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Logan Sands was waiting for her in his truck, the exhaust stinking up the neighborhood with an old fuel calleddiesel.Sabrine got inside, her skin still flaming hot, and dumped her bags at her feet.

“I take it that didn’t go well,” Logan said. His long, dark hair blew softly in the breeze coming in through his cracked-open window.

“It went as well as I expected,” Sabrine said, barely able to speak as her jaw slowly reset, her teeth shifting back into place.

Logan’s brow creased. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Honestly, I just want to get away from here.” She buckled up, her dusky razor-sharp nails scraping the seatbelt. Hercuticles stung, but at least they weren’t bleeding this time. A small improvement. “If you’d do us the honors.”

Logan put the truck in drive and pulled out onto the narrow street, weaving around trash bins, yard sale tables, and other random junk.

It had taken Sabrine a long time to get used to her new wolf side, and even after several months she still wasn’tquitethere.

There were some days, however, when being a werewolf simply feltright.People treated her with far more respect than they had when she was a half-breed—she still hated that horrible slur—and she knew, if she ever ran into danger, her wolf side would gladly handle the things her old self wouldn’t have been able to. Werewolves, being strong, fast, and at times unpredictable, were some of the most feared people in Terra. Behind hellsehers, of course. They were in a league of their own.

As they drove north, toward the Victoria Amazonica District, the threat of the Shift began to subside.

She exhaled slowly, the last of her teeth sliding back into their rightful places.

“Better?” Logan asked, rolling up his window. Spring might’ve arrived in Angelthene, but some days were still cool enough to need a light jacket.

“I don’t think I’ll be shredding one of your seats today.”

He gave her a wistful smile. “I appreciate that.”

She grabbed her cell phone out of her book bag.

“Anything?” Logan asked her as she pressed the button on the side.

Sabrine crossed her fingers?—

But no messages filled the screen aside from the automated ones from campus. The silence was unsettling. When you had Dallas Bright for a friend, your phone never knew a moment’s peace. Sabrine missed her. Loren, too.

“Still nothing.” She sighed. “Can we listen to the news?” She put her phone away and flicked on the radio.

The host was covering the incident in Yveswich, but it was the same information they’d been recycling all morning—nothing Sabrine hadn’t already heard a dozen times. A city-wide power outage, panicking citizens, the Magical Protections Unit working tirelessly to rectify the issue… She grew frustrated by the idle chatter and shut it off as Logan took the exit that led into the Seven Devils’ neighborhood.

Sabrine still couldn’t get over how beautiful it was in these parts. While Angelthene had more than its fair share of dangerous and ugly districts, there were also plenty of safe and aesthetically pleasing ones, and Victoria Amazonica fell firmly into the latter two categories. Add a house of Darkslayers to the mix, and it was probably one of the safest places in the city.

Tamika Isley lived several blocks from Hell’s Gate. They’d only visited her residence once, so it took them a few wrong turns before they finally found the right house.

The driveway was long, the house that sat at the end of it so large, it was practically a resort or a small castle—maybeslightlysmaller than Hell’s Gate, Sabrine decided. Hell’s Gate was the most impressive house Sabrine had ever set foot in—no contest, not even this one. The Devils had great taste.

Gravel crunched under the tires as Logan pulled over by the gates. Sabrine hopped out, leaving the door open behind her, and rang the buzzer.

A balmy wind drifted through the district, spurring wind chimes into making music. Sabrine’s wolf hearing picked up on the chattering of magpies and the scratching of squirrel feet on palm trees.

She rang the buzzer again. Tamika’s car was outside, and light glowed in several windows, despite that it was daytime and bright enough outside not to need the extra light.

‘Maybe she’s in the shower,’said Pebble. The crow flapped out of Sabrine’s shadow and alighted on her shoulder, talons curling in the slippery material of her jacket.

“She has a butler, though,” Sabrine said, poking the button for a third time. “Maybe it’s broken.”

‘If it is, can we take the button home?’Pebble tipped her head, ogling the button—shiny and red, her favorite color—with one eye at a time.

Sabrine waited another minute before heading back to the truck, the shadows of flying birds darting across the pavement.

“Not home?” Logan asked as she hopped in.