‘I didn’t want to inconvenience you. I didn’t even want you to know I was here.’

Shan Yuan’s eyes narrowed, and the circle of melting snow around them expanded. The stone path beneath Kai’s feet grew warm as Shan Yuan’s ire rose. ‘Are you telling me that you came here with the deliberate intention of avoiding me?’

Kai wasn’t a great detective, but even he could deduce that Yes was the wrong answer here. Though he couldn’t fathom why Shan Yuan would even care. He’d always treated Kai with dismissive contempt – and Kai had eventually duelled Shan Yuan over his refusal to acknowledge Kai’s mother. He’d broken Kai’s arm in that fight, which he won. He constantly criticized Kai’s manners, skills, and conversation. Why should he want Kai to visit?

‘I know how busy you are,’ Kai offered hopefully. ‘I know you’re Lord Zhang Yi’s senior student—’

‘In Indigo’s absence,’ Shan Yuan interrupted. ‘You don’t need to say that.’ He paused. ‘Everyone else does.’

That surprised Kai. He’d never realized that his elder brother could feel any sort of inferiority. ‘Well, it’s not as if I’d know what goes on here, is it? I didn’t get invited to study under Lord Zhang Yi.’

‘You could have been,’ Shan Yuan snapped, ‘if you’d applied yourself. Instead you ran off to play around in high-chaos worlds and seduce Librarians. You are a disappointment.’

Fury ran through Kai like fire. He looked Shan Yuan in the eye. ‘Our lord father is proud of what I have achieved.’ Old grievance and current ire mingled in his heart and drove him to insult. ‘I hope you can say as much.’

Shan Yuan’s blow knocked him to the ground.

Kai clung to the laptop, shielding it from impact with his body, but his cheek stung where his brother had struck him. He staggered to his feet, feeling his power call to the roaring waterfall nearby. ‘Again, brother?’ he snarled. ‘You’ll find I’m not as easily beaten as last time.’

‘Cease this folly!’ The voice was thin, but rang with authority. The brothers turned simultaneously, then bowed.

Lord Zhang Yi – for who else could it be? – showed his age, as did all dragons from less powerful families. He was in human form, wrapped in the same heavy brocade robes as Shan Yuan, though his were pale grey and far more ornate. His tufted white eyebrows shadowed his eyes like an eagle owl’s, and his thinning hair was braided down his back.

He looked at them and sighed. ‘Why must your father’s children always come to blows beneath my roof? You will both attend on me at once. We have important matters to discuss.’

CHAPTER TEN

The bespectacled man – Mr Kenneth, the main face of the business – looked reproachful as Irene locked the door behind her. ‘I thought you’d finished with us today, madam.’

‘Wait, what?’ Catherine said, surprised. ‘You’ve already been here?’

Irene glanced around the rather basic office, checking for new threats and thankfully finding none. It was comparatively bare, if you were expecting a library of exotic tomes. The rare books were safely locked away elsewhere in the building.

‘She has indeed,’ Mr Kenneth said. ‘One of our most valued customers, of course – always welcome, whatever the hour, whatever the circumstances . . .’

Werewolves certainly counted as ‘circumstances’. ‘We’ll be leaving by the back way, if you don’t mind.’

‘What happens when those ruffians come back looking for you?’ he asked.

‘Tell them we paid you to let us out.’

‘But you haven’t . . . ah.’ He swept up the coins that Irene was counting out on his desk. ‘Always glad to oblige. Anything else before you go?’

‘Yes. Get hold of that Ivanhoe we were discussing earlier, please. I’ll pay the usual commission on delivery.’ As he nodded, Irene added casually, ‘Oh, one last thing – I didn’t ask you this before, but does the name “the Professor” mean anything to you?’

Mr Kenneth’s hand jerked, and a coin went spinning across the desk. When he looked up at Irene, she could see the fear in his eyes. ‘I’m sure I don’t know who you mean.’

‘That bad, huh?’ Irene said quietly. She’d avoided asking him during her first visit, as she’d suspected mentioning that name would be burning her boats with him. But since she had no plans to come back soon . . .

‘You heard nothing from me. Now do me a favour and get out of here. You know where the back stairs are.’

Irene nodded. ‘Come along, Catherine. I’ll explain when we’re out of here.’

To Irene’s relief, there were no watchers – well, no obvious watchers – waiting at the back of the building. ‘We’ll walk towards Covent Garden,’ she said quietly, ‘and catch a cab on the way.’

‘To stop any other werewolves following us by scent?’ Catherine guessed.

‘Correct. Well done.’ She caught Catherine’s hand as the Fae was about to signal an approaching cab. ‘We won’t take the first one. Never take the first cab.’

‘But if everyone does that, won’t the second cab always be a trap?’

‘Unfortunately it’s quite possible that the first half-dozen will all be traps,’ Irene said. ‘Sometimes devious plotters really irritate me.’

Irene had an ear cocked for distant screams and howls at their escape, as she flagged down a ride, but all seemed peaceful behind them – or as peaceful as could be expected for London. She helped Catherine in and took a seat opposite her.

‘Where to, ma’am?’ the driver asked.

‘London Zoo,’ Irene said firmly. With the current traffic, that should take at least half an hour too – hopefully long enough to find out what was going on with Catherine. ‘First things first,’ she said. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I think so,’ Catherine answered. ‘I wasn’t hurt.’ But she was clearly still on edge, glancing out of the window as though she expected to see werewolves running alongside them.

‘Good. Now . . .’ Should Irene immediately grill Catherine for information, or instead try to gain her confidence by explaining what she’d been up to? She decided to take the second route. ‘I’d already spoken to Mr Kenneth before you arrived. He didn’t want to admit it, but they had a break-in a week ago. And it wasn’t to steal books – but information.’

‘What sort of information?’

‘Their shop records. Whom they sold to, their suppliers . . . They took a few obviously valuable books as well, but the information was the real prize.’

Catherine pursed her lips. ‘And if their customers found out someone had stolen their data, it would mean losing those customers.’

‘Exactly,’ Irene agreed, glad she was so quick to understand. ‘The thieves tried to conceal that they’d been into the records, but Mr Kenneth said that they disturbed some safeguards he and Mr Ruthcomb had in place. The records the thieves examined included the transaction Kenneth and Ruthcomb set up for us on Guernsey – including the date and time of the meeting with Madame Pipet.’ The break-in had been several days ago, so their enemies could have arranged the ambush.