Leudora made a few slow painful steps before Dragomir shifted gravity and caught her with his right hand as she fell. To him she must have seemed light as a dandelion seed. Leudora gasped as she found herself tightly clasped and hoisted up: it hurt her, but humiliation caused more discomfort than her physical weakness. Reluctantly, she attempted to free herself from his grip, but his arm tightened reflexively, coiling around her frame like a constrictor squeezing its prey.

"I can walk, Guardian Drašković."

"Not fast enough," he replied, quickening his pace. Leudora barely discerned an outline of a glider in the distance, feeling a chill snake up her spine.

"You can use neither gliders nor slippers," she said, "Both leave traceable signatures once identified."

"I'm aware of that," he responded drily, not weakening his grip. Biting her lips to keep herself conscious, Leudora did not resist. Only if she consolidated power and waited could she stand her ground against the Serpent.

"I will take a car and transport you across the border beyond the Veil." He removed his dolman with one swift spin and wrapped it around Leudora's shoulders. "You are losing too much blood, and elevated iron levels leave a trace that every gravity-switcher can follow. I will have to stitch your shoulder to neutralize this effect."

Gritting her teeth, Leudora pushed away a sudden wave of terror: What else did this man know about the physical consequences of overextending one's enhancement? He was supposed to be a chemist, not a doctor.

The Serpent left Leudora on the ground in front of an old Fiat car parked on the outskirts of the village. Pulling the burgundy-colored dolman over her back, Leudora felt her blood soak the stiff fabrics, spreading like freshly spilled ink over dry paper. Leudora did not know if it was stubbornness, pride or vanity that sustained her vitality. She did not care either.

Drašković opened the door of the car with his habitual elegance: he too pretended to accomplish everything with remarkable ease, even if it was far from the truth. Without waiting for Leudora to proceed he stuffed her inside, ignoring the muffled voices and steps coming from the forest. Leudora assumed the gravity-switchers were on their way to discover the scorched land and bodies she'd left behind. Instead of dew drops they would find fresh blood stains – a gruesome picture.

Dragomir started the engine, his right hand reaching for the clutch. The car coughed and wept, but complied, shaking Leudora out of her weary slumber. She controlled her shallow breaths, trying to get warmer and tugging at the seams of the dolman with her fingers.

The Serpent drove, his alien eyes focused on the road twists, giving Leudora time to study the sharp features of his haggard face: "If he grew up in Dalmatia, he must know the region well enough to find the right paths and highways to escape the Veil's cover. He can even create an artificial breach should the need arise." Leudora stifled a cough, wondering if he had felt her poignant stare trace his high cheekbones. "A fascinating mind and a cold beauty to match it." Reflectively, her hand climbed the seam of her torn shirt, reaching the neck. Something was wrong. Leudora's breath died on her lips when she realized that her Fasma pendant was missing.

"The pendant..." she whispered, suddenly oblivious of the Serpent's presence. With his habitual dispassion, the Croat handed her a silver cord with a hexagon formed by thin lines crossing in the middle.

"Where...?" her voice trailed off.

"Judging by the red mark on your neck, one of them sneaked close enough to garrote you." A slight twitch of a slanted eyebrow conveyed both distaste and faint irritation.

"Unpleasant," Leudora muttered, squeezing the chain in her palm, "I assume, your star heart has escaped the storm unscathed." She hoped the trophy had been destroyed amidst ash and smoke, but she knew better than to rely on empty aspirations even when her wits were dulled by pain and exhaustion. She could not have been that fortunate.

"The star heart is safe," Drašković said.

"You have not achieved much, Lord Serpent. Some claim the star heart to be a perfect energy source, but nobody has been able to use it so far." She tried her best to sound indifferent: everything but a life lost could be regained. Drašković flashed her an icy stare, measuring her from head to toe.

"So far."

When his glassy gaze returned to the road, Leudora knew the truth about him: just like she herself, he could never resist an intellectual test. Challenging that impossible man was dangerous, but nothing safe and easy had ever stirred her attention. Examining the fine line of his aquiline nose, Leudora noticed how his lips tensed. He knew how to create an illusion of power, but how much of it was a ruse?

"Fascinating to see a man who chooses to squander his scientific potential in the Alka, correcting the mistakes of halfwits," she spoke slowly, wondering if he would take the bait.

"Your people do not understand loyalty the way mine do," he replied, ignoring her bitter comment.

She snorted.

"Everyone interprets loyalty as he sees fit. Much like truth. I choose not to believe in anything. Saves me from many disappointments."

"Not believing is a belief in itself," the right corner of his lips almost curved, "or a sign of fear."

"You suppose?" A dangerous flame twinkled in her charcoal eyes. "It keeps away my nightmares the same way it keeps away your migraines. Temporarily, I assume. The prospect of madness is a heavy burden to bear. Your colleagues may not know, but I do."

When he heard her last words, the invisible string that kept his body straight and controlled reached the limits of its elasticity. She had never known ice could burn before. Now she saw it. Leudora watched his reaction with curiosity through half-closed eyelids, forcing her mind and body to remain alert. She had discovered his secret - gathered the information about his fractured mind and crafted a hypothesis. She wondered how many people had known. It must have required insane willpower to sustain his self-control, and Leudora almost admired his tenacity and cold resolve. Pain was a cruel teacher and a miserable counsellor.

"Your migraines must have stopped you from appearing earlier. Or perhaps you were not eager to risk that much," she tried to shrug, but winced in pain. He stopped the car. The abrupt motion tossed Leudora's body forward, the fastened seat belt pressing into her injured shoulder. She gulped, gritting her teeth. She could not give him the satisfaction of hearing her shout in pain.

"Do not pretend to understand me, Lady Galbur. You don't," he uttered every word separately, the artificial green of his cold eyes cutting deeper than a sharpened blade. "You should not forget that you are not the only one who is capable of logical analysis."

Long fingers flew up in a carefully planned gesture. Leudora felt the tremor echo in her body. An invisible force pulled at her chest and limbs, slightly elevating her as if she were a useless dummy. The Serpent's magnetized hand dragged the excessive iron in her bloodstream upwards. Leudora could offer no resistance except for a stubborn glare. Her blood was his ally, and her depleted body obeyed his commands with terrifying readiness. The damn Croat was dangerous - too dangerous to ignore. She tilted her head trying to shake off his spell, but her drained flesh and mind refused to collaborate. Mesmerized, she watched his beautiful fingers twist. The tickling sensation in her elevated body stirred strange thoughts inside her head: "Pain bordering on pleasure. How is this even possible?" Leudora loathed her own weakness and that cold indifference in the Serpent's face.

"Too much iron in your blood." He pulled the invisible strings sewn into her flesh. Leudora suppressed a ragged breath, not allowing a single word to escape her mouth.

"I can cause pain as well as pleasure just by tapping into your bloodstream. In your current condition you cannot resist me. Your willpower is already wearing down, reaching its limits. You will not last long. But my enhancement will." He clasped his fingers in a fist, and Leudora's body landed back into the seat. "Enough of the demonstration."

The Serpent started the engine again, not granting her as much as a brief glance. Bitter anger threatened to overwhelm her, and Leudora swallowed tasteless air, staring at him, wishing she could claw out his unnatural eyes. When the rage ebbed away, she saw something strange and unexpected in his sharp features – not smug satisfaction, but a shadow of disgust and self-loathing flickered beneath his mask of impeccable dispassion. Leudora suddenly understood his reaction: he was repulsed by his own lapse in control, by Leudora's ability to make him resort to his enhancement instead of his mind. The Serpent stared briefly at her, and Leudora laughed – quietly and with a kind of bitterness that sounded unfamiliar to her own ears.

"It is ironic that you must keep me alive, when you have such a unique opportunity to stop my heart with a finger."

His raised eyebrow mirrored hers.

"If I need someone dead, I find a way to organize that. Preservation requires greater effort than killing." Power came naturally to him, and that trait terrified her. Her response came in a hoarse whisper.

"You are a dangerous man, Guardian Drašković. I may have to kill you."

His glance shifted from the road to Leudora and back. He measured her once again as if to make sure she stacked up to him.

"You may even succeed."

They travelled in silence for about an hour, and Leudora's exhausted mind started drifting away, while the sound of the far-away waves lulled her to sleep. The Serpent concentrated on the dimly lit road in front of him, watching the turns carefully. They were approaching the seaside, and Leudora could almost smell its salty waves and hear the rising tide. She was almost at peace.

The car stopped abruptly, jerking Leudora's body and forcing her to bite her tongue to suppress a sudden yelp of pain. In the distance she could distinguish two figures approaching them slowly. The Serpent stopped the car almost on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. In the darkness Leudora could barely make out the silhouettes, the rocks and the splashing water hitting the stones. Details eluded her, but the scent of gravity-switchers was unmistakable. It clung around those strangers, forcing Leudora's mind to race in search of a solution. Before she could say a word, Drašković silenced her.

"Get out," he ordered.

"I can probe their energy," Leudora said.

"The mental effort will kill you," he cut sharply, then claimed his dolman back.

"You don't have much choice," she objected, suddenly feeling the cold pierce every muscle of her body.

"I do," he pointed at the edge of the cliff with his long hand, "Jump."

Leudora looked around with a mixture of terror and amusement appearing on her usually composed face.

"A most original way to kill me."

He only raised an eyebrow as if questioning her statement, while his thin lips formed something that could be considered a half-grin. Then the Serpent pushed her off the edge with a deliberate gesture.

She fell silently, vaguely aware of the sharp rocks beneath her. She stared at the stars, thinking of how much she hated the satisfied glow in his alien eyes. The iron that continued to circulate in her blood obeyed the Serpent's orders, making her a marionette hanging over the abyss on invisible threads, each of her limbs responsive to the commands of a puppet-master. Strangely enough, this time she did not hate that tickling feeling of helplessness, forcing her muscles to relax. One day, Leudora told herself, she would make the Serpent pay for his frivolities. She would have her chance.