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“My family has been tangled up in the Order’s business for years,” she explained. “Do you know how many secrets my uncle and my sisters’ husbands have let slip in front of me? They don’t even bother to hold back, probably because they assume women are too vapid to pay attention, much less understand. If I go back after escaping from the terrible Mageus who attacked my wedding, they’re likely to trust me. I could get the information you need.”

“Assolutamente no,” Viola told her. “It’s too dangerous. I won’t allow it.”

Ruby gave her a pitying smile. “It’s better for our future if you understand now that there’s very little you can do to stop me when I put my mind to something.”

“Please,” Viola begged. “Don’t ask me to stand by while you walk into that sort of danger.”

Ruby stepped toward Viola and took her hand. “I can do this—I’m certain of it. It won’t even be an act to play the distraught widow. They won’t suspect.”

“Jack might,” Viola argued. “He’s not so stupid as everyone thinks.”

“He’d have to come back to the city to find out,” Esta pointed out. “And if he returns before the Conclave, even better. We can take care of him then.”

“Jack Grew killed Theo. He destroyed one of the kindest souls I’ve ever known. He took my best friend from me.” Ruby’s eyes were glassy with tears, but her voice was filled with steel. “I will do anything—risk anything—to make him pay for that.”

“We could use her help, Viola,” Esta said, earning herself a dangerous look from the assassin. But she ignored it because she understood her friend’s fear. In Viola’s position, she’d likely do the same. “If we have more information, we’re less likely to run into trouble. Maybe we can avoid the fate that was written in those pages.”

“She has a point,” Cela said. “Ruby could go places and get information that none of the rest of us could even dream of getting close to.”

“I’ll be okay, Vee,” Ruby said. “I can handle myself. You know that.”

“Fine,” Viola said eventually. “But I don’t like this one bit.”

“None of us do,” Jianyu said, laying his hand on Viola’s arm. “But the die has been cast, and the game has already begun. We have no choice but to play the positions we hold on the board.” He turned to Esta. “Whatever that diary might have said, whatever our fate, we will remain beside you and do what we must. Not because you ask it of us. But because we choose it for ourselves.”

Esta looked at the faces of the people sitting around the table—people who had once been strangers and now had become her dearest friends. Viola and Jianyu, Cela, and now Ruby as well. And Harte. Always Harte. They were all still there, standing next to her and ready to face any danger. Unquestioning. Loyal.

For her entire life, Esta had wanted this. Friends. Family. People who would stand by her without question. Now they were here. Hers for the claiming. Without question or payment. She didn’t deserve any of them.

But maybe one day she would.

INTO THE LION’S DEN

Madison Square Park

“How do I look?” Ruby asked, trying to ignore the way her stomach was flipping with nerves. It was one thing to propose going back to spy on the Order in theory, but now that she was once again wearing her stained wedding gown, things had grown much, much more real. She hadn’t considered what it would be like to wear it, but once she slipped the dress on, she could only think of Theo. She hoped he was with her as she climbed into the carriage that would take her back to her own world and her old life—because she’d never really lived in that world without Theo there by her side.

“You know how you look,” Viola told her. She was trying not to show her fear, and her worry came out as temper instead.

“That bad?” Ruby joked, earning her another sharp look from Viola that made her want to smile and cry all at once.

“What do you want me to say?” Viola asked, sounding suddenly tired. But she turned to Ruby, let her eyes drift over her face, her body, and her gown. “You look like you always look. Beautiful. You’re a vision, even with the torn satin and the dirt on your hem. Like an angel come down in the night.”

She felt her skin go warm at Viola’s appraisal. “I guess that’s a decent enough compliment for a start,” Ruby told her, trying to keep their banter from turning too serious.

Viola must have noticed the nervous tremor in Ruby’s voice, because her expression softened. “You come back alive and unharmed, and I’ll praise your beauty and fashion until you can’t stand it no more.” She squeezed Ruby’s hand.

“I’ll come back just fine,” Ruby promised. “I’m not afraid of Jack or the Order—any of them.”

“You should be,” Viola said. Then she shook her head. “Don’t underestimate them, cara.”

“I know what they’re capable of,” Ruby told her. “I won’t let my guard down. I can do this.”

“I know you can,” Viola agreed. “But that don’t mean I have to like it. If anything happens, I won’t know. I won’t be able to help you.”

“Nothing is going to happen,” Ruby reassured her. “Everything is going to be fine.”

“But Jack, he knows—”