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Chapter One Hundred Three

LUNA

“This dress has pockets!” I singsong with my hands in them as I clop down the hall.

“Stay still.” Serafina’s behind me, pinning up my hair at the top of the stairs. Halfway down, she yanks my hair back and twists it.

“Just leave it.”

“You have nice hair and you leave it like a rag.”

Orlando leans on the wall by the lower floor elevator, flipping through a magazine. Sam enters the foyer with an open paper towel and a roll of tape in her hands.

“Ow!” I yelp when it feels as if a pin is going directly into my skull.

“Sorry.” Serafina claps once. “Done. Go.”

“Finally.” I rush down the stairs, but she gets ahead of me and pulls a lock of hair down over my cheek.

“Sorry, not sorry. Okay, now you go.”

Orlando puts the magazine aside. It’s not me he has his eyes on as we come down, but Serafina, picking bobby pins from her lips.

Sam comes up to me with her paper towel. In it, dark, damp spots grow under fresh garlic cloves. “I do not get involved with human affairs, but until tomorrow, my job is still to protect you.”

This is a complication I did not anticipate.

“You don’t have to run into the labyrinth just to protect me.”

She smirks as if I’m an adorable kitten tangled in a ball of yarn, then puts the garlic and tape on a nearby table. “Hold out your hands.”

I do it. She turns up my palms and slides back the sleeves.

“The god of humans demanded that the goddess Vesuvia create her subjects to exist in balance with his.” She puts a clove on each of my wrists. “And she agreed, because though her vampires could do such beautiful violence, it loses its beauty when it becomes indulgent.”

“What about her neck?” Serafina says, though I have no idea what that has to do with anything.

“There’s a scarf.” Sam looks at Serafina. “In the closet.”

Serafina runs up the steps without question, though I have a few.

“Vesuvia worked with the human god to create the Strega to live among people.” She unrolls a length of white medical tape and rips it with her teeth.

“A healthy and well-trained Strega population will keep vampires under control. The vampires can scent the Strega warriors, so they can choose to be wise and disperse.” She wraps the tape over the garlic and around my wrist three times.

“Found it.” Serafina pads down the stairs trailing orange satin behind her. “And a bag!” She beams, holding up a tiny matching shoulder bag on a long string.

“Thank you.” Sam works on the second wrist. “Should a vampire get close enough to a Strega to drink from her, they will find it powerful and fortifying. Thus, the Strega won’t overpower the vampires or risk hunting them for sport.

” She pensively smooths down the last bit of tape. “But the balance has been lost.”

“Was it Amon?” I ask when it seems as if the story is done. “Did the demon break the balance?”

“It’s never as simple as one person.” She takes the scarf from Serafina and flattens it against her palm.

There are two hidden pockets in the scarf, each big enough for a dime.

“It’s always a system.” Sam tucks a clove into each compartment and holds the scarf over my head.

“And we have ways around the system, to use when necessary. Chin up.” When I tilt up my head, she wraps the scarf around my neck.

“The garlic hides your scent from vampires. You are invisible. Just another human.”

“Thank you.”

“You aren’t just another human, Luna.” She pulls my sleeves over the white tape bracelets. “You gave Alex your cameo.”

“It was nothing.”

“Not to them, it wasn’t.”

A beeping sound comes from behind me. I spin to watch Orlando check his phone. He puts it away and addresses Sam.

“My guy spotted a raven over Fourteenth Street. Could be nothing, but…”

“Let’s go!” I turn to Sam and hug her, but her arms stay at her sides. When I pull back, she blinks slowly. “Sorry.”

Before any response, Serafina jumps on me for a hug. I wrap my arms around her.

“Save your stupid strigoi ,” she says in my ear. “And come back and take a shower. You smell like pizza.”

I squeeze her tighter.

“What’s cooking?” Mom says, feeling her way down the hall.

“It’s me.” I go to my mother.

“Whoof, yes, it is.” She feels for me, and I take her hands. “You going to save his ass?”

“I hope so.”

“Get out, already.” She pulls me closer. I hug her, and she pushes me away after two seconds. “He needs you.”

Orlando’s already holding open the elevator door.

“Let’s go,” I say to myself, crossing the threshold into a world where I am completely unprotected.