Whatever Iro felt about her now, Lore knew that Iro would feel duty-bound to kill her for what Lore had done the night she’d fled their estate.

“I think I know where the Odysseides are,” Lore told them finally. “But I can’t approach them. They’d kill me before I got over the threshold.”

“What?” Miles said. “Why?”

She didn’t regret what she’d done, but she also didn’t feel like she needed to share it with an audience. “Family problems.”

Athena tilted her head, deepening her resemblance to a raptor. “Would the death be justified?”

“In their eyes? Yes,” Lore said. “It’s not like the old way, when you could compensate them or exile yourself.”

“Are you not exiled now?” Athena asked. “Is that not enough to satisfy their anger?”

The ancient law had been focused on anger—the anger of the wronged, and the need to answer to it. Anger was like a disease to the soul, and no aspect of it was more contagious than violence. If it could be avoided, it would end a vicious cycle before it began. But this was a vicious society.

“I don’t know,” Lore said. “I wasn’t planning on ever finding out.”

“So you were with them,” Van said. By the way he was looking at her now, Lore knew that he had a good idea about what she had done, even before he said. “The new Aphrodite, Heartkeeper—”

“Heartkeeper?” Lore repeated, making a face. “Is it just me or are these names getting stupider?”

“If Lore can’t approach them,” Castor said, “a Messenger might be able to.”

Van shook his head. “The asset in the Kadmides wants to meet again tonight. I can’t be in both places at once.”

“I can do it,” Miles said. “The asset meet, I mean.”

“Wait—no,” Lore said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It’s a terrible idea, actually,” Van said. “It’s not just a meet. I have to retrieve one of my go-bags for the cash.”

“So? Tell me where it is and where to meet him,” Miles said.

Van said nothing.

“What, is there some elaborate handshake I need to learn?” Miles asked. “Does he not speak English?”

Lore sighed, pressing a hand to her face. “Miles . . .”

“Let me do something,” Miles said. “I can’t fight, but I know this city and how to get around it.”

“No,” Van said firmly.

“You claim to be a disciple of logic,” Athena said. “Surely you see that this is the best course. He is unknown to your kind and familiar with the city. The task itself does not require unique skill so much as discretion.”

“Exactly!” Miles said. “I’ll go straight there and come straight back.”

“And what if the asset tries to kill you and take the money?” Van asked.

“You’ve still got the dirt on him,” Miles shot back, more than willing to meet Van’s cold gaze. “He’s not going to do anything that risks you releasing it in retaliation.”

“Miles does have a point . . .” Castor began.

“I was planning on linking up with the twenty-seven Achillides after,” Van told him. “And trying to find them a place to shelter. All of our safe houses and properties are compromised, along with most of our vaults and stockpiles—”

“I know a place they can use,” Miles cut in. “That is, if you can find it in yourself to accept help from a mere Unblooded.”

Van said nothing, and his face betrayed little more.

“Where is it?” Castor asked.

“An abandoned warehouse,” Miles said. “In Brooklyn. I sat in on a meeting about it at my internship. The building’s been empty for over a decade because of a dispute between the city and its developers.”

“That’ll work,” Castor said. “Thank you.”

Miles smiled. “It’ll at least give them a chance to regroup. What’s the best way to get them the address?”

“Van?” Castor prompted.

The other young man sat stiff-backed, gaze fixed on the light seeping through the bay window’s pale curtains. “I can text them the address.”

Lore sighed. “Are you really up for this, Miles?”

“I am,” Miles said.

“You have to promise to bail if something—anything—seems strange about it,” Lore said.

“Everything is strange about your world,” he reminded her. “But I’ll be careful.”

“Fine,” Van said, rising.

“Fine,” Miles said, doing the same.

“That’s our plan, then,” Lore told them.

“We still don’t know where to find the Odysseides,” Castor reminded her, bracing his hands on his knees.

“I do,” Lore said. “Or I can at least make an educated guess.” She glanced at the grandfather clock. “I’m going to take a shower and close my eyes for a few minutes, so I’m not completely dead on my feet. Let’s aim to leave no later than five, before sunset.”

“Do I have to wait that long?” Miles asked.

“Are you really in that big of a hurry to get yourself killed?” Van said. He picked up his phone. “I’m just going to tell the asset to change the meet to tomorrow—”

“No,” Miles said. “Discussion over. Lore is going to lead everyone to where the Odysseides are, so that you can approach them about a truce to trap Wrath and get information about the poem. Castor is going to play defense against Wrath. Athena is going to play offense. And I’m going to do this meet and get whatever information the asset has because you have no other option.”

All of that depended, of course, on the occupants of Lore’s house not killing one another first.

Van’s lips parted and he stared at Miles, just a moment more, before he busied himself with his phone.

“When did we decide I’m defense?” Castor asked at the same time Athena said, “There shall be no play in my offensive—”

Lore left the others and went upstairs, shutting the door to her bedroom behind her. She set an alarm and crawled into bed.

She lay atop the covers, listening as the sound of the voices below faded to a dull murmur. After a few moments more, her heavy eyelids slid shut.

Iro’s face appeared there, emerging from the darkness of her memory. That last glimpse Lore had had of her, smiling in encouragement.

Oblivious to the monster in their midst.

LORE WOKE TO THE frantic beep of her phone’s alarm, lurching out of a heavy, dreamless black. She squinted at the time on the phone—a quarter past four o’clock in the afternoon—and immediately regretted having ever slept. Her muscles felt stiff over her bones, and no amount of stretching helped.

After changing into a clean pair of jeans and a black T-shirt, Lore stepped out into the hallway, listening for the voices of the others. But the town house was silent.

One last moment of peace, she thought, taking a steadying breath.

Even if things went right for them with Heartkeeper, nothing would ever be the same for Lore. Once the Odysseides knew she was alive, there would be no respite for her. After tonight, she might not be able to stay in the city, let alone the town house. There would be no safe place for her here.