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CHAPTER 1

Schuyler

There had been little ti to New York after Lawrence’s murder in Rio (covered up by the Committee with a proper obituary in the Times), Schuyler Van Alen had been on the run No rest No respite A year of constanther A flight to Buenos Aires followed by one to Dubai A sleepless night in a youth hostel in Amsterdaes

She had marked her sixteenth birthday aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, celebrating with a cup of watery Nescaf¨¦ coffee and several crumbly Russian tea cookies Somehow, her best friend, Oliver Hazard-Perry, had found a candle to light in one of the suharkies He took his job as human Conduit pretty seriously It was thanks to Oliver’s careful accounting that they had been able to stretch their money so far The Conclave had frozen his access to the well-funded Hazard-Perry accounts as soon as they had left New York

Noas August in Paris, and hot They had arrived to find host town: bakeries, boutiques, and bistros shuttered while their proprietors absconded to three-week vacations in the beaches up north The only people around were Aallery, every garden in every public square, inescapable and ubiquitous in their white sneakers and baseball caps But Schuyler welco croould make it easier for her and Oliver to spot their Venator pursuers Schuyler had been able to disguise herself by changing her physical features, but perfor a toll on her She didn’t say anything to Oliver, but lately she couldn’t even do so e the color of her eyes

And now, after al out into the open It was a ga without the protection and wisdoroup of trusted humans had taken its toll And while neither of the

So for now Schuyler was seated in the back of a bus, wearing a pressed white shirt buttoned to the neck over slim black pants and flat black shoes with rubber soles Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and except for a hint of lip gloss, she wore nostaff who had been hired for the evening But surely someone would notice Surely so, would re was shallow and quick She had to calm down She had to clear her mind and beco to be For soinvisible This ti thee to the H’tel Lambert on the isle Saint-Louis, a small island on the Seine River The Lambert was the most beautiful house in the most beautiful city in the world At least, she had always thought so Although "house" was putting itout of a fairy tale, itsfro ardens, where the conical sculpted trees re i bread cru the Seine How she had taken that life for granted! Tonight she would not enter the hotel’s exclusive, exalted douest, but rather as a hu into a hole Schuyler was anxious by nature, and she needed alether At any ht scream, she was already so nervous she couldn’t stop her hands fro in her lap like trapped birds

Next to her, Oliver was handsome in a bartender’s uniform, a tuxedo with a black silk bow tie and silver shirt studs But he was pale beneath his butterfly collar, his shoulders tense under a jacket that was a little too big His clear hazel eyes were clouded, looking reen Oliver’s face did not display the same blank, bored look as the others He was alert, ready for a fight or flight Anyone who looked at hih could see it

We shouldn’t be here, Schuyler thought What e thinking? The risk is too great They’re going to find us and separate us and then well, the rest was too horrible to conte under her starched shirt The air-conditioning wasn’t working, and the bus was packed She leaned her head against the pane Lawrence had been dead for over a year now Four hundred forty-five days Schuyler kept count, thinking that

This was no gah sometimes it felt like a horrid, surreal version of cat and mouse Oliver put a hand on top of hers to try and stop her hands froht twitching, but soon she realized she had to concentrate whenever she did so as simple as pick up a fork or open an envelope She knehat it was, and there was nothing she could do about it Dr Pat had told her the first time she visited her office: she was the only one of her kind, Di how her human body would react to the transformation into immortal; there would be side effects, obstacles particular to her case Still, she felt better once Oliver held her hand in his He always knehat to do She depended on him for so much, and her love for hiether She squeezed his hand, intertwined her fingers around his It was his blood that ran through her veins, his quick thinking that had secured her freedo they had left behind in New York, Schuyler did not dwell on it anymore All of that was in the past She had made her choice and was at peace with it She had accepted her life for what it was Once in a while she missed her friend Bliss very keenly, and et in touch with her, but that was out of the question No one could knohere they were No one Not even Bliss

Maybe they would be lucky tonight Their luck had held so far Oh, there had been a few close calls here and there, that one evening in Cologne when she’d abruptly run from a woman who had asked for directions to the cathedral Illuht that soft i as fast as she could Disguises only went so far At some point, your true nature revealed itself

Wasn’t that what the Inquisitor had argued during the official investigation into the events in Rio? That maybe Schuyler wasn’t who she was supposed to be?

Outlaw Fugitive That’s what she was now Certainly not Lawrence Van Alen’s grieving granddaughter

No

According to the Conclave, she was his killer

CHAPTER 2

Mi icky Beyond icky It squished beneath her foot, a wet, gasping sound Whatever it was, it was sure to ruin her pony-hair boots What was she doing wearing pony-hair boots to a reconnaissance mission anyway? Mie The zebra pattern was stained with so brown and leaky

Beer? Whiskey? A combination of all the bottom-shelf alcohol they served in this place? Who knew? For the umpteenth tined up for this assignhts she should be on a beach in Capri, working on her tan and her fifth li around some honky-tonk bar in the middle of the country Somewhere between the dust bowl and the rust belt, or was it the rust bowl and the dust belt? Wherever they were, it was a sleepy, sad little place, and Mimi couldn’t wait to leave it