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“Call me when they get here. These people can’t make it up the stairs, so—”

“Oh! Then I’ll pop down there and start to ’port them—”

“You stay right there, Gigi. I mean it. The rescue team will handle it.”

“All right. I’ll call you when they’re here.” She sounded like she was smiling when she said, “You’re nice to wait there with them. They must be scared.”

Scared? Nah, they’d gone past scared a long time ago and were cruising on numb. When you’ve been hurt so bad for so long, you don’t fear what might happen next.

#

Josef came to stand next to me in the dungeon as his team of healers got right to work on the mutilated nephs.

We stood there in silence, our arms crossed in matching poses.

He kept his eyes fixed on the opposite wall, and I wondered if it was the grisly scene before us or myself he couldn’t stomach seeing.

Maybe both.

At last he spoke over the moans of the wounded and the soothing murmurs of the healers.

“You said you found seven alive.”

“You sure you wanna know the details?” I glanced over at him.

“I want to know what I’m dealing with.”

“He skinned two people. Don’t know if they were humans or nephs. Their souls were gone, but their dried-up bodies were still trying to breathe.”

“You gave them mercy?”

I nodded.

“Any other remains to clear out?”

“Just those two, but not right now. Get the charnel house to do it later. None of these little healers need to see that.”

He whipped his head around and pushed his tattered ball hat back enough to stare up at me.

I don’t like being stared at. It makes me edgy. That’s why my “What?” was a rumble of thunder that ricocheted off the concrete walls. One of the healers shuddered, and another looked at me with frightened eyes. That made me feel like a jerk, so I muttered an apology.

“Nothing.” Josef adjusted his hat to its usual eye-hiding position and went back to staring straight ahead.

“So,” I began, “I talked with Og’s accountant earlier this morning. He’s deeding this place over to you. Well, the outpost, anyway. You can do whatever you want with it. Make it a safehouse or barracks maybe.”

“That’s generous of you.”

“Not like I have a use for it.” I shrugged. “I told him to send everything else to you, too. He’ll contact you later to arrange things.”

“You did what ?” Josef barked.

“I don’t have time or energy to deal with it, and what am I gonna do with Og’s stuff?”

“Harker—”

“Surely you have some people in Valhalla who are struggling. Have it all dumped in here and assign someone to go through it. Sell the valuables and dole out the rest to your neediest people.” I scrubbed the back of my neck with my hand.

“The only thing I ask is for you to give me anything you find that could lead me to Gemma.”

“Done. I don’t appreciate more work dropped on me, but thank you. Especially for this building. Space is always at a premium in the city. Titus will know the best use for it.”

“Where is he, anyway?”

I scolded myself for not asking Gigi where he’d stationed himself when they got here. My control wasn’t good enough right now to bump into him all of a sudden.

“Still at the research lab.”

Josef acted like I shoulda known that, but I brushed that aside because now I had a bigger concern.

“So who’s here as your bodyguard?” My eyebrows drew together.

“No one. Og’s dead. The only nephs around here are my people, your people, and hurt people. Since it’s daylight, hardly any Diabolical are out and about.”

“Does Titus know you’re here? And without a meat shield?”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I was expecting just a rescue team, but here you are. All alone, too. Being who you are and what you are makes you a high-value target, and you know it. So what’s going on?”

“I needed some space,” he said with a scowl.

“Hmm.”

“I know you don’t get it. Neither does Ti.

I’m valuable, which makes me vulnerable, and I’m aware of that, so why would I deliberately ditch my protection detail?

Well, here’s the thing, Harker: Yes, I’m the Drott and, yes, I’m a muse, and, yes, Valhalla relies on me, but sometimes— Sometimes, Josef Krall just wants to go for a walk or browse in a bookstore all by himself. ”

“That’s the sacrifice you make for being the Drott.” I shrugged one shoulder. “Are there any female Huskarls right now? Cycle through ’em until you find a girlfriend. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it, if your guard was your girl?”

“You did not just say that.” He slapped one hand over his face.

“What? It makes perfect sense to me.”

“I don’t need dating advice, thank you.”

“Okay, but I do know what it’s like to be watched twenty-four seven. To never have a moment’s peace. Crowded and herded and controlled until you wanna run and run and not stop running.”

Or blow your own head off .

“So, yeah, I understand your need to slip your leash once in a while. I’m still gonna get Gigi to ’port you straight back to St. Pat’s when your team’s done here. I ain’t gonna have the Huskarls hunt me down because you got mugged or something on your way home.”

“I ordered them to leave you alone, by the way.” He dropped his hand.

“That was … generous of you,” I repeated his earlier words.

“Look, I know what you face at the Sanctuary. Folks live there to raise their kids away from the threat of the Diabolical. They don’t like it suddenly appearing in their midst. The Council is paralyzed by antediluvian rules, and the elders are hidebound by a prejudice passed down from generation to generation. ”

I didn’t understand half of what he was saying, so I tuned out most of it until he said something else I didn’t expect.

“Out here on the borders, you don’t have as many enemies as you think.

We need all the helping hands we can get.

I don’t know about any other outposts, but here in Valhalla, the tide is turning, and not in our favor.

I don’t need helping hands; I’m desperate for them.

As long as you play nicely with others, you’re welcome to stand with the Huskarls. ”

“Thanks.” A hot ball jammed in my throat, and I had to swallow it down before I went on. “Not sure your second will accept that, but thanks.”

“Ti holds grudges,” he acknowledged, “and you’re a living reminder of his failure.”

“Failure?”

“Lizzie’s.”

That one word called up so many bad memories, my stomach cramped up.

“We keep the Diabolical Market as a pressure zone,” Josef went on, “and that irks him bad enough, but to find out Lizzie’s had been running right under his nose all those years? He can’t forgive himself for that. And he thinks you should have found a way to let us know about it.”

“I wasn’t making too many decisions on my own at that time,” I told him.

“I know that. He does, too, but still…”

“Yeah.”

We stopped talking and watched the healers finish prepping the wounded for transport.

They’d already determined ’porting would have been too hard on bodies in such poor shape, so they loaded the nephs onto stretchers and carried them up the stairs.

We followed the last one up, and I broke the silence between us.

“You should check with the other outposts,” I told him. “Is the Dark World stirring only here or everywhere? If it’s only here, it’d be good to know that Hell’s planning to bust open under your feet before it does this time.”

“I am not in a hurry to repeat that.”

“What are you whining about? You were unconscious for most of it.” I cut my eyes down at him.

“Lucky me. I was still sick for three days afterward. On that note, did you call Chessie?”

“I did. She said she’ll do it, but you’ll have to owe her because she doesn’t need anything right now.”

Josef surprised me with a laugh.

“You told her who I was, right? I’m the richest, most influential neph in the city. I could give her anything she wanted. Need has nothing to do with it.”

“I told her a muse needed a ward to protect himself and that she could name her price. And she ain’t the kinda girl who’d appreciate being showered in designer clothes and shoes or luxury cars or jewels.”

“In other words, a saint,” he sneered.

“A victim ,” I corrected, “who knows what it’s like to be helpless and held hostage to something you can’t control.”

For the second time, Josef pushed his hat back to stare at me.

“What?” I grumbled. “Why do you keep doing that?”

“Just making sure it’s still Kerry Harker I’m talking to.”

“That guy you knew is dead. And I’m still learning who this new guy is, but I already know one thing I don’t want him to be.”

“And what’s that?”

“Anything like the old guy.”