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“Most everyone?”

“I have an affinity for shadows. I’ll sense if something is traversing them. But I cannot be everywhere at once.”

“You think he’s going to send it again?”

“I do. He made it very clear he will continue to disrupt the running of this hotel until he forces you to sell.”

If Zee died, I wasn’t sure I’d want to continue with the hotel anyway. He’d made everything easier with his boundless enthusiasm and crazy comments. It wouldn’t have been the same without him. But that wouldn’t happen. I was getting him back.

I rubbed my face and sighed. “If you can sense it, why didn’t you warn me during the meeting with Cain?”

“I did. If you remember correctly, I was trying to persuade you to leave when it attacked.”

I did recall him trying to tug me toward the door while I’d been yelling at Gideon. The sorcerer had shaken me to the core. I’d been exposed, afraid, and had lashed out, ignoring Reynard’s attempt to usher me out of danger. Not my finest moment. Nor were the moments after.

“Although, I didn’t realize he was summoning the beast, just that he was doing something maleficent.”

I lowered myself into the chair by the window. “It’s the signet ring, isn’t it? The ring he wore is its anchor. It needs an object to anchor it in this realm. If we can get that ring off him, he won’t be able to control the shadowbeast.”

Reynard considered it while sipping his tea. “He’s unlikely to agree to a second meeting.”

“And we don’t have time. He has Zee shut away somewhere, starving him of attention.” Zee was no pushover. The shadowbeast must have ambushed him not long after he’d left me in the elevator. But to surprise him, the beast must have manifested inside the hotel. But that wasn’t possible. Unless . . .

I shot from the chair and headed out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Reynard asked, appearing at my side in a blink.

“The attic.”

From the stairwell, a tiny door disguised as wooden paneling opened into a narrow, spiral staircase. Zee didn’t have to take the stairs—his wings wouldn’t fit—he simply manifested in the attic, but Reynard and I had to climb the spiderweb-infested staircase into the roof space. Zee’s perch by the small window was draped in morning sunlight, highlighting his absence, making my heart stutter and stall.

“What is this place?” Reynard asked, eyeing the beanbag and stool.

“Zee’s space.”

“Doesn’t he have a room?”

“Yes, but he likes it up here.”

“An odd choice of refuge for an attention whore.”

“It would be, except that’s not all he is.” I stood under the roof apex, with the old beams stretched above me holding up the main section of pitched roof. “He said there’s a space up here where the wards don’t reach. He uses it to get a phone signal.”

Reynard looked about us with renewed interest. “And you think that’s where the shadowbeast got in?”

“Seems logical.”

Reynard moved to the back of the roof, away from the window and toward the deepest, darkest corner of the eaves. He knelt and touched the floorboards. “Here.” He showed me the dust on his fingers, blackened, like soot. “Residue left over from the creature’s traversing of realms. You’re right, this is where it got in.”

“I’ll have Madame Matase seal it up.”

“No, leave it.” Reynard straightened and brushed dust from his hands. “Is this the only place you know of where it can enter?”

“I think so.”

“Then we know where it will come from, and we can trap it.”

“Trap it . . . how?”