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I should have expected as much. Of course, we were going to have a conversation. And it would end with, “please see yourself out of my life, love.”

I followed him into the drawing room—the first room I’d entered in this now-familiar house. It looked just as gorgeous and imposing as the first time I’d stepped in there, but with Lucian matching it, I was twice as intimidated.

He took his armchair-slash-throne, and I returned to my designated sofa.

“Tea, please,” Lucian called out. “And brandy. I definitely could use a fucking drink.”

In the last week, I had never seen him drink before the evening.

I noticed Lucian wasn’t looking at me directly today. Maybe I should spare both of us, and make my excuses. Thank him for all his help, and work out the rest myself.

Yes, that was the right call. I opened my mouth to do just that, when a tea set hovered over to the side table, with the requested bottle of brandy next to the milk.

“Thanks,” Lucian said out loud, leaning in to pour water into our cups. Then those silver eyes reached mine. “There’s no nice way to say it, so I’m just going to cut straight to the meat. The entire party was drugged last night. We left early, but it was a practical orgy less than an hour after that. Preliminary findings show that the lust potion was pumped through the air. No one was spared.”

I gasped, horrified. “Everyone?”

He nodded. “It was lucky there were no kids at the scene. Parents tend to bring them for the cocktails and dinner, but send them home before the actual ball portion of the evening. But yes, yesterday, hundreds of well-to-do valers ended up fucking their neighbors, friends, and bosses in dark corners—or just against a flat surface, from what I understand. We can expect dozens of divorces for infidelity filed by Monday. Not to mention, a considerable rise in the birth rate."

“Fuck.” The vision his words brought to my mind needed to be scrubbed out of my brain, permanently.

He cracked a smile, pouring a generous amount of brandy into his cup. “That was the general theme, yes.”

I raised my hand to demand the bottle, doing the same. “So, it wasn’t about me?”

“Believe it or not, not everything is, love.” Lucian winked. “But that’s not necessarily a correct assumption. I mean, drugging everyonewouldbe an efficient way to ensure you, and anyone tempted to protect you, would be incapacitated, if whoever was responsible took an antidote first. And we’re dealing with someone who’s killed multiple times to get to you.”

I downed half of my spiked tea. “Wait a minute. You weren’t affected, were you?”

I remembered yesterday perfectly. While I’d been as wanton as a trollop, Lucian had been normal.

“Yes, well, I wouldn’t be, would I?” He ran his hand through his artfully tousled hair. “I mean, I’ve partied at Pan’s every other weekend for the last decade. I’m immune to low-level amounts of lust magic. It’s in all the drinks, there.”

“Pan’s,” I repeated. “Is that a club?”

“Yes; owned by Pan,” he replied. “Technically, it’s calledThe Wild Horn, but that’s a stupid name, so everyone just calls it Pan’s.”

Finally, it clicked. “As in,god of the wildPan?”

“The very same. It’s the most popular club in the underside, right on Life Avenue.” Lucian poured us both more tea. I added the brandy. “He puts erosyn into everything—the substance coating Eros’s arrows. The rims of glasses, the actual drinks, all the snacks. Sure, the first time you get a taste generally ends in a sex fest, but you can build up an immunity. Anyway, that’s what got you yesterday. The council’s making a nuisance of itself, calling all founders, nobles, and magistrates and demanding an investigation, which will likely lead nowhere. But I figured you’d like to know.”

Somehow, it made me feel a little better, knowing that I wasn’t the only one affected—then worse, when I remembered Lucian said it might still all be to get tome.

“The one behind this will stop at nothing, won’t they?” I whispered.

My question was met with a lengthy silence. Finally, Lucian said, “I have an idea. Something I’d been trying to avoid, but I think it’s time.”

Something in his dark look made me scared to ask, but I had to. “What?”

He grimaced. “Well, we have three witnesses potentially able to identify your enemies, don’t we? The only problem is, they’re dead.”

Oh.

Oh.

“You want to bring them back?”

He inclined his head. “Temporarily, and if at all possible. I’ll speak to Gideon about the ins and outs of accessing the bodies. I understand they’re still in the Guard’s morgue. And before you ask, no, you’re not coming with me.”