”

Her gray eyes are as chilly as the sea. And I can’t tell if she’s wounded or if she hates me.

“What happened?”

“Piotrek and I stayed on in Zagreb. After the underground broke, it became the safest place to be. I was angry at you. I didn’t understand how you could throw it—us—all away. Not when you had access to what you did.”

“Access to what? I don’t even know why I did it, Claudia.”

Her laugh is brittle as glass. “No one does. But what Ivan said is true. He died for you, Audra!”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true! Many people have died for you. And because of you. The underground court has just returned to Zagreb, and you have much to make right.”