A crummy plan falls apart in five, four, three, two...

The crowd was so damn loud, a swell of gasps and cries, demands and questions. In the thrum of desperation, the people became a sea of movement, rushing like a swarm of insects until I was so dizzy that I had to dart away to a dingy alley. Agni and Rudra stuck with me, at least. They were the only ones who did. I couldn't find a single recognizable face or mask or coat in the crowd. The footsteps and voices swelled to a roar in my ears as I searched for someone. Anyone.

When I found them, I was going to tear them apart, those goddamned-

A force like the blunt side of a sword slammed into my back, throwing me face-first into the wall of the nearby building. I reacted in time to keep my nose from crunching and turned to crack the side of my head instead. Agni and Rudra growled until a woman cut them off. "Hush, you two," she said in a voice like silk frozen solid. "Are you back now, Prince? I can't have you losing it so close to all these people, so take it easy."

Settling a scowl on my face, I swallowed the fear of what her words implied and tried to push down the rush of incoherence still pulling at my mind. She must have been pinning me with her arm because that was the only pressure I could feel against my back, yet no matter how I tried to shove away, she held me in place. My arm buzzed like sandpaper cutting at it from the inside. She must have been a demon.

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, ready to slip my demonic arm free of the sling. When the pressure against my back vanished, all the force I'd put against her sent me stumbling into the opposite wall.

"All you had to say was yes," she said. Her hair was such a light blonde that it seemed to glow in the moonlight. She wore too little for… any occasion. I might have given her my coat if not for the fact that she was a demon and a huge pain. She crossed her arms, a smile playing on her lips. Her eyes were such a bright, icy blue that I had to force myself to hold her gaze. It seemed to stab right through me. "Nice to finally meet you. Dante never bothered to introduce us, useless as he is. You can call me Trish for now."

"For now?"

Rather than answer, her smile widened. She didn't extend a hand, bow, or curtsy - not that she was wearing a skirt - so I didn't offer her a formal greeting either.

"You're one of Dante's friends?"

"In a sense. I work at the castle. These two can vouch for me." She gestured to Agni and Rudra. The former was sitting with part of his tongue sticking out, and the latter dug at his ear with his hind foot. They weren't doing much to stick up for her, but I guessed they would have attacked her for me had she been hostile. Still, I needed to keep on my toes around any demon. The bastards needed to quit getting all friendly with me.

"If you need more proof, I'm also the one who made that drug to help you fight off the poison," she said.

That didn't endear her to me at all, my nose scrunching. "So it's your fault Vergil kissed me."

"Oh? I hadn't heard about this. You'll have to tell me later. We're short on time if you wish to catch up with the others. If you're looking for their weapons, they already took them." She waved her hand toward the surrounding alley with a languid roll of her wrist. "Looks like you're left with the fleabags."

Agni and Rudra gave huffs and snorts as a fresh swell of anger hit me. "Catch up? Where did they go?"

Like I didn't already know the answer. They'd lied to me. Of course they did. Everything had been lies lately.

"Easy, Prince," Trish said. "The murderous intent is rolling off of you. Contain it, would you?" She waited until I released a sharp breath like the dogs. "Good, now I'm not caught up on the situation, but it seems they've gone to the castle. I can help you get in as well if that's what you want."

"Why do you care?" I asked. "What's in it for you?"

Her smile held a tinge of cruelty. "Sated curiosity. You want to know why they left you too, don't you?"

I felt sure it was just Credo being overprotective. That was his job, after all. But taking along men he hardly knew in my place was unlike him, not to mention irritating as hell.

"They let Dante go," I grumbled. "Dante, but not me."

I shouldn't have listened to her. She showed all the signs of someone I didn't need to stick around - a demon and a Capulet. Credo always said not to trust strangers, but lately, those who weren't strangers hadn't given me a reason to trust them either. "Fine," I decided. "Let's go. Where's this secret passage?"

"Passage?" she echoed, her head listing to the side. "I would imagine the front door is much easier."

"Right, because the guards are going to just let us in." I didn't trust her widening smile, my eyes narrowing. "And I'm not killing any guards."

"You do like to jump to conclusions," she said. "While they may not let you into your own castle…" Her hand drifted up between us, the movement ending with a snap of her fingers. Before the sound finished echoing in the alley, her skin faded to a darker hue while her hair lost most of its color and sheared itself short. All that remained the same were her eyes.

Her appearance was too strange not to recall. "I've seen you before," I realized, "at the castle."

"You remember me? I'm flattered." She gave a half-bow that reminded me how little she wore and forced my gaze elsewhere. "I've worked at the castle for some time, and I'd hoped to be able to meet you sooner, but no one would ever allow me close. The best I ever got was a few distant glances, but you were always wearing that mask, just like now." She leaned in close. Her eyes hovered in front of mine, pinning me in place. "That castle is full of secrets, and weaseling my way in turned out to be more trouble than expected."

"Which side are you on?" I asked, flexing my hand as my arm pulsed. Vergil had said that only powerful demons could have convincing human forms, so I wasn't sure what to think of Trish having two separate ones. If I had to guess, I didn't want to fuck with her.

"My loyalties lie with Capulet, but does it matter? If I were truly loyal to Fortuna, wouldn't it be my role to protect the prince, even if he's supposedly dead? The way your country operates has me quite intrigued, so while I'm in this for myself, I'm happy to help you to that end. By the way-" She righted herself, giving me room to breathe. "Call me Gloria."

"Gloria?"

She smiled. "For now."

This woman was going to be the death of me somehow. Every instinct nagged at me to get away from her, but my feet remained planted. I needed answers, needed the truth. For once.

"We ought to get going, Prince," she said as she pulled a rope from somewhere on her person. Her boot, maybe. I decided not to think about it. "Should we let Lady and the girl tag along? They're getting pretty irritated looking for you."

"They're still here?" I'd assumed they'd left me like the others, but of course, Credo would have left someone to keep an eye on me. The chaos of the crowd must have let me give them the slip without realizing it. When Kyrie did find me, she would scold me for hours, and she absolutely wouldn't let me set foot near the castle.

On Credo's orders, no doubt.

"They're closing in on us," Trish, or Gloria, said.

"Then we should leave. I'm not going to let them stop me."

She clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Lady will have my head for this, so I'll be placing the blame on you, but very well." Grabbing my human arm, she jerked it up alongside my cast one. The rope darted around my wrists so quickly that it must have been some parlor trick, some slight of hand, yet when I tugged against the rope, it held firm.

As a warning growl rose in my throat, she put a finger to my lips, fizzling my fire to silence. "Like you said, they won't let you in. Keep your head down. You'll be my prisoner for now. I can't just waltz in with some unleashed boy, so keep quiet. You should still have the strength in that arm of yours to free yourself if the need arises, yes?"

If I used the angry, pulsing power within it, I was certain I could. After that, though, I wasn't sure what would happen. My arm was itching to tear into something. I could feel that with each forced, slow breath I took in an effort to calm it. The fringes of almost losing control still pulled at the edges of my mind.

Staying bound was for the best.

When she tugged at the end of the rope, I followed. Her walk was hypnotic, drifting back and forth in a way that couldn't have been comfortable. At first, we headed away from the castle, but she hushed my protests, saying that we were just avoiding the crowds. Once we reached a silent, near-black area, she glanced back at the dogs still on my heels.

"You two will need to be scarce when we get to the castle," she said. "I can't make up an excuse to bring dogs along. Just stick to the shadows, and stay quiet, alright? I'm sure you can manage to sneak your way inside if you're not too stupid for once."

Agni hopped up on his hind legs to paw at my leg. Rudra tried to mirror the action, but I'd already taken a step, and he fell back down with a huff.

"Yes, I know you're looking after him," Gloria said. "If he needs help in a fight, you can jump in. Will that satisfy you? Otherwise, stay hidden."

Though I had a feeling no real dog sounded like they did, they barked what I guessed was approval.

"Hey," I said as I tried to rub my wrists together in an attempt to quell an itch. "You said you'd seen me before."

"Yes, and you saw me." She didn't look back, still headed forward with that odd, swaying walk.

"Then you knew I was the prince."

"Yes."

"And you knew I was real."

Either she wasn't catching on to the accusations I was trying to grind into my voice, or she didn't give a damn. "The real prince? I was aware of you, yes."

"Then why didn't anyone else in Capulet know? Vergil and Dante talked about me like I was some fantasy."

"You might as well have been," she said. "The church kept you locked up in a tower like any good fairytale princess. What did it matter if you were real? I didn't expect that anyone in Capulet would meet you, and I wished to talk to you myself before reporting anything. Sparda would have gotten troublesome if I'd reported that there was a child smelling of demonic power back at Fortuna Castle. You know how he is."

I wanted to argue, wanted to yell and snap and snarl. My arm roared with the urge, but she was right. It didn't matter. Even as my eyes seemed to burn, I crushed the anger down under my heel and took another slow breath.

"Speaking of," Gloria continued, "you need to get that demon side of yours under control. You'll have to learn to fight with it, not against it, or it'll keep taking over."

"Sparda said it would be fine," I grumbled, digging my canine into my lower lip.

Her voice fell flat. "Of course he did."

When we reached the castle gate, and Agni and Rudra vanished into the darkness, Gloria turned to sugar-coated words and feigned empathy for the anxious guards. "I'm not sure we'll have anyone to deal with a prisoner right now," one said. "Haven't you heard what happened?" He looked two steps from a breakdown, his eyes hollow with grief.

They must have been upset about me, yet they didn't look at me twice, too engrossed in that mythical version of me that had turned up dead.

Gloria spoke like an overbearing mother. "I know, but I have to put him away somewhere. I can place him in the dungeon for now. It's nothing to be concerned over."

The thought of the dungeon made my stomach roll. Gloria had to jerk at the rope to get me to move again. I didn't realize we'd made it past the gate until she spoke. "You are all riled up, aren't you? Take it easy. I won't be throwing you to the wolves."

Blinking hard, I tried to collect my expression into something flat, unreadable. I must not have succeeded because I could feel tension turning toward a headache behind my furrowed brow.

The castle was emptier than I'd ever seen it yet cold as always. The few people I did see stood alone, quiet. They paid us no heed, lost in their own thoughts and going through the motions of their work.

We didn't head toward the dungeons, at least. I still wished that the dogs could be at my heels as I realized why she dragged me upstairs to the room I'd always loathed. I'd only ever gone to Sanctus's study to be scolded. It was always something with that old bastard, the way I walked or spoke or stood. Nothing was ever good enough. He tried to act friendly with his lectures, patting me on the shoulder as I held back a wince. We could never have gotten along, not with how pale Credo got every time he was near Sanctus. When I was younger, I'd tried to ask why, but I learned to stop asking, and anyone Credo didn't like, I didn't like.

That didn't leave me with many allies.

"Why are we here?" I hissed as she stepped up to Sanctus's door.

She paused long enough to pass a glance back to me. "I'm curious, and I have some questions I'd like to ask him. I'm sure you do too."

Questions were less of a concern than kicking the old man's ass, but Gloria must have seen the answer in my eyes. "Behave for now," she said. "You shouldn't be the one to deal with him. That would reflect poorly on you."

Considering how much the people loved the idea of their prince, I did wonder if they would begrudge me for killing their holy leader. I wouldn't hurt him, though. I didn't want to hurt people, didn't want to kill. No matter what the itch in my arm was trying to convince me.

Forgoing the whole system that was required to talk to Sanctus, Gloria rapped on the door while I stood gaping at her. "Your Holiness," she called, "I come bearing a gift in these trying times."

"Gloria," he responded in his usual sighed greeting. "Very well. Come in."

"Relax," she murmured in answer to my glare. "Play along. If things get worrisome, I'll take care of it."

Clenching my jaw so tight that my temples throbbed, I followed her lead through the door. Sanctus sat at his desk, and though I saw recognition in his eyes when he looked to me, his expression didn't change. He didn't move. That was all the confirmation I needed that he was in on the whole insane scheme.

"I go through all the trouble of bringing the prince back," Gloria said with a flourish of her hand, "only to find out that he's died. How tragic."

"How did you find him?" Sanctus asked. His dry, tired tone was difficult to read alongside his lack of expression. "I didn't realize you were back in the capital, Gloria."

"I heard there had been some trouble with the prince, so I came back to investigate." Lies rolled off her tongue with the same ease as they had Vergil's. "By the time I got here, the festivities had been ruined by news of his death, yet I ran into this suspicious boy at the same time, mask and all." Without warning, she tore the mask from my face, leaving my expression open for Sanctus to rake his gaze over.

But I wouldn't let the old bastard intimidate me anymore. When we locked eyes, I hoped he could feel every ounce of contempt I felt. "You ought to have stayed away, Nero," he said. "You could have lived out your life elsewhere. I'm sure you would have been much happier that way."

"You would have been much happier," I snarled, fury clawing at my chest like a wild animal. A light tug at my restraints brought me back to stable ground.

"Who's next in line for the throne anyway?" Gloria asked. "There must be some duke or lord."

"There was," Sanctus stressed. "But it's for the best that we removed the element of lineage altogether, don't you think? We gave it a try, but we determined that it's unfair and unwise to let a single family determine the fate of a people. They say a king is supposed to be chosen by God, after all."

I wanted nothing to do with any god that would choose to put Sanctus on the throne. "The monarchy may be flawed," I said, "but it's sure as hell better than you ruling, you lying fuck!"

Gloria placed her hand across her mouth like she was trying to stifle a cough. Sanctus sighed. "You are proving my case, it seems. You could have been an admirable ruler, but we could never seem to quell that rebellious streak of yours. A shame, but I suppose you served a greater purpose in the end."

My pulse seemed to rattle my skull. "You still think I'm your pawn?" I must have swallowed glass for how my voice seemed to tear up my throat, jagged and raw. "You are nothing, you pathetic-"

Another tug on my wrists, matched with a kick slamming into my back, had the floor rushing up to meet me. The crack of my head against the stone brought back enough of my senses that I kept myself from trying to turn on Gloria as the heel of her boot dug between my shoulder blades, keeping me pinned. I hadn't realized how close to the edge I'd been until I let myself lie still, cooling my rage against the icy floor. Great, I was losing it.

"Perhaps it was always meant to fail," Sanctus said, his tone unchanged. "It no longer matters. You can take him to the dungeon. Agnus was hoping to have him back."

Like some childhood fear of the dark that had never gone away, the thought of setting foot near the dungeon ate me up inside. Even on the rare occasions that I was allowed to wander the castle as I saw fit, I stayed as far from that gaping maw under the floors as possible. With how often I fought demons, I knew that being afraid of a goddamn room was stupid, and I tried to shake the fear as Gloria pulled me to my feet.

How she passed herself off as a human with that kind of strength, I had no clue.

Getting away from Sanctus was a pleasant enough thought that my legs followed orders and moved when Gloria pulled us toward the door. I was so caught up in trying to quash my illogical fears that Sanctus speaking again made me jolt.

"Before you go, Nero, I'm curious."

Annoyance fit comfortably on my face as I turned back to him. "What?"

"Whatever happened to Credo? I would never have imagined him leaving you to your own devices after he was so anxious to retrieve you."

My expression betrayed me, eyes widening in a moment's fear that he'd seen right through the ploy. It wouldn't have been the first time.

Gloria's silver tongue saved me again. "Oh, I apologize," she said. "Did you want him alive? I thought just the prince would be of interest, and he was rather in the way at the time."

I wasn't sure the lie made much sense, but she was so sincere about it that a moment's fear flickered in my chest that she might have actually killed him. And still, bastard that he was, Sanctus's expression remained even. "No, he failed his usefulness ages ago. He would have met the same end here. Carry on."

My heart beat so rapidly that the tips of my claws twitched with every pulse. Gloria had to drag me out. "I'll kill him," I hissed after she shut the door behind us. "I bet that bastard killed my parents too. I'll fucking kill him."

"No," she said with a quick smack to the back of my head. "Keep it together until we find the others. I'm not dealing with you if you go off. They can do that." She heaved a melodramatic sigh. "I wanted to ask him more, but I suppose it can wait. I'm certain he knows more than he's letting on, and I have a feeling he's only having me handle this as a means of cutting off some loose ends."

"You think he wants you dead too?" I asked between forced slow breaths. I was not going to lose it. I was not.

"Seems likely. I know more than I should, and it's clear he doesn't like keeping around anyone who's outlived their usefulness to him. Watch your step."

Despite her words, I stumbled when she tugged me down the stairs. Staying focused on my surroundings was becoming a struggle, my head whirling with too much at once. I either needed to sit down or kill something soon, but I didn't have time to waste on keeping it together. I had to find the others. Had to find my rings. Had to figure out what the hell was going on.

"So you've met Agnus?" Gloria asked, slicing through my mess of thoughts. "I've never been allowed to, so naturally, I pried more. Everyone liked to pretend that he didn't exist, but of course, I'm not stupid."

"Agnus?" I blinked. "The blacksmith? I've never met him."

"Never?" Halting her progress down the steps, she glanced back. "I guess I misheard then. The rumors call him an alchemist. They say he works in the dungeons, and the workers here look ill-at-ease when they whisper about him."

"No, he's a blacksmith. He makes the Order's weapons."

That was what I'd been told, that he was some reclusive blacksmith who'd made Red Queen and the other Order swords. True, the name was a bit of enigma around the castle. I'd heard the whispers myself from a young age, but when I'd asked Credo, he'd assured me…

Gloria gave a curious hum as my expression sank under my thoughts. "Well, I hope there's not a forge in the dungeon," she said, turning away to continue toward ground level. "I wouldn't trust a fire under the castle."

"I think it's just cells down there," I said, not sure what else could be in a dungeon.

"You've never been down there either?" She knew the way, though, pulling us toward the stairs that descended into an abyss.

"No, never."

"Then why are you so afraid?"

"I'm not." I wished I could have lied as well as everyone else around me; then maybe I could have convinced myself.

"You don't have to tag along," Gloria said as we reached the top ledge. She paused, turning and slipping the ropes from my wrists as though there'd been no knot in the first place. "With the state you're in, you should avoid others, but you're welcome to run off and do whatever you came here to do. I got you in. You don't have to stick with me."

As I rubbed my wrist, the redness and irritation faded. "I came here to find my rings." And to kick everyone's ass for leaving me behind.

"Is that right?" Her feigned interest echoed in the hall as she started down the stairs.

"You didn't know?"

"You never told me."

"You didn't ask."

"I didn't care."

As the darkness swallowed her, a gentle clicking noise rushed up from behind me. Agni and Rudra had already taken their places by my feet before I'd even looked down to check on the sound. I could have aimlessly wandered the castle or tried interrogating Sanctus over the rings, but the one place I'd never looked lay below.

The more my heart raced at the thought of whatever was down there, the greater my curiosity grew in answer. I'd faced poison, assassins, and creatures from Hell. This was nothing, but I had to see to make sure. I had to know.

The dogs followed, tumbling onto each step, as I started down. My pace grew quick enough that I caught up to Gloria, her hand on the door. "Hello again, Prince," she said. "Keep in mind that I take no responsibility for what happens from here."

I had to speak through my teeth to keep my jaw from chattering. "Whatever. Just go."

The door opened with a whine. Peering around Gloria, I found a plain, empty room. "Must be the waiting room," she said with a breathy laugh. That looked to be the case, actually. Chains and cufflinks lined one wall, a row of cages along the other. The cell doors all hung open, and dark stains coated everywhere that the torches cast their flickering glow. The smell was the worst of it, cold and sickly like demon blood. It hung so heavy in the air that I pressed my sleeve to my nose to keep from gagging.

"Maybe the real fun is through that door," Gloria said, nodding toward the end of the room. My body seized at the sight of it, pulse racing as my whole body shook. I'd seen that door before.

"Not that one," I said, my desperate gaze falling on the only other door in the room. Well, it had been a door once, now nothing but shards and splinters of wood. The metal clasps that had once sealed it shut were warped.

"Why not?" she called as I crept over the wreckage to peer into the room. The only light came from the torches on the outside walls, but enough filtered in to show how small the area was. Fat dustmotes danced in the air and covered every surface. It was clear that someone had been through the room recently, with handprints and footprints stamping out bits of the ashy layers.

"Either you have some thief troubles, or we know how the boys got in," Gloria said, leaning much to close to angle me aside and step into the room. The dogs followed, playing in the kicked-up dust like snow as she examined the space. "It looks as though it might be a storage area, a vault even. I doubt that door would have opened without a little push from Sparda or his boys."

Stepping in after her, I traced my hands over the relics scattering the room. If Credo and the others had been here, they must have already swept the place for my rings. Crates were cracked open, scrolls fallen from shelves. A dim, water-stained painting leaned against the far wall. Slipping my demonic arm free of the sling, I used its blinding glow to see what had survived of the portrait.

The elements had taken their toll, but the young woman in an extravagant dress survived clearly enough that I could see her demure smile. "The queen?" Gloria asked as she stepped up to my side.

"Must have been," I murmured, gesturing to the rings on her hand. I'd never known art of any past ruler existed, though she looked nothing like me - straight brown hair and dark eyes with a sharp jaw.

Slipping her painting to the side, I found the king behind her wearing my missing rings. If possible, he looked even less like me. "Oh, a redhead," Gloria quipped. "Cute."

A third painting lay behind the king's. The least damaged of the three, it was easy to see the shine in the child's eyes. His hair was so long that I might have thought him a girl had I not recognized him.

He wore finery just like the other two and looked so much like them. "Is that the former prince then?" Gloria asked as my thoughts raced for some other explanation.

"Where are they?" I asked. Despite the fires roaring through my head, I felt empty.

"Who?"

"The others. They came through here, right? Where are they?"

Crossing her arms, she eyed me up and down. "I'm not going to tell you if you don't calm down first."

"Like hell," I hissed, brushing past her to storm back into the gaping, empty room. If we hadn't spotted them on the way down, then they must have been-

"Nero!" A grip on my arm pulled me back. Thinking it was Gloria, I raised my demonic hand and spun only to be stopped by Kyrie's furious glare. I hadn't seen her so angry in years. "What are you doing down here?" she demanded. Lady stood behind her by the entrance, crossbow raised and aimed directly at me. "I can't believe you just left us!" Kyrie fumed. "Come on. Let's get you out of here."

"I told him we should let you tag along, but he was adamant," Gloria said as she stepped into view.

"Trish," Lady said in greeting. When she lowered her weapon, I took that as a sign that they were as close to friends as anyone could be with Lady.

Snapping her fingers once again, Gloria returned to the blonde form. "I'm still hurt that you didn't invite me," she said.

Despite a roll of her eyes, Lady smiled. "How long have you been in Fortuna?"

"A while. You all took your time, didn't you?"

"We had some detours."

"Could you do this later?" I snapped, my blood back to boiling. "I need to find the others."

Kyrie kept a firm grip on my arm. "Nero, you need to calm down."

"Stop telling me to calm down!" Everything was so fucking bright, so fucking loud, and no one would listen to me. They just kept feeding me lies. I'd had enough of it. I would get some answers for once in my life.

Just once, I would get the truth.

Kyrie yelped as Lady pulled her back from me. "He's not safe right now," I heard Lady say, and I knew she was right because I couldn't think anymore. I didn't want to.

"The boys will have to take care of him," Trish said from somewhere far away. "They brought this upon themselves, honestly."

She was right. This was all their fault.

All.

Their.

Fucking.

Faults.

The door I'd been so afraid of shattered under my hand, and five sets of eyes turned on me at once.

"I thought I felt something odd," Sparda said, his brow furrowed.

"I told you we should have drugged him," Vergil added with a shrug, not looking up from the book in his hand.

The two stood on opposite walls, as though separate from the scene behind them. Credo, eyes wide with shock, held tight to Dante's arm, keeping him from running through a man who was cowering against the back wall.

I'd seen that man before - Agnus. The name snapped into place. Of course, I'd seen him hundreds of times. How could I have forgotten him?

I'd seen the room too. The corked bottles stuffed into shelves, the small, sharp tools lined up on carts, the table with the restraints. How could I possibly forget all that pain?

As my breathing turned to weak, quick gasps, the air grew deafening, everyone yelling at once. I didn't want to hear it anymore. I just wanted it all gone.

I'd always wanted it gone, so it couldn't get near me ever again.

Finally, when I reached out my hands, something answered my call, jumping into my grasp. "We can help," chimed the only soothing voices in the raging cacophony. "Yes, we will help like we promised."

All I could see was fire as it engulfed the room.