“Demigod Kieran, you’re looking almost good enough to eat.” Lydia’s smug and sultry smile was all for Alexis, trying to get a rise. Alexis stared at her blandly, and it was clear she was bored and waiting for all this to end.

He stifled a smile. “Demigod Lydia, those jewels are fabulous.”

“Why, yes, thank you.” She lifted a hand, turning it as she did so, letting the light shine and sparkle as it hit the various gems, before stroking her extravagant necklace.

She took a moment to shoot Alexis a look, clearly taking note of the simple strand of pearls at Lexi’s elegant neck, her formfitting dress without any frills or embellishments, her sparkly flats, and her mostly natural face. She’d put on only enough makeup to enhance her already striking beauty, just like when he’d first met her. Alexis hadn’t put in half the effort Lydia would’ve expected, but instead of making her look lesser, it made her natural beauty shine. Her somewhat unruly hair created a halo around her angelic face, and her simple but well-made dress accentuated her perfect curves, at the same time athletic and feminine.

“Hello,” Alexis said, as though completely oblivious to the scrutiny.

Lydia’s pencil-thin eyebrows dipped. She huffed, barely perceptibly, before turning for the dining room. The doors opened from the inside, allowing her to stroll in.

“How do you feel now compared to this afternoon?” Kieran asked Alexis, hesitating before they followed their hostess.

“Like we’re being watched.” Alexis scanned the baseboards of the room. “I can’t figure it out…”

“It isn’t a Demigod in spirit form?” Kieran turned toward her, like he was stealing a quick kiss. He hadn’t expected that answer.

“No. I’ve seen this before, but at the time I didn’t know my magic well enough to suss it out. Forms appear in the corner of my eye, but when I turn, they scamper beyond the veil before I can catch more than a passing glance. They aren’t normal spirits. They’re shadows, but with even less substance than a Demigod. More wraithlike. I don’t know what they are, but they’re adept at staring when I’m not looking and zipping away right before I turn. It’s driving me nuts.”

Kieran ran his lips across her chin, his gaze darting around the shadows and into the corners. With his ability to see spirit, he might be able to see them too. “Keep your senses open.” He straightened and ran his fingertips down her cheek. “What about the way the servants are treating you? Lydia?”

“The servants earlier today treated me quite a bit differently. Lydia’s behaving exactly like she did yesterday. Exactly. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t like me.”

“You’re beautiful and elegant—you’re competition. She doesn’t seem like a woman that savors competition.”

“She doesn’t seem like a woman who is playing her cards where everyone can see them.”

Truer words had never been spoken.

Kieran turned and slipped an arm around her waist.

Lydia was cunning and devious, and if her enterprise was flagging, even a little, maybe she was also growing desperate. After living in wealth for hundreds of years, the most experienced Demigods could be thrown by even a gradual decline in fortune. When you lived many lifetimes, there was no such thing as too much money. Eventually, if you lived long enough and mishandled your territory, you could find yourself without a penny.

If that was the issue—and Kieran didn’t know that it was—would it be so far-fetched to assume Lydia would risk grabbing Lexi, breaking her from Kieran, and trading her to Magnus for some large political favor? Perhaps the servants’ reverence this morning was all part of the plan—butter Lexi up in the hopes she’d leave willingly.

Kieran blew out a breath and tried to school his expression.

No, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Lydia had gotten stars in her eyes with a legendary Soul Stealer so close at hand. Someone who could maybe tilt the earnings back toward an upward trajectory.

Kieran could only hope Lydia knew how foolish any of that would be. He could only hope she was still in her right mind.

29

Alexis

Echoes drifted through spirit, tickling my ears but taking no shape. A feeling of urgency pushed at me, imploring me to do something, to get moving. But where would I go? What was needed?

Ghastly faces swam through my dreams, gaunt, hollow-cheeked, eyes milky and sightless through a layer of glass. Their bodies bowed, even young people looking old and weathered, their vitality gone. Their will to live dried up.

Only they weren’t alive. They were dead, all of them. They solely existed in spirit, but they were trapped as surely as the spirits Valens had imprisoned.

The Line pulsed, sending a surge of power through me.

The feeling of urgency persisted. It drummed through my body, matching the beating of my heart, as the horrible faces swam toward me, greedy fingers pulling at my clothes and scraping across my skin.

I sucked in a breath and jerked up to sitting, a strangled scream caught in my throat. The dreamscape cleared away in a flash. Sweat plastered hair to my forehead and my whole body shivered uncontrollably.

“What is it?” Kieran sat up beside me, sleep evaporating from his eyes. “Are you okay?”

I pushed my hair out of my face. “Yeah. Just a bad dream.” I willed more spit into my mouth, trying to keep my tongue from sticking to the roof of my mouth. “It’s fine.”

It took me a moment to realize the Line pulsed within the center of the room. Its power filled me, and just as in the dream, it held a strange sense of urgency. Something danced across my magic. Daisy stirred, in the bedroom next to ours, before getting out of bed. A tapping against my magic caught my attention next, in a different place than the odd dancing.

Knock, knock, knock.

I jumped, a scream escaping my lips.

“It’s the door,” Kieran whispered, and laid a hand on my back. “It’s the outside door of the suite. Can you feel who it is?”

My heart thundered in my chest, and I swung my legs over the edge of the mattress. “I don’t recognize the soul, but I do recognize the two animal souls with the person. What the—”

Daisy met me in the living room area, staring at the door. “Something feels off in here,” she said, rubbing the goose-pimpled flesh on her arms. “It feels like when you have a bunch of spirits hanging around.”

I frowned at her. She’d never mentioned feeling a certain way when I had a bunch of spirits around, although it wasn’t uncommon to feel spirits. Most people did, whether they realized what they were feeling or not.

“We’re protected from spirits in here.” My magic lined the perimeter of the suite. I stopped by the door, waiting for Kieran to catch up. He had on a robe and slippers, provided by Lydia, of course, and handed a set to me.

“I’ll get it,” Kieran said. “What’s out there?”

“A person and a pair of cats.”

“A pair…” A crease formed between his eyebrows as another knock sounded at the door, muted and respectful.

Kieran opened the door to a man in a colorful tux and gloves, his face a mask of confusion and a note in his hand. Two enormous cats waited beside him, the green-eyed male sitting and licking his front paw, and the luminescent bronze-eyed female staring at me expectantly.