She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,
Lewis Carroll

From behind Shin Jaehyuk’s shuttered bedchamber door, Pippa clutched Eloise’s hand in a death grip, her left eye pressed to the keyhole as she watched Arjun Desai wander into a mirror and vanish from sight.

Eloise squeezed back to the point of pain. Pippa knew what she would say even without having to hear the words:

Keep silent, gringa. No matter what you see.

The mirror continued to shimmer long after it had swallowed Arjun Desai whole, as if he were a faceless figure melting into the shadows or a creature of the sea disappearing beneath the waves.

Though Pippa trembled with shock and awareness, she managed to wait a full minute before jumping to her feet and yanking open the door. Eloise grabbed her by the arm to stop her, but Pippa wrenched free and bolted through the darkness toward the pulsing mirror.

“It swallowed him,” she exclaimed in choked wonderment. “Like a gulp of air or a drink of water.”

“I knew it.” Eloise’s whisper was loud. Triumphant. “Those cursed vampires have been concealing a traveling silver this entire time. You’d think they would at least offer to let us use it, given everything we’ve done for them over the years.” She clucked her tongue. “Criaturas ingratas. A traveling silver . . . in our city, all this time.”

“Is a traveling silver different from a tare?” Pippa remembered the word Eloise had used earlier.

“A traveling silver connects places on the mortal plane, while a tare also possesses the ability to connect the earthly realm to the fey realm,” Eloise said. “I don’t think any of these blood drinkers would be foolish enough to leave an actual tare unguarded like this. That would be the height of stupidity, as they are forbidden from entering the world of the fey.”

“Why?”

Eloise waved a dismissive hand. “The blood drinkers made some kind of mistake centuries ago. For it, they were banished to the mortal world.”

“How awful,” Pippa mused. “To be forbidden from returning home.”

“Besides that, an open tare would mean that any kind of creature could use it as doorway from which to come and go. It’s too big a risk.”

“I thought you appreciated risk takers,” Pippa said.

“Claro,” Eloise said. “You’d still be foraging for fruits and nuts and lying naked in caves beside spiders if none of us took any risks. It’s one thing to gamble with one’s own life. But a risk to an entire city of innocents is not a risk at all. It’s foolhardy.”

Pippa continued staring at the surface of the silver, her gaze intent. “So, if this isn’t a tare to the Otherworld, then where would Arjun Desai have gone?”

“Likely back to London, where the comemierda belongs.” Eloise blew another stream of air along the gilt frame of the still-undulating mirror, as if she were attempting to draw any hidden wards to the surface, just as she had around the entrance to the flat. “If his clothing is any indication, he frequents Savile Row far more often than any man should.” No wards appeared, and Eloise frowned, her fingers tapping along her hip.

“Look on the floor and around the frame,” she muttered. “Tell me if you notice anything unusual.” Then she knelt on the floorboards, undoubtedly to peer behind the mirror.

Savile Row. Celine had spoken to Pippa about the street in the heart of London, famed for its bespoke tailors. Was Celine in London now? Had she and Bastien taken this same silver and traveled across the ocean in the blink of an eye? Were they gallivanting on Bond Street and taking tea at Claridge’s while Pippa fretted alone in the damp, sweltering darkness of the Crescent City?

London. A stone’s throw from Liverpool. An ocean and a world away.

The idea that this portal could take Pippa so close to where her brother and sister were in a snap of two fingers tantalized her with possibility.

The damnably beautiful risk of it all.

Never mind that. Pippa had already taken several risks today. Despite the advice of her fencing master to act spontaneously, it was far better to weigh and measure each decision with care. Her grandmother had always said that the best choice was the most righteous one, and doing what Pippa needed to do to take care of her brother and sister—to ensure a future for them all—was the most righteous, God-fearing path.

Enough of this.

It was time for Pippa to honor the commitment she’d made to Phoebus Devereux. To marry him and become a member of his well-heeled family. To cease with any mischief and be a credit to her new name.

But if Pippa could vanish in one instant through a mirror, could she not reemerge a moment later, with none the wiser?

“I can hear the wheels turning in your head, Philippa Frances Jane,” Eloise warned as she stood up and began perusing a scroll of slashing black script along the nearby wall. “I wouldn’t risk it. Especially not if I were you.”

That word again. Risk.

The higher the risk, the greater the reward.

“What do you mean?” Pippa murmured. “Why shouldn’t I take this risk?”

Eloise snorted. “We’ve already established that you’re a hesitater. Though in this instance, your sense of—What the hell are you doing, you stupid gringa?” She lunged a second too late.

Pippa walked through the surface of the shimmering silver without a single glance back.