The cab dropped me off a block from the guild. I could’ve walked the entire distance, but that would’ve meant thirty minutes alone with my thoughts.

As I turned the corner and faced the guild’s green awning, I cringed in anxious anticipation—but the street looked exactly as it had three days ago. I cautiously approached the door, unsure what I’d expected. Lines of police tape? A white outline of Todd’s body on the sidewalk? The only sign that a man had died here last night was a dark patch on the dirty concrete. Had it rained, or had someone washed the blood away?

My nerves prickled again. I circled the building and used the side entrance as Tae-min had instructed, punching a six-digit code into the panel beside the door. Ascending to the second level, I peeked into the common room. It was empty. Like Tae-min, the guild’s exhausted members had gone home to sleep and recuperate after spending three straight days hunting Tahēsh.

I continued to the third floor. Tae-min had said the GM’s office was at the end of the hallway. Six doors lined the bland corridor, all closed, but the one directly ahead was open, revealing the corner of a steel desk.

Deep breaths. I tried to remember the advice of my current self-help book, but it felt like months, rather than a week, since I’d last picked it up. I couldn’t even think of a famous mythic from history to inspire me, my mind stubbornly blank.

Raising my chin, I strode to the open door and peered inside. A man sat at the desk, his attention on his computer monitor and his back to a large window with a drab view of the street below. He looked like a Viking in a business suit—bulky, blond, thick beard, deep-set eyes, and a hooked nose.

I raised my hand to knock on the open door, but he looked up first. Surprise splashed over his face, then vanished so quickly I wondered if I’d imagined it.

“Robin Page, I assume,” he barked in a deep, gravelly voice. “About time. You were supposed to come last night.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” I muttered, racking my brain in panic. What was his name? Tae-min had mentioned it, but I couldn’t remember. Crap crap crap.

“Sit down,” he ordered, thrusting his beard toward the plain office chair waiting in front of his desk. As I sank into the seat, he picked up the cellphone beside his elbow, tapped at the screen, then set it down. He returned to squinting at his monitor.

I waited another few seconds, then cleared my throat. “Um, sir?”

“Impressive work last night, Page,” he grunted. “The MPD just issued the paperwork for your bonus.”

“My bonus?”

“For the demon kill. Two hundred grand, split seventy-thirty between you and the guild.” He drummed his fingers on the desktop. “They’re generous with bonuses for unbound demons. Want to ensure everyone is as motivated as possible to take it out fast.”

“Oh,” I said faintly, struggling to appear calm. Any minute now, he would ask about Todd. Someone had found the body and moved it. The GM must know Todd had been murdered. The MPD had to know. The investigation would’ve begun hours ago. “Is … is that what you wanted to see me about?”

He glanced at his phone, its screen black. “Your demon is a new House, is that correct?”

“Um … well, it’s rare,” I hedged.

“Who’s the summoner?”

I kept my expression as neutral as I could. “I’m sorry, but that’s confidential.”

“What about the unbound demon? What do you know about it?”

Fresh alarm blared through me. “What do you mean?”

His cold eyes fixed on me. “I’ve done a lot of research into the Houses. The unbound demon matched the descriptions I’ve found of the First House, but that lineage has been lost since the Athanas summoners disappeared at the turn of the last century.”

I froze, unable to breathe.

“They’re said to be the only summoner line to have possessed all twelve names. And your demon matches no description I’ve ever read.” He leaned forward. “Didn’t your champion mention family secrets?”

My mouth hung open, horror rooting me to the spot. The Athanas summoners. I knew that name, but not because I’d ever read about famous Demonica mythics of the past. Athanas was my grandmother’s maiden name. My mother once told me how all the women in our family had kept the Athanas name until my great-grandmother, who’d abandoned it before emigrating from Albania. I’d never thought to question my mom about the story.

Suddenly desperate to leave, I stammered, “I got my demon from a summoner. I don’t know anything about him or where he learned his demon names.”

“Who is he?” the GM asked again, leaning forward. “Tell me now, Page, and I can protect you.”

Protect me from what? Eyes wide, I shook my head mutely.

“I’m offering to help you, Page.”

“I don’t—”

An electronic chime sent my hand flying to my hip, but the sound had come from his cell. As he checked the message, I slipped my phone out of my pocket. Amalia hadn’t responded to my plea for contact.

“It’s a shame you won’t be more forthcoming, Page,” the GM grunted as he sat back. He tapped his phone on his desk. “You have to understand that building a powerful guild is expensive. When lucrative opportunities present themselves, I can’t pass them by. It’s simple business.”

I stared at him, confused.

“I’m sure you would’ve made a decent asset to the guild, but I’m afraid you aren’t worth that much as a contractor.”

My confusion deepened. “I’m sorry, what—”

He waved a hand, but his gesture didn’t make sense. I squinted uncertainly.

Behind me, a foot scuffed against the carpet. As I leaped from my chair, a hand seized my shoulder and something cold pressed against the back of my neck.

“Ori somno sepultus esto.”

Tingling magic swept over me, followed by suffocating numbness. My limbs collapsed. As I crumpled to the floor, my vision dimmed and my ears filled with buzzing.

A chair dragged across the carpet, then footsteps vibrated closer.

“I didn’t expect her to show,” the GM rumbled, his voice close yet impossibly distant. “Not after she killed Todd.”

“We warned you her demon is lethal. You shouldn’t have sent a lone contractor to take her.”

I knew that voice. Who … who was it …

“Well, at least I don’t have to pay him now,” the GM muttered. “I have two missing members to cover up instead of one. I expect a commensurate increase in my compensation.”

“It’s your fault your man died. We’re paying only for her.”

A harsh laugh. “I hope you know what you’re doing, kid. Once Red Rum pays you, they own you.”

The crackling noise overtook my ears. My head spun, awareness fading, then I was gone.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“You’re a traitorous coward, you know that?”

My head crackled and buzzed like a mistuned radio. I struggled toward consciousness, drowning in noise.

“I was already aware that you’re a putrid vat of slime,” the speaker continued, her acid voice echoing strangely, “but I didn’t realize you were also a self-important yak with no clue how pathetic you really are.”

I knew that angry female voice.

“You’re the one with no clue,” a man retorted.

I knew him as well. With a horrendous effort, I cracked my eyes open.

My vision blurred in and out, then steadied. I was sitting on a flimsy folding chair in a narrow, rectangular room with metal walls and no windows. I couldn’t see a door. The only light came from a battery-powered lantern on the floor beside Amalia, who sat on a chair a few feet away.

When I saw the white zip ties binding her wrists to the chair’s sides, I reflexively jerked my arms. Pain cut into my wrists. I was zip-tied to my chair too.

At my spasming movement, Amalia glanced at me. So did the second person: Travis. Stubble coated his jaw and the lantern light cast harsh shadows over his face, darkening the exhausted circles under his eyes. He regarded me for a moment, then turned back to Amalia.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I only brought you here so you couldn’t tip off Robin that I’d found her. I’ll let you go once we’re done with—”

“No one is going to let me go, you brainless ballsack!” Amalia snapped. “Red Rum will kill me, kill Robin, and probably kill you too. I can’t believe you’re this stupid.”

“They won’t kill anyone. They just want her demon.”

I gasped and almost choked. My mouth was duct-taped shut. Terror burned across my nerves but it was so hard to focus. My mind was spinning and the hissing racket in my ears was deafening. I couldn’t hear myself think. I could barely form thoughts at all.

Amalia closed her eyes as though praying for patience. “Travis, Red Rum is the biggest, meanest, most murderous rogue guild on the west coast. Criminals like them don’t let loose ends like us walk away.”

“Dad can handle them. So can I.”

“Dad couldn’t handle them! He was terrified of them!”

Fighting for every second of clarity, I focused through the unnatural buzzing in my head, struggling to get a better hold on the conversation.