‘This is ridiculous, sir,’ Singh said. He’d taken a position by the door to Vale’s bedroom, possibly to stop anyone else getting in, and stood there in cold disapproval. ‘Mr Vale dislikes the Fae more than most people I’ve ever met.’

‘Of course it’s ridiculous!’ Kai agreed forcefully. He glared up at Silver as though he intended to challenge the Fae to a duel on the spot. The only thing keeping him in his chair must be the suspicion that Silver would sprawl in it, if it was empty.

‘I notice that Miss Winters isn’t disagreeing as strongly as you gentlemen,’ Silver said. His voice slipped under convictions like a knife prising up the seal on an envelope, leaving naked facts behind it.

And the reason Irene wasn’t denying it was because the suggestion was uncomfortably plausible. The first time she and Kai had met Vale, he’d commented that he had a gift for meeting people at convenient times and knowing if they’d be important to him. Taken down to its essentials, that was far too close to the Fae sense of narrative and the way they fitted themselves into a story. Vale was an archetype of the Great Detective, and this world itself was on the high-chaos spectrum. Not as much as the Venice they’d all visited, but still more than a step away from balance. She’d never thought about this before – but had she subconsciously refused to consider it because she liked Vale?

‘I don’t believe that Vale is Fae,’ she said.

‘Not in the present tense, maybe,’ Silver agreed. ‘But the future holds potential.’

Irene thought of Alberich, and his words about limitations and what we make of ourselves. She could feel Kai’s stare of disappointment because she hadn’t leapt to deny the whole possibility. ‘If this was true,’ she said, ‘why did you try to stop him going to Venice? I’d have thought you’d be in favour of it. And don’t try to tell me it was reverse psychology.’

Silver paused. ‘Well, my little mouse, I was indeed going to tell you that, but it seems I must confess that I was actually wrong about something.’ He smiled in a charming display of vulnerability. Irene had to mentally pinch herself to push back the compulsion to believe him, the tug of his glamour. The fact that he was insulting her helped. ‘I didn’t think Vale would make it. I’m only too glad to find out that he has. I want to bring him properly into our kind. It’d be the easiest thing in the world. Or in any suitable world, really. But if you drag him off to a high-order sphere and force him to be merely human, you won’t just cleanse him, you’ll destroy him. You’ll wipe out everything that makes him what he is.’

‘I can’t believe you’re seriously considering this,’ Kai broke in. ‘This is all lies—’

‘No, it isn’t,’ Silver said. He leaned forward, his eyes on Irene like a caress. ‘And you know it isn’t.’

‘Will you swear it’s true?’ Irene asked.

Silver nodded, his hair drifting round his face as if touched by an invisible breeze. ‘I will, and do.’

‘And even if it isn’t lies, he’s only saying it because it’s to his benefit!’ Kai said furiously. ‘He’s just as bad as Zayanna! The two of them are only involving themselves because of their perverse obsessions.’

Irene put her glass down carefully before she threw it at someone. ‘Kai,’ she said, and something in her tone made him cut short whatever he’d been going to say. ‘Please be quiet for just a moment. Lord Silver, thank you for your input into the situation. Inspector Singh . . .’

‘Yes?’ Singh had retreated into himself while Silver and Kai were talking, watching the rest of the room like a cat at a mouse hole. Now he gave Irene his undivided attention.

Irene knew this wasn’t going to go down well, and she steeled herself in anticipation. ‘I think we’re going to need to ask Vale for a decision.’

Silver brought his hands together in applause. ‘Oh, very nice, Miss Winters. An excellent way to ease your conscience. You’re more of a hypocrite than I’d given you credit for. Do you honestly think he’ll make any choice other than the one you want?’

‘Which is exactly why he shouldn’t make that choice.’ Kai turned to Singh, looking for an ally. ‘Inspector, you must see that we need to get Vale out of here now, before he deteriorates any further . . . Do you want him to become like that?’ He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Silver. ‘We can’t risk that happening to him.’

‘I take offence at being called a “that”,’ Silver remarked. ‘Don’t push me, dragon. Just because I have a fondness for Mr Vale doesn’t mean I like you.’

‘I have to question your motives, Miss Winters,’ Singh said. He showed no sign of moving from in front of the bedroom door. ‘Lord Silver’s quite likely right in his guess. I’m sure Mr Vale would want to help you, no matter what the risk to himself was. Lord Silver may or may not be correct in there being a risk to Mr Vale if he leaves this world. But it seems there’s a lot more risk if he stays put.’

‘That may be so,’ Irene said. She found that she had risen to her feet without realizing. ‘All right, that probably is so. And I don’t want that risk any more than you do. But can’t you see that if we make this decision for him, he’s never going to forgive us? Lord Silver’s been talking about what Vale is.’ She tried to find the words to convince Singh. ‘That’s how he sees him. But you talk about who Vale is. I don’t know him as well as you do, I haven’t been his friend as long as you have, and I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve got him into. And under some circumstances, maybe I would drug him and drag him out of trouble without him having a choice in the matter. But he has a right to choose whether or not he takes this risk. And none of us, whether we’re his friends or his enemies, have the right to make that choice for him. He won’t thank us for taking the decision out of his hands.’