“Oh?” Osana’s attention shifted from me to Brenna, going hard and cold at the same time. It was suddenly easy to see how this tiny woman had been able to convince a whole Nest to let her be in charge. She had a way about her that was pure Nest-mother, ruthless where the protection of her people was concerned. “What’s been going on, Brenna?” What haven’t you been telling us? floated behind the question, as clear as if it had been spoken aloud.

“I just found out tonight,” said Brenna, shooting a pleading glance at me and Malena. We were the ones she knew: Alice was the terrifying new factor.

Having mercy on Brenna wasn’t hard. She’d been my friend for a long time, and she’d always been kind to the dancers, even when they had nothing to offer her but their good regard. “There’s a snake cult operating out of the theater,” I said. “They’ve been killing the eliminated dancers every week, using them to fuel a summoning ritual. They’ve killed at least eight people so far.”

“At least?” asked Malena, giving me a sharp look.

“At least,” I repeated. “They only have the dancers in their summoning configuration, but there’s no way of knowing whether they’ve also killed audience members or local residents and not added those bodies to the circle. It’s unlikely. It’s not impossible.” Had I noticed any absences among the crew? No, but until recently, I hadn’t exactly been looking.

“How is it that this has been going on under your nose without your noticing, Brenna?” asked Osana.

“They have confusion charms all over the theater,” said Alice. “Strong ones, too. I have anti-telepathy sigils and anti-compulsion runes in my current suite of tattoos, and I was still led astray by the charms. I’m going to need to talk to my artist about that.”

“We didn’t realize our friends were leaving and then disappearing, because the snake cult was making us forget they’d ever existed unless we were actually confronted with the evidence,” I said. “We’re still trying to find them. There are a lot of tunnels under the theater, and these people seem to know how to use all of them.”

“Charming,” said Osana. She looked from Brenna to me, raising an eyebrow. “Is this where you tell me that there are strings attached to your offer to negotiate us a husband?”

“No,” I said. “I mean, I’d like your help. It’s not connected to your request. Brenna mentioned using dragons to bulk out the audience, which would also give us a lot more eyes on the ground. We know the snake cult won’t be killing anyone before next week’s show—at least not if they stick to their current pattern—but that just means we have a deadline, and we’re going to need to keep eyes on all nine of the remaining dancers in danger.”

“Nine?” said Osana.

“I’m a chupacabra,” said Malena.

“I can keep an eye on myself, and one of the other dancers is an Ukupani,” I said. “That leaves us with nine humans who don’t know what a snake cult is and don’t know they’re in danger. We need to keep them safe, we need to find the people who are killing them, and we need to put an end to this.”

“But you’re not going to make negotiating on our behalf conditional?” asked Osana.

I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I mean, technically my negotiating on your behalf is already conditional: if this snake cult kills me, I’m not going to be able to help you. But I’m not going to stand here and say that you have to risk yourselves before I’ll help you. We’re talking about the survival of a species here, not loaning me a pair of earrings.”

“Humans.” Osana chuckled wryly. “Sometimes I think I could have a wend’s lifespan and not have the time to understand you. The show’s Thursday night, correct?”

“Yes,” said Brenna.

“We’ll be there. I’ll flood the audience if that’s what I have to do. Brenna, you’ll be helping me get the tickets. We’ll pay for as many as we need to in order to avoid raising suspicion.” Osana turned back to me, looking me square in the eye. “You didn’t try to blackmail me, and I respect that. It doesn’t mean I won’t happily blackmail you. We need that male. I want you to remember, when the time comes, that we were willing to step up.”

“I will,” I said, and smiled. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” said Osana. “We still need to find this snake cult.”

“And I need to get you lot back to the apartments before midnight,” said Brenna, glancing at her watch. “You’ll need your beauty sleep if you’re going to dance your best tomorrow.”