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and heard from him. Hearing his own voice startled him back to reality. Alysia was here, but she wasn’t alone—and what was she doing here?
    “And this is …?” he asked as Alysia pushed him away with a seemingly sad smile. The figure in the doorway still hadn’t stepped forward enough that he could see her. Did she know that, at this hour, the light pouring in around her made her featureless to anyone who wished to preserve any night vision?
    “Christian,” Alysia said, her voice perfectly even, “this is Sarik, an associate of mine from SingleEarth.”
    SingleEarth!
He had a million questions he wanted to ask.
    “It’s nice to meet you,” the other woman said.
    Despite the polite words, she did not step forward or offer to shake his hand. Clearly, she wasn’t a threat; she wasn’t even brave enough to enter the building. She didn’t matter.
    “Why are you here?” he asked Alysia.
    It wasn’t the question he wanted to ask. What he wanted to know was why she
hadn’t
been there for the past two years. The last time Christian had heard anything about Alysia, there had been a two-million-dollar price on her head. The only thing that kept him from demanding answers immediately was that he didn’t know what game Alysia was playing—yet.
    “We’re here on SingleEarth business,” Alysia answered.
    He tensed almost imperceptibly as she reached into a pack she was carrying, but the only weapons she retrieved were useless without a crossbow: three Onyx bolts.
    “Do you recognize these?”
    He did, instantly. He could even tell how old the firestone was, and who had made it, which gave him all sorts of theories that only confused him more. “They’re ours,” he replied. “Pandora made the firestone.”
    “How can you tell?” the other woman—what did she say her name was?—asked.
    Stupid question. Firestone could only be made by Tristes, and any Triste could read the signature left on it.
    “Why bring these to me?” he asked.
    Alysia hesitated, which was when Christian realized how stupid he had been.
    Alysia hadn’t come here looking for
him
. If anything, she would have picked this hour because she knew when the Hall was normally empty. She hadn’t wanted to see anyone—or be seen herself.
    Was this the first time? Or had she been here dozens of times, even hundreds? Like him, she was a third-ranked member; she had access to private contracts that could be accepted and fulfilled in complete secrecy.
    Alysia looked to her cohort, and the other woman cleared her throat as if nervous.
    “As Alysia said, we’re here from SingleEarth,” she said. Her voice was smooth like a politician’s, with a meaninglessly friendly tone and a bland Midwestern accent. “Three of our people were attacked this morning with these weapons. Alysia recognized them and said that someone from here was probably responsible.”
    Christian’s patience was running out fast, making him recall all the aches he still carried in his body. “Alysia is probably right,” he answered. “What’s your point?”
    Her carefully controlled tone broke, long enough for her to snap, “Our people could have been
killed
, and—”
    Genuinely surprised, he interrupted, “Whoever did this
missed
?”
    “They didn’t
miss
,” she bit out, before taking a step back, swallowing tightly, and getting her voice under control. “Alysia understands the logistics more than I do, but she thinks the archer didn’t intend to kill.”
    There were plenty of people in SingleEarth who might have had enemies from their previous lives—Alysia was a prime example—but Christian couldn’t imagine a contract going up to harass SingleEarth’s members without a kill intended. Alysia’s information was probably good, if she was telling the truth, but since Christian couldn’t imagine her in SingleEarth, he had no idea whether she had any reason to lie.
    “The shots were professional, easily third-rank,” Alysia said, “but I’ve never heard of