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PROLOGUE

The London air was full of s and filth Kai’s senses were better than those of a huent about it But even he couldn’t see down a dark alley any better than the average Londoner And even native Londoners walked carefully in the narrow streets behind King’s Cross Station

But where crime flourished, so too did detectives And he was here to hter of crime

He paused to inspect a pawnbroker’s , trying to gauge the street behind hi hie, a foretaste of danger But there were very few huon, even in his human form, and he didn’t expect to meet any of them in the back-alleys here

Vale was in a warehouse just round the corner Almost there, and then Kai could find out what kind of assistance Vale needed with his case

And then soenuinely terrified, cut off in theinto the swirling fog Two men and a woeway The woressor, while the other was drawing back his fist to strike again

‘Let her go,’ Kai said calh Even if they olves, they weren’t a significant danger But this would make him late

‘Back off,’ one of theaway from the woman to face him ‘This isn’t none of your business, nor your part of town neither’

‘It’s my business if I choose to make it roup, auto them as his father’s arms-masters had trained him to The men were ns of a paunch and dissipation He could take them, just as he’d taken others of their kind a few days before

The free man advanced towards hihter on his feet than Kai had expected, but not fast enough He bluffed with his right fist, then tried a straight left at Kai’s jaw Kai side-stepped, slammed his hand sideways into the man’s kidneys, kicked him in the back of the knee to take him off-balance and ran his head into the wall The man went down

‘Now don’t be like that,’ the otherthe wo to show in his eyes ‘You just walk away and nobody gets hurt …’

‘You just let go of that woet hurt’ He walked forward, considering his openings A dodge to the side and a strike to the ht be the least risky option for the woman, and yet—

‘Now,’ a voice said from above

Doors slammed open on either side of hi fell fro doards him in a knot of shadows Kai dived to one side on instinct, but then there were too many men in the alley with him A dozen of them, the combat-trained part of his mind noted, and e and it looked like a trap They didn’t even hang back and let other people take the first blows, in the nor in, most of thehted saps

He had to get back and out There was no sha superior force and reacting appropriately An arrabbed it, went down on one knee and flung thelow, he pivoted, bringing a foot round and scything another combatant’s feet from under him He used the momentum to turn and rise Four men were between him and the way out Four obstacles to remove