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“Yes, and leave it there.We cannot afford to fight among ourselves.”

“He isn’t going to strike her back,” Bodil said.“His honor forbids it.”

“But it doesn’t forbid using the bodies of his enemies as décor?”Alphonse asked because diplomacy had never been his strong suit.

“The White King does as he pleases,” was all she said.Æsubrand didn’t say anything, being too busy touching his cheek as delicately as if Enid had kissed him instead.

Since she seemed ready to “kiss” him again, I looked at Pritkin and asked a question to bring the conversation back to the matter at hand.And because I needed to know.“You’re refusing to do this, then?”

“And you aren’t?”

I exchanged a glance with Alphonse.The swarthy vamp rolled his eyes at me, clearly tired of us humans and our delicate sensibilities.And right now, he had a point.

“If it means us not being skinned, too?Then, yes, I’ll do what’s required.”

“Thatta girl.”The big vamp slapped me on the back.

“Can I see you for a moment?”Pritkin asked.Since it was through his teeth, I didn’t have high hopes for the conversation, but I went with him nonetheless.

We climbed the stairs to the ground floor of what had been a fine, two-story house and was now a burnt-out ruin.The cellars had survived, but the area up here didn’t offer much concealment, with bare, blackened support beams open to the sky, which was dark enough that a few stars had started to peek out from between the clouds.The rain had mostly stopped, but this part of the world was fast sliding into night, although a little orange still smeared the horizon.

The whole, once picturesque town, with its Tudor buildings and climbing roses, looked similar.As if a fire, possibly godly in origin, had blown through here and taken almost everything with it.The great swath it had carved had left open land that grasses and weeds had reclaimed, but a house here and there had been spared, although they looked deserted.

I didn’t know where all the people had gone, but it wasn’t here.

Pritkin made a savage gesture in the air, and a silence shield clicked shut around us.I was surprised he had the strength, as he’d given most of his to me.But maybe it wasn’t a super effective shield because he pulled me further away from the staircase and toward what was left of the road before he spoke.And even then, it was in a savage whisper.

“Those witches just tried their best to kill you!And,” he continued relentlessly when I tried to comment, “the ones who were sucked down that portal were those closest to Zara.They ran to surround her when it became obvious that you weren’t as weak as you seemed.And yet you’re planning to follow their advice?This is atrap!”

“Maybe—”

“Maybe?” His skin, usually a light tan the Vegas sun had given him, flushed dark enough that I could see it even in the gathering gloom.“They are planning to let the damned Black Circle do their work for them!This is madness!And even if we take them at their word, which I do not, those damned cloaks won’t work.They stopped their missionsbecause they were caught—”

“Trying to spy on the Black Circle,” I reminded him.“To find the location of more of their sisters before they were attacked.We’re not doing that.We’re going straight in, getting to the portal, and—”

“We are not going in!”

“And what’s your plan if we don’t?”I asked, crossing my arms, because that was the real stopping point.I didn’t trust Zara and her group any more than he did, but like Alphonse said, what was the alternative?

But Pritkin was on a roll and didn’t answer.“You were in HQ occasionally to meet mefor dinner!” he said, referring to my habit when he was still on the Circle’s payroll, when our infrequent meet-ups to eat were almost the only time we’d had together.“You know the common areas to a degree, but not the lower levels where all the wards are.You don’t know what they can do.Idon’t even know anymore—”

“But the witches do,” I broke in.“And they’re coming with us.Pritkin, they want to gohome, not die in a hole in the ground on the other side of the planet—”

“They’ll go home, all right,” he said bitterly.“Do you think there is even a chance Zara’s people aren’t figuring out, right now, where their sisters went?They’ll come for them, probably soon, which is why we have to get you out of here before they arrive!”

“You think she’s stalling—”

“Of course, I think she’s stalling!”he exploded.“Those damned witches are drinking wine and feeding you a story, knowing their sisters are right on their heels.We have togo—”

“And do what?”I asked, frowning.“We still have to get to that portal.You said it yourself—it’s the only way to Rhea.And there are six of us, exactly the number of reliable skinwalker cloaks they have—”

“Yes, quite the coincidence!”

“—and while you may be right about everything else, they came up with that idea really fast for people embroidering on the fly.If there’s even a chance those things are real, and let’s face it, they got into HQ somehow—”

“So they say.”

“If they weren’t spying on the Circle, why did they have a portal that went straight here?”I shook my head.“We get the suits, figure out our play, then ditch the witches—”