It hit Nova that she had no reason to trust the man who called himself Julian Somnare. His words were still swimming through her head. "You always were trouble" and "you look beautiful tonight" and "a little entitled in that dress." Who was this man acting like he knew her so well? If he let Ilan Potestas die she would rip his throat out, but that wouldn't bring the man she had come to think of as a father back from the dead.

One second Julian Somnare had been in the middle of the crowded dance floor with two masked assassins between him and Ilan, and before she could blink he was up on the balcony behind the boss, and the three shooters were neutralized. The bystanders were shocked, some gasped or yelled, most fell quiet and for a second the rooftop was silent, hands in front of mouths, breaths held, every body frozen still as if time were stopped.

The guardia moved in to disarm the culprits and close their gunshot wounds with magic, and it was all over. Sound returned, the guests rumbled incoherent guesses and questions, but all Nova wanted to know was how Mr. Somnare had known exactly what was going to happen.

It was his turn to be interrogated.

Nova drew toward the balcony, sliding unimpeded past everyone else. The first thing the boss said to his rescuer was "Who are you?" and not thank you.

Julian sidled close to the boss, almost hiding behind him, uncomfortable with the attention. Every pair of eyes at the party had found him. "Boss, I'll answer all of your questions, if we could please speak in private." Questioning inflection. Barely audible volume.

Against Nova's expectations, Ilan backed down. "That will be fine." One hand on his chest, he breathed heavily. "But I want to know what just happened." He steadied himself and glared the prisoners down as tower security escorted them, hands bound, inside. "I want answers, I want to know how they entered the building armed, and how you knew about it. And I want to know who you are, because my guests have been asking and it seems not one person has any idea." He didn't trouble to keep his voice down.

A guest shouted seemingly in reply. "Isn't that the man who was bothering Aurelian Dasilva earlier?" It was Justin Marius.

Nova hated to be called Aurelian; a pain bit her insides. The heir title could not be lost even if one were orphaned by those she had been heir to. There was no Exequi Dasilva to replace, no Dasilva family.

"Didn't he say someone's life was in danger?" Exequi Marius broadcast his voice from behind his white mask to the four corners of the roof. The other guests rumbled agreement.

Potestas looked at Julian Somnare and said, "Right before someone tried to kill me? Is that true?"

"Please," said Julian, "Let me tell you in private."

The boss assented and stepped down from the balcony, then led Julian toward the penthouse doors. Now it seemed the whole body of the crowd shifted toward them and followed. Nova had to push someone out of the way to catch up with them, and Justin Marius chased after too. He chose to press, still shouting, "I also noted that none of the other guests know you, Mr. Somnare."

Everyone stopped again, and the boss seemed to expect an answer to that from Julian Somnare.

Some of the attention shifted to Nova, and she took advantage. "He's a friend of mine, Exequi." An easy enough lie to see through, but all she needed was a minute to question Julian Somnare. "Now, I hope everyone will join me in a toast, to the director's long life and health, and to Mr. Somnare, his protector."

"To the director and to Mr. Somnare," echoed a weak chorus; few toasters even remembered to drink from their glasses. Not her best smooth over, but she and the boss were able to get Cristo almost to the penthouse doors before they were stopped again, this time not by a mere board member, but by the chief of police. "Stop a moment, Exequi Potestas," said Chief Valda. "Shots were fired on your balcony, and I need to conduct a thorough investigation."

The boss stopped, but relaxed in his posture, enjoying his height advantage over the man who held him up. "You have complete access to Potestas Tower, and the guardia have never been restricted from Constellation Invernali's holding cells. You may interrogate my prisoners, though my security will be present to learn anything the guardia learns." He began to turn away, and so did Nova and Julian Somnare, but Valda wasn't satisfied. "Not the prisoners," he said. He pointed a finger at Julian Somnare and said, "I have a few questions for him. I need to see the weapon used in the neutralization of Vincent Cassus and Sera Cassus."

Nova and Potestas looked again back at Julian Somnare for answers. He stepped toward Chief Valda with empty hands spread and said, "I don't have a weapon, I turned Lien Cassus's gun on her co-conspirator siblings. I pressed Lien Cassus's finger to the trigger."

There were still plenty of objections for Valda to make: was Mr. Somnare in Constellation employ? Did he know how Constellation firearms worked and that what he described was impossible? How did he cross the roof in the blink of an eye — but at this point the boss was ready to defend Julian Somnare. "Chief, you may not interrogate my rescuer. That will be enough questions for tonight. I'm sure you have plenty for the three who committed a crime."

"I need to check him for weapons, Exequi. If I don't find any, then he may go free for the night," said Valda.

No one objected. Julian Somnare stood still and allowed the chief of police to pat him down.

In a second Valda was satisfied. He wished them a good night and stormed away, off into the penthouse ahead of them. Nova didn't know whether the police chief believed Julian's story about Lien Cassus's gun . . . but she knew she didn't.

No sooner had the thought occurred to her than the missing gun appeared in front of Nova, held out in an unfamiliar white hand between herself, the boss, and Julian Somnare. The fourth person, the man holding the gun, said, "Mr. Potestas of Invernali, Doctor Louis Reveur sent me to give this to you."

Julian reacted fast. He pressed the gun into the man's hand and closed his fingers around it, then pushed the man's arm back into the opening of his suit jacket, hiding the illegal firearm. A second later he had his arm around the stranger's shoulders and started walking again. "Can we please, please get somewhere private, Boss?" he said.

No one else spoke. Nova and the boss rushed the pair of law-breaking vigilante strangers inside, down a hallway, and into Potestas's office. Then, finally, Nova began her onslaught.

"Start explaining." She forgot the second, unnamed stranger who had a gun from Louis Reveur to get the answers she wanted from Julian Somnare. "You knew exactly what was going to happen — at what time, on what night — as if you'd seen it all before. You don't look at all surprised. You even knew where each of the assassins would be standing so you could neutralize them — crossing half the rooftop and defusing three shooters — while I was busy blinking. How did you know?" By the time she was done she realized none of those were the question she most wanted answered, and she spat at the two strangers, "Who even are you?"

"My name is Cristo," said Julian Somnare, and he stopped for a second to let it sink in that he had lied to her about his name. Then he, Cristo, added, "This is Leander Prince."

The boss took advantage of the silence Nova was fuming in to say, "We owe you our thanks, Cristo," while Nova was speechless. Which didn't last long.

"Yes, thank you. Now, explain yourself," she snapped.

"Okay," said Cristo. "I suppose there's no other way than to tell you the truth." Only he wasn't going to. If he and Nova were pitched against one another playing tug of war over who gets to change history, he would keep that between him and Nova for now. Instead, ducking his head and looking at his shoes, he said, "Tell them, Leander. What Louis told you."

Leander squinted at him as if to see through his flesh all the way to the bones. He shook his head. "Doctor Reveur sent me with a warning to the director of Invernali. If you live to see the board meeting tomorrow, you won't be happy." And the look he gave Cristo next said, back to you. As if it was Cristo's move again, and Leander was watching each and every one.

If you're enjoying the party so far, assassination attempt notwithstanding, please leave me a star. Thanks for reading!