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‘Any idea what that was about?’ I muttered as we finally found a deserted corridor, five corners away from the main hall.

He grimaced. ‘You should probably go have a word with them alone. If your dear father is already upset about something, I doubt my presence is going to improve his feelings.’

There was no arguing with that.

We crossed the strangely untainted corridors, climbed the strangely untainted staircase, to the room that had been Rosalind’s until a few days ago. There was no need to wonder whether they might have gone anywhere else: Agenor’s deep voice was recognisable long before I could make out the individual words, carrying through the closed door between us with disconcerting ease.

‘I’ll wait for you elsewhere,’ Creon said wryly, then added to Alyra, ‘Let’s find you some fresh air, shall we?’

She seemed conflicted for a moment, then launched herself from my shoulder and followed him in a flash of white and grey feathers – the urge to protect me temporarily trumped by the far more tempting prospect of open blue sky.

I watched them disappear around the corner, then turned, braced myself, and knocked. Inside the apartment, my father’s outburst abruptly went silent.

‘It’s me,’ I yelled before anyone could send a bolt of red through the door. ‘Mind if I interrupt you for a minute?’

Something sounding like a curse emerged from inside. The door swung open the next instant, though, revealing the unusually dishevelled figure of my father – dark hair ruffled, green eyes wild, his expression more dazed than even when he’d found the Mother’s long-lost second body on the floor with her throat slit. Behind him, Rosalind was looking worryingly pale, sitting on the couch – but she beamed at me all the same whenI stepped into the room, her lips pressed together in a devilish smile that suggested she was enjoying the quarrel more than she knew she should.

‘Is this an inopportune moment to show up?’ I said, knowing full well that it was.

Agenor slammed the door behind me without even bothering to politely deny it. ‘I just found out your mother has—’

‘—in her infinite wisdom—’ Rosalind dryly interjected.

‘—out ofnowhere—’

She chuckled. ‘After twenty years of consideration—’

‘—of which I wasnotinformed—’

She swung her legs off the couch, sending me a conspiratorial smile as she pointed at her face. ‘He’s not too keen on these, Em.’

‘On what—’ I began, and then she curled up her upper lip.

A choked sound caught in my throat.

Two elongated, razor-sharp fangs protruded from my mother’s gums where her canines should have been, glinting unnaturally white in the golden sunlight –vampirefangs. And at once it all fell into place, Nenya’s giddiness and the blood and the unmistakable gleam of panic in Agenor’s eyes …

‘What?’ I blurted.

Rosalind grinned even broader. ‘Mortality was starting to bother me.’

Of course it was. Ofcourse.I staggered two steps back and dropped into the nearest chair, blinking at those slender fangs, my plans and requests forgotten – how in the world had Inotseen this coming, knowing it was the only possible answer to our horribly mismatched lifetimes? ‘So you asked Nenya …’

‘She was most helpful.’ Her contented tone was a shrill contrast to Agenor’s expression of bewildered exasperation. ‘The sensitivity to sunlight is unpleasant, of course, and I’ll have to get used to the blood …’

My father let out a strangled groan. ‘Do I need to repeat that you’re not gettingmyblood, Al? If you were hoping I’d turn myself into your personal buffet—’

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ she dryly said, waving that point aside. ‘According to Nenya, Rhudak is home to plenty of pretty young men who don’t mind atallbeing—’

‘You’renotrunning off to Rhudak to set your teeth into any pretty young men either!’ His deep voice was rising again. ‘Whatever Nenkhet has been telling you, those … establishments are not … not …’

‘Very proper?’ Rosalind innocently suggested.

His laborious inhale was an audible compromise between silence and profanity. ‘Do you mind if we discuss this without any children in the room?’

‘Hey!’ I sputtered.

Rosalind chuckled. ‘Well, then I’ll have to starve to death – a shame, truly, but if all other options are unacceptable …’