‘And I assure you I will try again.’ Irene’s heart clenched with relief. That was Vale. ‘But since you refuse to explain your plans or your motivations, I must find my entertainment in other ways.’

‘You’re supposed to be the great detective.’ Metal clinked against metal. Irene gathered her skirts tight in her hands to stop them rustling as the group drew closer. ‘Why don’t you tell me?’

‘I must confess there is one thing I don’t understand.’

‘I’m sure there are quite a number of things you don’t understand.’

‘Let us not treat each other as fools. We have, after all, been playing against each other for several weeks now – Madam Professor. You may have allowed your husband to take this role in public, but you were the one doing the planning. If either of us had been lacking in ability, our game would have finished a great deal sooner.’

Kai had come to a stop. Irene peered over his shoulder. The conversation was being held in a large open area ahead of them – well lit, perhaps ten or fifteen yards across. There was no way to reach Vale and remain concealed.

‘That’s true,’ Lady Guantes said slowly. ‘So if we are so well matched, what is this one thing that remains obscure to the great detective Peregrine Vale?’

‘Without wishing to insult you, madam, you have a talent for organization which you have chosen to use for crime. Your abilities surpass those of other criminals I’ve matched wits with before. I will admit that our game has been a challenge, and one I’ve enjoyed. It drove me to act hastily – even unwisely – while attempting to bring you down.’

‘Flattery won’t get me to free you,’ Lady Guantes said.

‘It was hardly meant as flattery,’ Vale replied. ‘But it does beg a question. You could be an empress of crime, a genius coordinating your network across multiple worlds. Yet you insist on elevating your husband to this role, reanimating him instead of letting him rest in peace. Why, in a situation where so many Fae would seize the moment, do you hesitate and draw back?’

Irene edged a little closer, enough to see more of the tableau. Vale was strapped hand and foot to a large table. It looked uncomfortably laboratory-like in its stark cleanliness, with run-off drains – for blood? Irene suppressed a shudder. Lady Guantes stood at the head end of the table, bending over Vale like a confessor giving a man his last rites. But instead of robes, she wore an iron-grey business suit and gloves. For some reason, they were mismatched, black on the left hand and grey on the right. Five computer tablets rested on gilded lecterns around the table, as if they were open books. Banked servers stood in the background, forming a coordinated circle of processing power.

Behind the pair, on the far side of the space, a door was set between two stone pillars. It was out of step with the decor and made from pale wood. Irene could see it was marked with the Language, but she was too far away to make out the writing. But she didn’t need to read it to recognize the threat it posed. Whatever it was, it was Alberich’s work – and that couldn’t be good.

Irene weighed their options. It was at least five yards from the nearest bookshelves to the table and Lady Guantes was almost certainly armed. That would make a direct assault highly risky for Vale and his rescuer. The Language might work – but had Alberich set up protective wards? And Irene would need to take out the Fae near-immediately.

‘I could dominate a network of worlds myself,’ Lady Guantes was saying. ‘But my husband and I belong with one another, and we can achieve so much more together than apart. We nearly triggered a war between our kind and the dragons, after all . . . and I have learned much more since. So yes, I will pay any price to get him back, to beat death itself. To have him with me again – as he should be – will make it all worthwhile.’

‘I suspected as much – and I appreciate your candour.’ Vale took a deep breath. ‘Reconsider. Come back to London and forge your own path to glory. Take control of London’s underworld. Challenge me. Or if you truly want to test yourself, challenge my sister. But reconsider your current course of action.’

‘What? For you? You’re as vain as the stories say.’

‘For yourself, madam. I know what you’re about to do. You intend to transfer your husband’s personality onto me – a new attempt to bring him back.’

‘Your deduction is correct. The current version is growing unstable and his decisions are becoming unwise. Perhaps using you as a base will last longer – you have Fae blood, after all. You should be suitable.’

‘For your own sake, madam, stop this.’ Vale tilted his head to meet her eyes. ‘You’ll never be satisfied. You can try to bring your husband back as many times as you like, but—’

‘We’re wasting time,’ Lady Guantes interrupted. She drew a small gun from her jacket and set it against Vale’s temple. ‘Miss Winters, and your companions, do come out and join us.’

Irene and Kai looked at each other. Was it a bluff?

‘Believe me, I’ll fire,’ Lady Guantes said, a note of weary irritation in her voice. ‘And I am addressing all of you. You, Prince Kai, the other dragon and the girl.’

Irene caught Catherine’s attention, indicating she needed to see the time. Catherine showed her watch. Quarter of an hour till midnight. There was still time to negotiate. She mouthed Stay here to Kai, then stepped out of the shadows. ‘I’m the one you want, aren’t I? Let them go.’

‘I suppose I can settle for you. For now.’ Lady Guantes didn’t move the muzzle of her gun from Vale’s temple. ‘After all, we both know perfectly well that they won’t leave as long as you’re here.’

Irene ignored that, asking instead, ‘How did you know we were here?’

‘Do you honestly think I haven’t been following you on my screens?’ Lady Guantes waved at the tablets which encircled her and Vale.

‘I’m surprised you didn’t send guards after us.’

Irene was burning to use the Language to jam Lady Guantes’ gun, or heat it up, or something . . . But it would only take one touch of the Fae’s finger on the trigger to kill Vale, and even a single word might not be fast enough. Then her heart leapt; while Lady Guantes had been speaking, Vale had half-slipped one hand free of its bindings.

She sought for ways to keep the other woman distracted. ‘If you kill Vale, you can’t use him to house your husband’s personality.’

‘I can find someone else.’ Lady Guantes shrugged. ‘Why so horrified, Miss Winters? Have you never loved anyone so much that you’d break all laws, natural and supernatural, to get them back?’

‘I’ve never been in that position,’ Irene said truthfully. And I hope I never will. But she didn’t want to explore that route to keep Lady Guantes diverted. ‘Let me guess what’s going on here . . .’ she said instead. ‘Alberich is helping you get your husband back, by somehow twisting the Language. That’s payback for the technology you’ve procured for him, and for helping him access other worlds through his doors. He also wanted you to kidnap me, which helped you to pursue my fellow treaty representatives at the same time. And by killing them, you can look forward to the treaty failing – making your Fae versus dragon war an option again. Or is the treaty failing a mutual bonus?’