She tugged on Samuel's arm, and he allowed himself to be led down to the bottom of the garden. Complaining the whole way, he scaled her tree after her, and eventually found a perch that was only mildly uncomfortable as she settled on her usual branch with her tablet.

"You're weird," he said, and she kicked him in the shoulder. He smacked at her leg as it fell back. "You know you're weird," he said defensively. "What do you want me here for?"

She shrugged. She honestly wasn't sure why, but last time she was here, she'd apparently wanted someone Samuel there with her. 'Something to show him,' the note said, but she couldn't remember what.

"Is this a Jean-Paul thing again?" he asked warily. She examined the feelings behind the question. It was almost funny how he still pretended at concern for her, when they both knew he didn't care. She could never decide whether to feel scorn or gratitude for that.

He was motivated by fear, instead. Fear that he would somehow be implicated, if dad caught her.

"Yes," came the answer, and they both looked up in surprise as Imp materialised on a branch above them. "Your shitlord extraordinaire of a brother happens to be the reason you're here. It's Samuel, right?"

He stared briefly at Anita, and then lunged for Imp – only for her to apply her power, and he found himself struggling for balance without knowing why he'd fallen. Anita helped steady him, because dad would ban climbing trees if someone got hurt.

There was residual, unexplained aggression in Samuel's emotions, and Anita drained it. Had he been trying to push her? She put her tablet away, laying her hand on a nearby branch. This had been a mistake. She shouldn't have brought him. Why had she even—

"Hey dickhead," Imp said, this time from right behind him. Before he could move, she put a knife against his chest and pushed just enough for him to feel the pressure. "Hi," she added in his ear.

"What the fuck?" he exclaimed, and a feeling of pins and needles washed over him. His eyes went to Anita. Damn, if she's here—

It was only self-preservation, as far as she was concerned. Anger, aggression, irritation, anything volatile, most things negative, she removed. It didn't work perfectly, but it kept her safer than most. It had been what she'd done on triggering, and had depended on it since.

As the last vestiges of his alarm sapped away, Samuel found himself relaxing. "Um. What's going on?"

"Simple, really. I'm gonna kill your dad. Anita decided she was on board to help. She brought you. Turns out you can't sense me. Figured I'd introduce myself."

Imp was about to add more, but Anita had brought out her tablet again and turned it around. It showed a still from the Behemoth fight. Regent and Imp.

"Oh shit," Samuel said.

Anita gave Imp a thumbs-up.

"You got it, squirt," Imp agreed. "You're out of your league if you think you can take me down."

"Did Jean-Paul ask you to do this?"

"Not in so many words."

"Well, you've got my help." Despite the way he was struggling to breathe to avoid the knife breaking his skin, Samuel's voice was still calm. "There's a few of us who don't like him. He doesn't let it get far, but we still don't. It's only the big assholes he cares about, Guillaume and Nicholas, because they do jobs. Some of us," here he glanced at Anita, "aren't even allowed to leave."

"Good to know. I'm guessing, by the fact your sister hasn't kicked you off the tree yet, that you're telling the truth." A quick glance at Anita confirmed the assumption. "Sweet. I'm letting you go now."

He pulled away, and awkwardly turned himself around to face her, pushing curls from his eyes. "So what's the deal? Lots of people want to kill him. Buy a gun."

Imp shook her head, spinning her knife between her gloved fingers. "Three reasons. Firstly, that's so not our style. If I'm killing him for Alec, I'm gonna fuck with him first. It's mandatory, and I've got some great ideas."

Anita smiled, revelling in the buzz of Imp's sadism-tinted excitement.

"Second reason is, if I'm doing this, I'm doing this properly. Cherish could sense me. My first and only fuck-up, but some serious shit happened because of it. I'm not taking the risk again that one of your other siblings decides to fuck me over, let alone your dad."

Samuel nodded. "I don't think dad gets past strangers, but without knowing the details, I'd bet Juliette or Martina could catch you."

"And – wait, how did you know I was a stranger?"

Samuel wiggled his fingers. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Imp sighed, and then laughed, looking over his shoulder. He twisted around to see Anita holding up her tablet. She had typed: Thinker. Borrows senses, including powered ones.

He kicked her, and she kicked him back. He went to retaliate, but Imp swung down and grabbed him. "Don't pick a fight with me, Sammy," she said.

He shook her off. "I'm not the one to worry about. She erases your emotions."

Imp shrugged. "One-way Cherish, big deal. Stop fighting."

Anita smiled, and didn't correct her. She'd already taken care of Samuel's annoyance, but Imp's intervention was pleasing. There was a kind of affection in Imp's feelings for her, and this was new, and rare, and nice.

After a moment watching them to check they'd made peace, Imp relaxed. "And yeah, you got me. Stranger four, or something like that; never bothered checking for sure. If you remember me, you'll forget me when I turn it on. A few other bits and pieces. It's a toss-up if it works on other powers though. Yes, I could probably walk in and stab daddy-rapist before anyone can stop me, but then we get problem three."

Samuel nodded. "The girls."

Everyone who had ever been 'rescued' from Heartbreaker had committed suicide later. Most took others with them.

"Smart kid aren'tcha? Got anything to stop them?"

Anita and Samuel shared a long glance. Anita mouthed a name. Resistance flared up in him, and she stole it away just as fast. For a minute, they battled wills, but Anita won. She always won.

He sighed. "Only one master in the house who can overpower dad's influence. But that causes more problems than it solves, trust me."

Imp dropped upside-down from her branch, and her grinning mask came awfully close to Samuel's face. "I'm gonna need you to explain, sprogling."

He glanced back towards the house. He was so going to regret this.

"You need Flor."