Epilogue
Harriet
The clock has started again. I’ve been working every angle I can think of—a hit-and-run outside Creighton, a body pulled from Lake Erie—and hitting the same dead ends as the police. Three days of minimizing contact with Alexandru means three days of doing this alone, and it shows.
I’m staring at a spreadsheet that isn’t telling me anything when the knock comes. Gregor is out. Alexandru is, as ever, constitutionally incapable of answering a door. I hoist myself out of the chair and go pull the heavy door open.
Standing there is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful men I’ve ever seen: honey-brown hair, sparkling blue eyes, a smile that lights up the night. He’s wearing a three-piece suit of cream linen, like he’s maybe on his way to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.
“Can I help you?”
“I do hope so.” He looks past me into the foyer, curious. Appraising. “I’m a friend of Alexandru’s. Is he in?”
Alexandru has friends?
He walks in without being invited and then turns around, regarding me with a pleasant expression. “I’m sorry, where are my manners?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
He laughs, genuinely delighted. “I like you already.” He extends a hand. “Algernon. Duke of Densmere. But my friends call me Nero.”
“I’m Harriet. Harriet Morgan.” I shake his hand, mesmerized.
Alexandru’s voice comes from behind me, cold and flat. “Step away from him, Ms. Renfield.”
Alexandru stands on the bottom step, perfectly still, perfectly deadly, like he’s carved from the darkness itself. He is the most frightening thing in the room—more frightening than I’ve ever seen him.
Algernon smiles straight at him.
I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t think I want to.
“Ms. Renfield.” Quieter. “Step away from him.”
Nero’s smile doesn’t waver. “Ms. Renfield? I do not believe that’s her name.”
Thank you for reading!