As she dressed, she tried to think of anything but the Praetor and what might come next. She wanted to go back to Il Bastone. She wanted Turner to post uniforms outside the house to keep it safe. She wanted some promise of protection for her mother, her friends, herself. She’d thought of Il Bastone as a kind of fortress, buttressed by magic and history and tradition. She wondered if Not Hellie knew just how much the fire had shaken her.

She touched her wrist where the salt snake had wound around her skin.

She wasn’t helpless anymore. At least next time she tussled with the thing that wasn’t Hellie or the monster that wasn’t truly Lionel or Linus Reiter, it might be closer to a fair fight.

Alex muddled through her morning classes, trying to shake the dread that sat heavy in her gut. Was this the last lecture? The last hasty breakfast between classes? The last time she would sit in WLH and try to think of something clever to say in section?

Professor Walsh-Whiteley held office hours from two o’clock to four o’clock in the afternoon, and Alex thought about waiting until the last possible moment to show up, but the worry was too much for her. Better to get it over with, to know how far she’d fallen so she could start dragging herself back to high ground.

She popped into Blue State to get a coffee and a bagel to fortify herself.

There was always a young Gray outside the empty building next door, dressed in a plaid flannel, sometimes hovering behind the window near where there had once been a jukebox when it was a pizza place.

Occasionally, she thought she heard him humming the singsong strains of

“Hotel California.” But today, he was sitting on the steps, as if he was waiting

for the door to open so he could buy a slice. Alex let her eyes pass over him, then stumbled when someone gave her a shove from behind.

She barely caught herself and spilled hot coffee down her coat.

“The fuck?” she said, whirling around.

For a long second, she didn’t recognize Tzvi, couldn’t reconcile the presence of Eitan’s bodyguard here, in New Haven, but there was no mistaking his wiry body, the tidy beard, the stony expression.

“Hello, Alex.” Eitan stood just behind Tzvi in an ugly leather coat, hair cut close and smelling of expensive aftershave. A golden Chai glinted at his neck.

Her first thought was run. Her second was kill them both. Neither was a reasonable option. If she ran, they’d find her. And murdering two people in broad daylight on the streets of New Haven did not seem like a strategic move.

They stood staring at each other on the crowded sidewalk, people navigating past them on the way to classes or meetings.

“Come on,” she said. She didn’t want to be seen with either of them. They stood out—the coats, the hair. It wasn’t so much that they were criminals but that they were Los Angeles criminals. Too slick and glossy for New Haven.

She led them to the driveway that ran between the music school and the Elizabethan Club.

“Here is good,” said Eitan, and with a combination of frustration and pride she realized he didn’t want to be out of sight of the busy street. She didn’t know if Eitan and Tzvi were afraid of her, but they were being cautious. That was the problem with Eitan. He was very good at staying alive.

“You’ve been to Elizabethan Club?”

Alex shook her head.

“You have to be member. They have Shakespeare’s First…”

“Folio,” Alex said without thinking. And a first edition of Paradise Lost.

All kinds of literary treasures squirreled away in a vault. And more importantly they served a plush afternoon tea. Darlington was a member, but he’d never taken her there.

“Yes! Folios,” said Eitan. “You’re on your way to class?”

Alex thought about lying. It would be easy enough to claim she worked in the dining halls. She’d told Eitan she was moving east with her imaginary boyfriend. He’d even offered to get her a gig at one of the casinos. She had hoped he would leave her alone, but instead the jobs on the East Coast had picked up right where the West left off. Eitan had business everywhere and friends who he was happy to grant favors.

Even so, if Eitan was here, that meant he knew more than he should. He would have already had someone dig up everything he could on her, and if he’d been able to find her in the middle of a campus packed with students, he must have been watching her for a while.

“No,” she said. “I’m done for the day. I was going back to the dorms.”

“We’ll go with you.”

That was one step too far. No way was she bringing these assholes anywhere close to Mercy and Lauren.

“What do you want, Eitan?”

“Let’s be nice, Alex. Be polite.”

“You almost got me killed. That does something to my manners.”

“I’m sorry. You know this. I like you. You do good work for me. Reiter has been difficult.”

He did sound genuinely sorry. The way someone would be sorry for eating the last slice of cake or being late to a dinner party.

“Do you have any idea what he really is?” Alex asked.

“I don’t need to know,” said Eitan. “He is problem. You are solution.”

“You want me to go back there?” Not a chance. It had been bad enough seeing Reiter lurking in the courtyard, but if Dawes was right, he was weaker when he had to hide from daylight and when he was away from his nest. In his lair, he had the advantage. Even the thought of that big white house made her lungs tighten, caught her breath, wound it fast on a spool.

What had the Gray teacher said? He’d killed hundreds, maybe more.

“You’re happy here,” Eitan said.

Alex wasn’t sure what happy looked like. She was pretty confident it didn’t involve being hounded by demons or losing her scholarship. “Happy enough.”

“Fix Reiter for me, we can be done. You can have new life. You don’t have to worry about Tzvi showing up at your door.”

“That’s why you came here? To send me to die?”

“I had business in the city. And this is a good market. Lots of young people. Lots of pressure. Everyone trying to have fun.”

That felt like a threat. Was Eitan going to push her to deal on campus?

There had to be a line somewhere. There had to be an end to this. Alex felt too aware of the people around her, their vulnerability, their weakness. Easy prey—for demons and for men like Eitan. He didn’t belong here and neither did she. They were serpents in the garden.

Alex weighed her choices. “I take care of Reiter, we’re done. That’s the deal. No more jobs. No more bargains.”

Eitan smiled and patted her shoulder. “Yes.”

“And if I don’t come back…” Alex dug her nails into her palm, remembering the feeling of Reiter’s fangs entering her body. “If I don’t come back, you throw some money my mom’s way. Make sure she’s okay.”

“Don’t talk like this, Alex. You will be fine. I see what you can do.”