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After a moment, both brothers spoke at the same time:“No.”

They glared at each other.

Kristoff didn’t want anything in common with this fiend. And yet, Lothaire was the closest family he had.

As they exchanged more moves, Kristoff realized he’d never hung on for this long. He conceived of a complex gambit that Lothaire would never see coming.Control your excitement. He can sense it like an animal.

“Uncle Demestriu did so love his cruelties,” Lothaire mused aloud. “He once smuggled a plague carrier into Stefanovich’s royal chambers in Helvita, where his Bride and heir slept under guard. One little scratch later . . .”

Kristoff’s jaw slackened. “Then Demestriu as good as murdered my mother? He was the one who did it?”

“It would seem so.”

“But someone sneaked me out as a babe. Who hid me among humans?—”

“Checkmate.”

That word. It’d come from nowhere.I thought . . . I thought I was winning.

Lothaire hadn’t tempered his stance, had only been toying with him. More games, more time, more sanity flowing away.

Checkmate.Thatword.

Wrath exploded. Speed and strength filled his body as he lunged across the table to overpower his brother. He had his fangs in Lothaire’s neck before the fiend could blink.

Blood. From the flesh.

With a bellow, Lothaire yanked him away, hurling him into the far wall.

Kristoff collided with stone. A bone snapped. Skull fracture? Didn’t matter. He’d already fed from the source. Even more power flowed through him, the transfer complete. He scrambled to his feet and bared his bloody fangs. “How’s that for a killer instinct?” He’d decided against this course after witnessing Lothaire’s insanity in Nightside, but rage had other ideas.“You’re right. We are very much alike. Especially now that we’ll share so many memories.” From all Lothaire’s victims and Lothaire himself.

“You fool, take them, then.” Pressing a palm against the gash on his neck, he stared at Kristoff’s eyes, which must be reddening. “You’ll choke on them. My memories will madden you worse than I ever could. Like our father, you are lost.”

“But she’ll be found.”

“Does Furie dream of air or fire? You have no idea what you’re about to bring to the surface.”

“My future.” With that, Kristoff traced away from Dacia forever. . . .

Fifty-Nine

Cheap Thrills Drive-in Theatre

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Months ago . . .

“How do you hunt the unhuntable when the unhuntable is hunting you?” Nïx murmured to her coalition in the theater’s projection room. “You become”—she paused for the reveal—“unhuntable.”

Emberine, the Sorceri Queen of Flames, yawned. “Enough, Valkyrie. Just tell us where tofire.”

Portia, the Queen of Stone, nodded in agreement. “I’ve been levitating a mountain around in the clouds above us for an hour. It’s not a clutch. And I want some of the mortals’ popcorn.”

Other allies—Valkyries, witches, and Furies—shared the Sorceri’s impatience. But the witches were sober for once, and the Furies hadn’t slain anyone off-target yet. No glittering stones had transfixed the Valkyries.

We are so on tonight!

“Fine. I’ll curtail my pre-melee pep talk.”Boo-hiss, no fun.Even Bertil screeched his disappointment, glaring from hisperch on her shoulder. “Our prey for tonight is using his invisibility right now. The dragon-shifter primordial lies curled up in front of the drive-in screen.” With a combination of her pastsight and foresight, she could all but see Uthyr, with his metallic-blue scales, mammoth body, and eyes like a pair of gold coins.