A quieter male voice answered as the door banged open.

“Well, you can just screw right off.” Amalia’s aggressive tones flooded the living room. “Or do you want me to tell the guild officers how you’re lurking around our apartment? Or maybe I’ll tell them some other interesting facts—”

Pulling away from Zylas, I rushed out of the bedroom. “Amalia!”

She jerked away from Ezra, who stood in the doorway. A plastic bag swung from her elbow as she pointed at the mage.

“He says you told him to—”

“I did,” I said breathlessly as Zylas drifted out of the bedroom after me. “He just saved me and Zylas.”

Huffing, she smacked her bag down on the counter. A corner of black fabric spilled out. “Fine. But don’t think you’re fooling us. Robin told me all about your little secret.” Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Nice, law-abiding people don’t end up demon mages by accident.”

“I’m aware.” Ezra stepped inside and shut the door behind him. “How are you, Robin?”

“I’m okay.”

“And Zylas?”

I glanced at the demon, who was hovering behind me. “He’s fine.”

Folding her arms, Amalia leaned against the counter and glared at Ezra. “What happened?”

Sinking onto the sofa, I managed to keep my voice steady as I summed up my and Zylas’s capture and escape. Ezra and Amalia listened intently, the latter’s bad temper fading as I spoke.

“Well, shit,” she muttered, her flinty stare on the mage. “Your timing was awfully convenient.”

“It was lucky. When Robin didn’t show up at the guild or answer her phone, I figured I’d better look for her.”

“I’m glad you did,” I mumbled.

Amalia twisted her mouth. “So Claude has a contract with Zylas now? Or did it fail?”

I gave the demon a brief look. He stood by the balcony doors as Socks wound between his ankles. Ezra frowned at the half-grown kitten as though worried for her safety.

“Well, Zylas?” Amalia demanded. “Are you in another contract?”

The demon shrugged.

“We have more urgent worries,” I pointed out, not wanting to dwell on the possibility that the summoner had power over Zylas. “Claude is still alive, and he’s got the abjuration sorcerers helping him with a spell from the grimoire pages.”

“That must be why he called them to Vancouver,” Amalia mused. “We think they’ve been here three or four weeks. That’s when women started disappearing, right?”

“That lines up with when Claude stole the pages.”

“But what’s he after? What spells are even in the grimoire, aside from summoning rituals?” Amalia bounced her leg nervously. “Have you found any?”

“The grimoire is full of experimental arrays, but I haven’t translated them,” I admitted guiltily. I’d been too busy finding and translating Myrrine’s story to pay attention to Anthea’s spells.

“What grimoire are you talking about?”

I started. I’d forgotten Ezra was there.

“It’s, um …” I cleared my throat. “It’s my family’s grimoire. Claude wants it because it has the name of the Twelfth House, as well as some ancient spells.”

I doubted Ezra could preternaturally detect lies, but that didn’t mean Eterran couldn’t. Better to offer a partial truth than a lie.

Focusing properly on the mage, I sat forward, subconsciously gripping the cushions to brace myself. “Ezra, you saved our lives and I’m grateful, but I haven’t forgotten that you want something from us. You still haven’t told us what.”

Leaning against the wall beside the door, he weighed me, then turned his focus to Zylas and performed the same assessment. A deep magma glow ignited in his left eye.

“We want the Amulet of Vh’alyir.”

Silence pressed down on the apartment, then Amalia pointed at the demon mage and half shrieked, “What the actual f—”

“The imailatē belongs to my House,” Zylas growled. “Not Dh’irath.”

“We do not want to keep it.” Eterran’s accent bled into Ezra’s voice. “We want to use it.”

“What we need,” Ezra clarified, “is information on how it works and how to use its power. Then we just need to … borrow it.”

“You have knowledge of it,” Eterran added. “You can tell us what we need to know.”

My fingers bit into the cushion. In light of Tori’s terse questions about the amulet, I wasn’t entirely surprised, but it wasn’t what I’d expected.

“We don’t have the amulet,” I told the demon mage. “We’re hoping to find it, but …”

“But you lost it after Tahēsh’s death.”

“How do you know about that?” Amalia asked suspiciously.

“Tahēsh tried to give it to me.” Eterran’s power blazed in Ezra’s left eye. “Our Houses have always been allied. He tried to free me. Together, we would have been unstoppable. We would have found a way to return to our world—or we would have spent our years in this world punishing all hh’ainun who have ever dared to enslave a demon.”

His vicious smile morphed into a disgusted grimace. “But I didn’t let him take the amulet,” Ezra said. “Though I didn’t know it’s power then.”

“Back up a hot minute,” Amalia interrupted. “What power?”

Ezra was silent for a moment. If he and Eterran had been separate beings, they would’ve been exchanging a long look—an unhappy one.

“You do not know? Vh’alyir’s imailatē grants its holder immunity to contracts. It is why hh’ainun do not summon the Twelfth House. They believe the Dīnen et Vh’alyir still possess it and would slaughter any summoner.”

My mouth hung open. Zylas looked just as shocked.

“How do you know that?” I asked unsteadily.

“It is known by the Lūsh’vēr and Dh’irath Dīnen. I thought it was a mere story until Tahēsh offered it to me.” He looked at Zylas. “You did not know this?”

The demon’s lips pulled back. “Who would teach me the stories of my House, Dh’irath? You and Lūsh’vēr have killed all who know them.”