Nightmare cocked her head, the hood shifting so that the light from the jewelry displays illuminated one side of her face, though Adrian couldn’t tell if she was surprised or amused.

Then Nightmare took a single step to her left, and disappeared.

Ruby gasped. Maybe they all gasped. Adrian started forward, his heart thundering, as Danna’s butterflies formed a cyclone around the column that Nightmare had apparently just walked into.

The mirrored column.

Danna re-formed, one hand pressed against the glass, her face incredulous. “What the hell?”

“And I thought our conversation was going so well.”

They spun around. Nightmare reappeared in the doorway to a dressing room, her arms folded as she leaned against the doorjamb.

Adrian traded looks with his team. Though he was feeling no less befuddled than he had the moment Nightmare emerged from that platform of mannequins, he was beginning to realize that standing around gawking at her wasn’t going to answer any of his questions—or make the world any safer, for that matter.

“My plan was coming together so well, I’ll have you know,” Nightmare continued, as if there’d been no interruption. “I want to make it clear that I am not sorry that Nova McLain is in prison. Good. No one is searching for Nightmare anymore. Perfect. But no, your precious Council couldn’t just leave well enough alone, could they? They ruin everything.” She sighed heavily. “There are rumors about—and correct me if I’m wrong—but they say the Renegades are soon going to execute Nova McLain. You’re going to go ahead and actually kill her!” She put a finger to her jaw, as if in contemplation. “Even though all the evidence you have against her is purely circumstantial? My—that doesn’t sound like something the Renegades would do, does it? But that’s what I’ve heard. And at first, I thought, well, even better. With Nova McLain dead, she won’t be proclaiming her innocence anymore. And she did fail to save my grandfather, so what goes around comes around…”

Grandfather.

At least one piece clicked in Adrian’s mind.

The mirror walker. This was the mirror walker they’d seen at the Cloven Cross Library … Gene Cronin’s granddaughter!

But … how could she also be Nightmare?

“However, I am a villain with principles,” Nightmare went on, her voice hardening again, “hard as that may be for you to believe. And as much as I despise that wannabe superhero for her failures, I can’t let you imbeciles kill her because you think she’s me. I may be a villain, but I’m not a monster.” She pushed herself away from the door and spread her hands wide. “So here I am, letting you all in on the big secret. I’ve fooled the Renegades yet again. I am Nightmare. You have the wrong girl.”

“And how do we know you’re not just an impostor?” yelled Danna, but she refracted into butterflies again before giving the villain a chance to answer.

This time, Adrian moved, too, engaging the springs on his feet to launch him over a series of tables cluttered with handbags and scarves.

Nightmare ducked back into the dressing room.

Danna and Adrian both raced after her, the butterflies mere feet in front of him. The doorway narrowed to a short corridor. To their left, rows of closed dressing room doors. To their right, a triptych of full-length mirrors arranged on a carpeted platform.

Nightmare stood on the platform, leaning against the center mirror. The lights were off and Adrian might have missed her in the darkness, but for the sheen of her mask. Danna must have noticed her at the same time, for the swarm suddenly twisted in her direction.

Nightmare waved.

The butterflies began to converge.

Adrian dove for her even as her body was slipping back through the mirror, its surface rippling outward like the surface of an inky-black pond. Danna’s hand grasped at the air, her finger barely catching the edge of Nightmare’s hood before she sank into the mirror and the material slipped from Danna’s grasp. Adrian’s momentum carried him crashing past Danna. He tucked his arm in at the last moment and crashed into the mirror. The glass cracked, a fractured web shooting out from the impact, along with the sting of pain down his arm. He leaped back, cursing and rubbing his shoulder.

Beyond the glass they could still see her, a girl now fractured into a dozen shards. Her hood had been pulled back off her head, setting free a long ginger braid.

Though he couldn’t see her mouth, Adrian knew she was smirking at them. She raised two fingers to her mask and pretended to blow them a kiss, before her image faded away and they were left staring at their own reflections.

Reflections that were equal parts furious and mystified.

“What the hell is going on?” said Danna.

“I don’t know,” Adrian admitted, still examining the spot where Nightmare had been. Nightmare, who could walk through mirrors. Nightmare, who had long red hair. “But I know that girl.”

Danna jolted. “What?”

“You weren’t with us at the Cloven Cross Library,” he said. “When we went to find out if the Librarian was still dealing black- market weapons.”

“And?”

“That was his granddaughter. She was working at the library that day.” He started walking back toward the doorway, though his skin still prickled from the sensation of being watched. He wondered if Nightmare was still there somewhere behind the glass, waiting to see what they would do next.

He nearly collided with Ruby on his way out, and Oscar wasn’t far behind her, though he was moving slower on his cane after their rush to capture the burglars earlier, and Adrian could see he was already winded from the sprint across the department store.

“She’s gone again,” he told them. “She’s traveling through the mirrors.”

“Mirrors?” said Oscar. “Like that girl at the library?”

“She is the girl from the library,” he said. It took Adrian a moment to remember her name. “Narcissa Cronin.”

“The Librarian’s granddaughter?” barked Ruby. “But she was … she’s … There’s no way that girl is Nightmare!”

“Why not?” said Adrian.

His question made them all freeze. Watching one another in the dark, Adrian could see emotions warring on their faces, too.

“But she was so…,” Ruby started again, grimacing as she searched for the right word.

“Unvillainous?” suggested Oscar.

“Yes! I mean, we only met her for a minute, but she seemed so shy and … and she was reading a romance novel!”

“What’s wrong with romance novels?” said Danna.

Ruby huffed. “Nothing! It’s just—”

“It’s just that villains read only manuals on death and destruction?” said Danna, lifting an eyebrow.

Adrian crossed his arms. “So you admit it might be her?”

Danna gawked at him. “I’m not admitting anything! I just don’t think someone’s reading preferences automatically rule them out as an enemy.”

“She does have villain connections…,” mused Oscar. “Including connections to the Anarchists, if her grandpa was selling to them for years. And I guess she does have reason to hate Nova, if she really thinks Nova could have stopped the Detonator that day.”

“None of this matters,” said Danna, “because she’s not Nightmare. She’s a copycat!”

“How do you know?” asked Adrian.

Danna looked at him, frustrated at first, but maybe a little pityingly, too. Adrian bristled.

“What is Nightmare’s superpower?” she asked.

Adrian scowled.

It was Oscar who responded, “Putting people to sleep.”

Danna spread her arms, as if this were evidence enough. “Putting people to sleep. Not walking through mirrors.”

“Yeah…,” started Ruby, mindlessly tapping her finger against the point of her bloodstone. “But Adrian has multiple superpowers. So does Max. It’s not entirely unheard of.”

“You guys, I followed Nova,” said Danna. “I saw her.”

“What exactly did you see?” said Adrian. “You’ve never told us the details.”

She groaned. “There aren’t a lot of details to give. I suspected Nova, so I started following her. At some point, she led me to the cathedral, and that’s how I knew to take you guys there, but I don’t actually remember, because the lepidoptera that was following her is dead.”

Once she had finished, a silence descended on them, and Adrian knew he wasn’t the only one thinking it. He could see the doubt creeping onto Danna’s face, even. Uncertainty. Maybe a twinge of horror.

“It wasn’t a trick,” she insisted. “She couldn’t have—”

“Fooled you,” said Oscar. “Fooled us.”

“Is it possible,” said Adrian, slowly, because he didn’t want Danna to think he was accusing her of anything, “that while you were following Nova, your … lepidoptera … got another lead, and followed the real Nightmare to the cathedral?”

“But…” Danna shook her head. “No. This is absurd. She’s a copycat. An impostor.”

“But why?” said Adrian. “Why would Narcissa Cronin pretend to be Nightmare? She wasn’t on our radar at all before this, and now it’s like she wants us to start hunting for her again?”

Danna cut a sharp glare at him, but he couldn’t help it. With every tick of the big clock on the back of the store’s wall, his perceptions of Nightmare and Nova and Narcissa Cronin were changing. Melding together, then separating again.

“I don’t know,” said Danna, “but do we really think she had a change of heart and decided she would put herself on the line just to prevent the death of a Renegade? A Renegade she hates!”

Oscar shrugged. “I wouldn’t want the death of an innocent person on my hands, even if I did hate them.”