It helped that she wasn’t alone. Beluviel had not left with the children. Instead, the Elven woman watched the imposter with an assessing gaze from the other side of a bonfire, and every one of her attendants was armed.

Graydon interrupted the imposter often to pull him aside and ask him this or that, and at one point, Linwe sauntered over to invite the imposter to dance. He went with a flare of illicit interest. Pia turned away, pretending not to notice.

She was also attended by a tall, slender-winged creature on either side. No one else except perhaps the Elves saw them, but as the interminable evening wore on, they gradually became more visible to her. They looked at her with what appeared to be compassion in their radiant eyes, but when they turned to the imposter their inhuman faces grew sharp as swords.

When Pia finally saw Rune and Carling walk arm-and-arm through the crowd, just like two more partygoers, she nearly lost it. Liam strolled past, his powerful body moving with the same liquid, dangerous grace as his father. He glanced at her once, blue gaze and handsome features inscrutable.

Then there was Bayne, and Aryal and Quentin, Grym, Tiago and Graydon, each one moving as if by random and disconnected from the others. All the sentinels had arrived except for Alexander, who must be the sentinel left in charge in New York. She even saw the Djinn Khalil and Grace, the Oracle, who stared at the unseen in wonder.

Pia walked away midsentence from the Vampyre she’d been talking with. She approached the imposter who was deep in conversation with a laughing sylphlike Wyr woman who was clueless about what was really going on and thought she was flirting with Pia’s husband and mate.

Pia tucked her arm into the imposter’s and said to the woman, “I’ll remember you, you little shit.”

That wiped away the other woman’s smile. Gulping, she slipped away. The imposter turned to Pia with a twinkle. Apparently, he enjoyed acrimony. “That was rather unsporting of you, my darling.”

“I’m tired of fucking around,” she told him. “Are you going to dance with me or not?”

He gave her a mocking bow. “I am yours to command, lady wife.”

She led him to one side and pulled his hands onto her hips. Dragos’s hands. They felt so familiar she wanted to scream in rage and pain.

As he smilingly drew her closer, Rune walked up behind him and wound the chain from one of the shackles around his neck. Astonished fury exploded across his face. When he erupted into violence, Liam slammed into him, pinning his arms to his side. The other sentinels, both former and present, leaped into the fray. Graydon lunged past Pia, shoving her back from the fight so hard she fell and rolled away.