I was halfway across the records room, weaving in and out of patches of Hellfire, when I realized something important.

  The list I had was circumstantial evidehat Lord Montague had been researg things the shape-gers desired. The paper he’d given to two of them granting them entry into these Archives? A much more solid piece of evidence.

  I turned my attention to my mangled arm first. No healing potions, but I needed something doo it. Staunch the bleeding, repair those strips of flesh. I grabbed them, gritting my teeth in pain, as I forced everything baside my arm. Fog on biosculpting, the skin joined back together. It was a quick, messy fix and I could feel the still loose, torn up flesh moving ih every motion, sending stabs of pain up my arm.

  It was still better than leaving it hanging out and risking worse. As the flesh joined back together, I could hear the screams and yells from outside. Discharging firearms and smashing wood.

  So, I could rush after the two immediately and join that ongoing melee, or try to escape. Although, had they held onto the paper? Had it even survived? One of them had turned into a wolf and the other has been charred. Had they had the paper before ging? Had they passed it to Martel or Arstel before the fighting had broken out?

  I couldn’t remember, but I didn’t o go huntihere was teically a sed person in here with me, even if they could only see through my eyes.

  “The shape-gers that were here,” I said to the Imp. “Did they drop a paper?”

  There was silence for a few moments, then it spoke.

  Yes, one of them had a paper it dropped the first time it turs arm to a on.

  A paper imp nded on my shoulder, screeg as it cwed at my upper arm.

  I bit back a yelp of pain. Those talons were made of paper but cut like metal. I batted it away with a fming hand, paper bursting alight. My arm bled, lines carved into my skin and bleeding.

  Be careful destroying these imposters, The Imp warned me. They may have incorporated the paper into themselves.

  Shite. It robably right. Which did not bode well since most of them had flown out, harrying the pair of gers.

  Five still flew around here, chittering. They kept their distance as the burnt remnants of their rade fell to the ground, paper bed.

  I grabbed a knife and sighed. This would not be pleasant. From the burning, these imps were as weak as paper, but they hit a lot strohan it. And my arm and leg weren’t in the best of ditions. And any sed a ger uard could burst in here from the melee.

  That meant it was best to do this now. I snapped a finger, and new hellfire shot out, c the es of the room. There was only o, and it fuowards me. Chittering paper imps dove at me, cws ah ready.

  It didn’t st long. Paper shredded as I sliced, going for biseg cuts that would damage the paper as little as possible. A cw caught me owice, thrice, and I gritted my teeth as blood traveled down to where my hand gripped the bde. I cut the st one across its throat, and as it exploded into papers, I saw a familiar seal on one of the falling papers. I snatched it from the air, and the sound of a rapidly ringing bell filled the air. Time to leave.

  ***

  ets flew overhead stantly, and I ducked against a bookshelf every time. Not the best means to hide, but the only one I had. I could only hope they were searg for the gers and wouldn’t pay any attention to a solitary figure.

  The ringing arm tinued, never-ending and masking any footsteps around me. I had to believe that they would all be heading to deal with the gers. I might handle some guards, but not nohally. The fallout from what I’d done here would be bad enough without adding killing servants of the to it.

  I hurried down the bookshelves as fast as I could. Everything ached now, impromptu baaung the flow of blood while muscles shrieked and ached. I’d done my best to retrace my steps, but I couldn’t be sure where I was. In my haste, I almost passed by it, but I found the hole and dove inside.

  ***

  When I emerged oher side, my forearm hurting from hurriedly healed flesh, Elise Montague hurried over and helped pull me out.

  “Why are you an Infernal again?” Elise whispered harshly. “And what did you do? They blocked off access to the sed yer entirely and have been guarding every ceivable entrance or exit!”

  “Your father blocked off your secret entrand trapped it,” I snapped back. “And that was just the beginning of reality not matg what you told me about that pce. You certainly didn’t mention the giant floatiinel ets.”

  “I’m sorry, the what?”

  “Never mind,” I muttered. “I have the records of what your father was researg and the paper he gave allowing two shape-gers to e inside here. They are mostly why they sealed off the sed yer.”

  Elise froze, her expression turned fearful. “You’re sure of that?”

  I passed the paper over. “Look it over yourself. You’re probably a better judge of that seal than I am.”

  She snatched it from my hands, her eyes hurriedly sing it before fog on the seal at the bottom. Her expression fell.

  “Father,” she whispered despoly. “What have you dohis is madness. Why would you even risk attag your o this?”

  “Definitely a risk, but if they hadn’t e in while I was getting your father’s records, they would have passed unnoticed,” I said. “The only evidence might have been some dead staff members, but they might have left them alive. Or had a pn to frame someone else. Pure-bloods, more Infernals from the quarter, maybe.”

  Elise was silent, still staring at the piece of paper in a white-knuckle grip.

  “He’s never-” her breath caught, her voice stopping before she started again. “He’s never gohis far. It’s always minor things. Things that aren’t really crimes. This though, this is…”

  Her voice faltered again, and she stared at the paper. I kept a respectful distaaying quiet and not moving.

  I knew some of this, h it could feel to stare betrayal from a family member in the face. Mine had just been at a far younger age and had fallen a lot further down. Then again, was it? I’d had my favorite uncle pull me through the streets by my horns before tossio exile from the house I’d known all my life. Her father was allying with creatures that days beforehand had almost killed every member of her family.

  After enough time had passed that I felt she’d sidered the implications enough and the desire to give her time warred with reality, I clopped back over to where she sat.

  I cleared my throat. “Not to sound iive, but we o get out of here. Preferably without me getting captured by the guards.”

  “Right,” she muttered, shaking her head slightly. “Why are you an Infernal? I thought the Biosculpting would st lohan this?”

  “It’s supposed to,” I said. “However, it seems your father knows of your secret entrance. I had to rot my way through a bookshelf, and since I didn’t want the run-off causing any chaos, instead it reversed my disguise.”

  And might have done a little more than that, but I would not discuss details like that with a near-stranger.

  “They’re going to i anyone leaving,” Elise said, eyes narrowing as she thought. “Hiding what you are isn’t something that would be easy. You ’t biosculpt back to your disguise?

  I shook my head. “Even if I had the same reference I used when I created it, it would take hours of work to put into pce. It took me a whole day to create, and we don’t have that time. How have you kept any curious staff from asking where I am?”

  “They haven’t been inside. When you’re the daughter of the man who pays their wages, they respect your wishes a little more. Especially when those wages are so meager to begin with. So they’ve mostly just accepted my word you’re still in here, deep in research.”

  That…was not very believable, but starting an argument over that wouldn’t help either of us. What mattered was that it wouldn’t look toe if Petrou Xides reappeared. The issue was making me look like Petrou again.

  “Maybe you could kidnap me?” Elisa said.

  “I…what?” Any potential train of thought broken, I looked at the young noblewoman. “Kidnap you?”

  “You broke into the archives to abduct me?” The young noblewoman suggested, looking at the door. “Came in, killed Petrou, then break out threatening to kill anyone who got in your way?”

  What fresh fvor of insanity was this? “And why would I break into here to abduct you?”

  Elise looked up at the ceiling, cheeks c slightly before l her gaze to mine. “Money. Revenge. Perhaps some motivation romantically ined?”

  I coughed lightly, suddenly aware of how I was suddenly treading on very fragile ice. “Not that I don’t dislike the idea, but this seems a rather sudden and dramatic leap to make.”

  “It is,” Elise admitted. “Do you have a better idea?”

  Phrasing it like we should gh with it if I didn’t have an immediate answer did not do my brain any favors for this. Why was Elise Montague trying to draw me into what sounded like a long-harbored fantasy?

  “I ’t biosculpt myself bato Petrou,” I said. “I biosculpt myself to appear…well more human, although it will not be a perfect job. The ges will literally be skin-deep. A lot of the more involved alterations would take too long. I think I do enough of a job to pass casual observation. With the chaos iher yers, the observation might not stop at casual. y it by ear.”

  Elise sighed, although whether from dissatisfa with my pn or that we would not go for the ‘Malvia kidnaps me for romance’ idea, I did not know.

  “I suppose that is a better idea,” she admitted.

  “It is,” I said, and as the sileer that statement grew, to relieve the tension, I added to that. “A motivation that is ‘romantically ined’?”

  Elise groaned, putting her head in her hands. “I don’t have a lot of funds from the family, but I promise you a few months if you fet I ever said those words.”

  I smiled slightly, sitting dowo the noblewoman. “As someone who, as you said, goes into iptions over the idea of being kissed, I will not judge you over suffering the same affli. I am a little curious about what brought it on, though?”

  She groaned again, trying to shrink in on herself before finally answering.

  “The situation, sneaking around these archives, going on an adveo uncover some spiracy, I never imagined I’d be able to take part in something like that,” Elise said, befroaning once more. “Oh Tarver, this will sound so stupid. I read, still read, books like that all the time, and living o…I lost myself, okay? There’s always some dashing hero or heroine, sometimes even a bandit or criminal, just waiting t th-”

  Her voice faltered as she trailed off. I smiled slightly.

  “I read those books too,” I admitted. “Although I’m more a fan of the romances, but I get the appeal.”

  She returned my smile before suddenly stiffening slightly. “Wait, is that the reason you are on pins and needles with everything involving Gregory all the time?”

  My smile vanished and suddenly I wish I was the one disappearing. I’d said too much.

  “It..I…”

  Elise srying to restrain ughs as a smile appeared on her face. “I’m sorry, you’ve cast my brother as the dashing stranger in a romanovel where you are the protagonist?”

  You know, if she kept talking, we wouldn’t o disguise me. I’d be shruo a ti out of embarrassment by the end of this.

  “It’s superb casting,” she said, lips quirking. “I see why you did it. Still, it’s a little hard to recile that image with my brother. But it makes things fall more into pce. You’ve been trying te ses with him from the moment you two met, haven’t you?”

  “I have not!” I insisted, cheeks reddening. “You read far too muto what happened.”

  “Sure,” she replied, the smile turning into a smug grin. “I’ve read far too muto you, deliberately getting him into a er and practically cheering on the idea of him making out with you.”

  “Have mercy,” I muttered. “Please, just shoot me.”

  She chuckled. “Well, I don’t have a gun, and I’ve never fired one before, so I think that’s a bit out of the question. I tell you what, you don’t tell anyone I suggested you kidnap me and run off into the horizon together, I won’t tell ahe big bad diabolist is busy trying to get my bck sheep of a brother to lock lips with her?”

  “Deal,” I said hurriedly, before a thought hit me. “Although, if you could put a good word in, perhaps? To your brother? Without making it clear it was from me?”

  “Only if you promise to do the same iure if the ce ever arises,” Elise replied.

  “I don’t think you’ll get much out of that,” I admitted. “Diabolist criminal teracts any good words I could say to someone about you.”

  “Still, it’s a fair trade. But we o get out first. You said you could disguise yourself?”

  “To a degree,” I said. “I force the horns somewhere else, force the outermost yer of skin to ge color. The rest though….a long skirt will have to serve for the legs. We’ll o bundle up my tail as well. The fangs….I’ll not open my mouth. The scales will hopefully be hidden by yering on the color. Ear….hair. I prefer wearing it back but forward a little should do. For the nails, hands in the pockets. The rest…I’ll think of something. I will need your help with this.”

  “I promise not to take advantage,” Elise said, face gone solemn.

  That had not been on my mind till now. No matter. I should focus instead on the real issue.

  I could make what adjustments I wanted, but there was no ceivable way this would pass muster against an actual iion. Time to prepare for when the disguise failed.

  Saithorthepyro