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Closing the door behind me, I tossed the bodice on the floor beside the hearth. Then sat on the chair by the window and stared at it.

My thoughts were a tangle of what-ifs, until I began to wonder if this was how it started for Mama. Had the relics whispered to her too? Speaking to her of ambition and power and revenge? Had they turned her into the monster that broke the Blood Treaty?

I shook my head. No. Mama wasn’t getting off the hook that easily. The relics had been protected then. She wasn’t wearing them around out of necessity. She had a home—a family. My throat grew thick, but I swallowed hard. Collapsing into a puddle of tears and woe-is-me wasn’t going to solve anything.

No one was coming to help me. There was no coven to call, no circle to cast. Della couldn’t even hide them from me.

I forced myself to get up and wash my hands in the sink, cleaning the dirt and blood from my fingers. But after a moment, I glanced back over my shoulder to where the relics lay hidden. I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were watching me, which was absurd. They were just relics imbued with demonic power, not demons themselves.

I went back to my scrubbing. The water turned pink as it circled the white porcelain sink before disappearing down the drain. Soon, Yves would arrest Lou. And when my magick returned, Della and I would leave.

But… where would we go? Money was still scant. I couldn’t sell a demonic relic. Not to people I didn’t know. Which left me few options. I still had Yves’s summoning coin. I wagered it was valuable enough to buy me passage across the sea. But… what then?

Another rented room? Another bar? Another man sweating on top of me while I drunkenly imagined he was someone else?

I rubbed my face with the crook of my arm, wiping away the sweat that had formed on my brow. I ached for the familiarity of my old life. Of the home I knew. Of the people. Even Mama before she’d totally lost her mind. But there was no use wishing for something that was gone.

I went to check on Della, who was still where I left her: cuddled in a swirl of blankets that she’d turned into her very own nest. It was the most comfortable she’d looked in days. She deserved a good night’s sleep after nearly drowning and providing me with the magick I’d needed to kill Lou’s witches. I could only hope our sacrifice had bought Yves enough time to raid The Drowned Goose, but a sour feeling sat in my stomach.

I stared out the open window, listening to the sounds of the water garden. The moon and stars were still shining, and the sky was dark, but I knew sleep would not find me, so I returned to the sitting room, where I could feel the relics as a low, persistent hum at the edge of my awareness.

From the corner of my eye, I caught movement in the garden window. I tensed, reaching into my pocket for my wand before I remembered I was useless for seven more days. Seizing a silver letter opener off a writing desk, I pressed my back against the wall and inched closer to the window. I thought of the dream, of the snake squeezing the life out of me.

If The Devouring had found me, I’d give them a fight.

“Are you awake, Miss?” a curious voice asked from outside.

A voice I recognized.

When I chanced a look out the window, a small face stared back at me. I let out a yelp of surprise when I saw Adrien with his nose pressed against the glass.

“By Damien!” I cursed, slamming the letter opener back down on the desk. “Come inside before someone sees you out here.”

By the time I grabbed a dressing gown and opened the door, he had already raced around the side of the cottage to greet me. Forgoing pleasantries, he pushed past me into the sitting room, glancing around as if he was looking for something. “I hoped you’d be awake!”

“And if I hadn’t been?”

“I would’ve let myself in,” he said as if it were obvious.

“You shouldn’t barge in on a witch!” I sputtered out. “What if I’d cursed you thinking you were a burglar?”

He didn’t acknowledge that whatsoever. Instead, he asked, “Where’s Della?”

I ran my good hand through my sleep-mussed hair, trying to finger-comb through the tangles. “She’s asleep.”

He frowned, but recovered quickly. “Come outside,” he said. “I want to show you something.”

“It’s the middle of the night.”

He was already heading back to the door. “Exactly! You can only see them at night.”

Despite my reservations, I followed the little vampire out the door and down the garden path. Adrien led me to the open patch of sky beyond the rose trellises, past the statue of the winged woman, and stopped at the far edge of the pond.

He removed a telescope from his pocket, extended it to its full length, and held it out to me. But when my hand closed around it, he didn’t let go.

“Severin says it’s rude to mention when a woman is bleeding,” he announced. “But since it’s just your fingers, I think you should know that you are.”

Even though I’d washed them, a fresh tear of blood was dripping down my hand. “It’s nothing,” I said, easing the scope from his grip. “I tripped on the garden path earlier.”