“Yes. I heard that,” Nightwalker said, his voice soft and even. “From Lord Averill.”

She cleared her throat. “I hoped you’d be at Marisa Pines,” she said. “I wanted to talk to you in person.”

“And yet you didn’t wait for me,” Nightwalker said. “I arrived the day after you left.”

“Let’s talk now,” Raisa said, playing for time. As soon as Mick found Amon, he’d be on his way.

“Come down,” Nightwalker said, “and we’ll talk.”

“How did you find me?” Raisa asked, making no move to do so. “I didn’t realize that you knew Ragmarket so well.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Ragmarket since I came to the city,” Nightwalker said, his voice laced with contempt. “I’m very much at home here now.”

Nightwalker’s business was at the palace. Why would he spend time in Ragmarket?

Her mind raced. Nightwalker had lured her here with a note stamped with Han’s street symbol. The staff-and-flash. The symbol that had been painted on the bodies of dead wizards.

Raisa’s heart lurched, then began to pound. “Blood and bones! You’re the one murdering the gifted!”

“I hate the city,” Nightwalker said. “But it’s a good place to hunt jinxflingers.”

She should have known. And, knowing Nightwalker, he’d want to talk about it.

“How did you ever manage it?” she asked, playing for time. “No one ever saw you. Everyone suspected Hunts Alone.”

“As I intended,” Nightwalker said. “Averill and Elena should never have made that bargain with him. And so I killed wizards and put his mark on their bodies. I even took his rowan talisman from under his bed at Marisa Pines and left it at the scene of one of the killings. And yet he still walks free,” Nightwalker said bitterly. “Knowing what I know now, I suppose you intervened.”

Keep him talking, Raisa thought. “How did you know what his gang mark was?” Raisa said. “I didn’t recognize it at first.”

“Bird overheard Hunts Alone talking about it in the visitors’ lodge,” Nightwalker said. “She told me.”

This was like a punch to the gut. “Night Bird is in on this?”

Night Bird, whom she’d thought might be one of a new generation, someone who could learn to live with her former enemies.

Nightwalker laughed softly. “She is Demonai, and my bed partner. She does my bidding, of course.”

Night Bird. Raisa shuddered. One more disappointment in a lifetime rife with them—and now it might be drawing to a close.

“Kill me, and Mellony ascends,” Raisa said. “Is that what you want?”

Nightwalker brushed away Mellony with a wave of his hand. “Your pale sister won’t outlive you for very long.”

Raisa had one more card to play. She didn’t think it would win the hand, but she wanted to see what Nightwalker’s countermove would be.