I forgot how to breathe. My heart may have faltered too, a brief, terrifying silence between beats. An avalanche of ice broke down my spine as I stared at the three men in the room, my sense of safety evaporating like smoke. Crimson flickered in Ermes’s eyes, and panic bloomed in my chest like a living thing.

“We’re not going to hurt you, Domitilla.”

Gosto’s deep, sonorous voice snapped my head in his direction. He took a step toward me. I pressed myself harder against the wall, ...