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“No boyfriend,” she said. “There was one guy, Mason. But it was…casual. He would come in and out of my room at night—” She shrugged. “How detailed do you want this story to be?”

“Not at all. I find I am bored already,” he said.

It felt like a challenge. Dru looked at him through her eyelashes; he was standing with his sword seemingly forgotten in his hand. She started toward him without warning, her sword raised. Instinctively, he lifted his practice blade to block her.

Perfect.

She stepped quickly toward him, pushing into his space in a way he wouldn’t be expecting—most fighters would never get this close to an opponent; it would shorten the reach of their weapon. But Dru wasn’t trying to stab him. She turned her wrist so that her sword was nearly vertical, the flat of the blade facing him, and wrapped her other arm around his blade—all the while hoping her training gear would protect her as it should—before her hand closed around its hilt.

She twisted it hard and his grip broke. The practice blade clattered to the ground, and Ash looked at her with an expression of surprise that seemed very real as she tapped his shoulder lightly with her own sword.

“I get to ask another question,” she said.

“What was that?” he demanded. “I’ve never seen someone disarm their enemy that way.”

“We use the word opponent here,” Dru said primly. “Not enemy.”

His smile flickered, returned. “I want you to show me how to do that.”

She winked at him archly. Let him think she was flirting. “The question first.”

“If you like,” he said.

Dru steeled herself. “Why are you loyal to Janus?”

Ash’s expression changed. The smile was gone, his face blank as a wall. “I owe him,” he said, shortly.

“He’s…not a good person,” Dru said. “I think you know that.”

“And I am?” His voice was flat. “A good person?”

Maybe you can still be saved.

Maybe you don’t want saving.

She couldn’t give him a real answer. It would be too dangerous, even if a part of her wanted to do it, wanted to break his unflappable calm. “That depends,” she said. “What do you want? Do you want to follow Janus, cooperate with his plans?”

Ash hesitated. “I fear his love is a blindfold. He does not see the darkness of the path he is choosing. He does not see the dangers.”

“Does he see the immorality?” Dru said quietly.

She had expected him to reply that there was no immorality. But he didn’t, only grew still, as if he had forgotten the weapon in his hand. “You are too curious,” he said. “I think we’re done for this session.”

He went to hang his sword back up on the wall. Dru did the same, neither of them speaking. She almost wished Ash would fill the silence with his usual mixture of mockery, arrogance, and peculiar honesty. If only she could make him stay, even for a few more minutes, maybe she could get more information out of him. The Queen and Janus were Dru’s enemies; knowing more about them could only be good.

“If you really wish to fight as a Shadowhunter fights, you will need to learn to apply runes,” Dru said. “Not just to receive them.”

He turned around, his look piercing. “You want me to place a rune on you?”

I didn’t say that. But he’d jumped straight to that conclusion, and he’d been correct. Dru wasn’t sure she liked the thought that he knew her that well.

“It’s important that you learn,” Dru said, glancing down as if she were feeling shy. “But only if it would please you.”

“What rune do you want? I imagine you know that there are some I will not give you.”

“A Memory rune,” she said promptly.

“Oh? Why?”