Lisa and I stand still for a second, surveying the street in front of the Tiger's Den, before she starts walking purposefully toward the center of the Market. But I still don't see the bouncer, and considering he stands a good foot taller than most people here, I'm not convinced I'm missing something.

"Do you know he went this way?" I ask, keeping my voice low.

"No," she says, but doesn't look at me.

"So you're guessing?"

"I'm guessing," she says, and panic grips me once again.

We emerge into the domed Market and I scan the crowd. But the bouncer's nowhere to be found. I glance at Lisa, and even though her expression is unreadable, I can feel the anxiety radiating off her. If we lose him, that's it. Game over. We will never find the Tiger estate or appa in time.

I keep scanning the crowd, aware that each moment my eyes aren't down I risk discovery. Every muscle in my body is tense and I take a forceful breath, willing my posture to relax.

There at the opposite side of the square, the tall guard emerges from a shop. The relied I feel is so intense that my eyes water. I know Lisa sees him, too, because she picks up her pace.

The tall bouncer exits the Market through an archway, but instead of heading straight for him, Lisa leads us through an alternate archway to the left. The moment we exit, the noise diminishes and so does the light. The couple of torches that illuminate the street cast large patches of shadow. About a hundred feet ahead of us the bouncer turns left and we silence our steps. Then, without warning, something grazes my sleeve.

I turn around, my hand reaching for my knife, only to find Sehun, with Rosé just a few steps behind. Even from a quick look I can tell there's tension between them. I didn't hear them approach and I have no idea what direction they came from; it gives me an unsettled feeling. We're all so good at sneaking up on one another that you never know who's following you.

As we near the turn where the bouncer disappeared, we slow our pace. Lisa peeks around the doorway and Sehun surveys the street behind us. They nod at each other and we turn into an abandoned apartment, weaving around a broken table and some chairs. At the far door, Lisa peers out, looking both ways and pointing to her right. And so we follow the bouncer, transitioning from the torchlit streets to the pitch-black ones, where he must have stashed an oil lamp, because all of a sudden there is a beacon of light ahead of us. Sehun finds my hand with his and I'm grateful for the comforting gesture.

The guard turns through another doorway, and before Lisa can catch up, the light disappears, casting us into complete darkness. Sehun pulls me to a stop and we all stand silently still for a couple of awful seconds.

"I'll follow," Sehun breathes in a way that suggests we should stay put. He lets go of my hand.

I don't dare speak, but as his body heat disappears, my anxiety heightens. I reach out, finding Rosé's sleeve, and grip it like anchor. But she's having none of it. She grabs my hand and pulls me forward, placing my palm firmly on the cold stone wall, as if to say "Hold this," and moves away from me. I want to ask Sehun what he's found, but before I work up the nerve, light reappears inside the archway.

Lisa cautiously peers around the doorway and Rosé pulls out a knife. But whatever Lisa sees must be nonthreatening because she walks through with confidence. Rosé and I follow her into what appears to be an abandoned shoe-maker's shop. There are workbenches littered shoe-shaping tools and shelves showcasing boot designs that I can only guess are hundreds of years old. Sehun stands in the center of the forgotten room holding a lit candle, scanning everything with purpose, and it instantly becomes clear why-there is no exit other than the one we just came through, so unless the bouncer vanished into thin air, he must have used a secret door.

Lisa pulls a candle out of jacket pocket and lights it. It never occured to me to keep a candle on me, but it's now obvious that was an oversight-the light from real flame is superior to that from a flashlight and you never have to worry about the batteries failing at a critical moment.

In the light provided by the two candles I take a closer look of the edges of the room, searching for signs of a door. On the far wall Rosé inspects tools that hang from iron hooks, Lisa moves to the fireplace, and Sehun kneels down, running his finger across the ground.

"This place is spotless," he whispers. "Not a boot print on the ground or dust on a bench." It hadn't occurred to me, but now that he mentions it, it makes the room seem off. It had none of the grime that the other stores and apartments did. I'm assuming it's purposeful, that it keeps other Strategis from ing able to track the path to the secret door, like footprints in snow.

"Let's just hope we can find that door before a Tiger pops out of it," Rosé says, and even though it hadn't crossed my mind, I'm now very much aware of that threat.

"I'm surprised you don't already know where the door is," Sehun says under his breath without so much as glancing at her.

If I wasn't sure something was going on between them before, I am now. I head for one end of the shelves of shoes to inspect it while Sehun heads for the other end.

Rosé turns around, eyes wide with offense. "Excuse me? I risk my life ten times over to help you two, and this is how you thank me?" she replies, and part of me agrees with her. Why on earth is Sehun picking a fight with her right now, of all moments?

But Sehun doesn't let up. "If you're going to lie, Rosé, at least be original. I know you're better than that rote response."

Even in the dim light I can see her cheeks flush, and I'm fairly certain some of her nager comes from being called original.

"Fascinating accusation from someone who was working not long ago with Dr. Yoo to kill Suzy," Rosé says, and by the way Sehun's face tenses, I can tell she's struck a nerve.

He turns away from the shelf to face her. "Where did you go, Rosé? When Suzy and Lisa were in the Market, where were you?"

"Exactly where I said I would be," she says, only her voice has lost a little bit of its oomph.

"No, you most certainly were not," Sehun retorts. "Try again, Rosé. I checked the east side of the Market and you weren't there."

As much as I try to ignore them, I can't. I glance at Lisa, who returns my worried expression.

Rosé her lips, leaning into a fight. "You always think you know what's going on, that you're so good at reading everyone. Then tell me this, if you're such an expert on my tells, why did Suzy understand me better after two weeks at the Academy than you did after two and a half years?"

"Are you two really having this fight right now?" I ask, anxiety lacing my words. If there was ever a time that we needed solidarity, it's now.

"Yes," Sehun says with assurance. "We're about to do the most dangerous thing any of us has ever done, and I want to be sure that walking into the Tiger estate with Rosé doesn't mean we're walking into a trap."

Anger flashes in Rosé's eyes and this time she doesn't bother to hide it. Lisa must see it, too, because before Rosé can open and spew the vitriol we all know is coming, Lisa jumps in.

"Enough," she says with force. "We most assuredly do not have time for this." They both open their mouth to respond but lisa cuts them off. "I don't care how right you both think you are. All I care about at present is not dying in the labyrinth before we even get to take a shot at Taecyeon." She gives them a warning look. "Rosé, Sehun has every right to question you, because you know as well as all of us that your behavior at times has been suspicious. I'm not saying you need to justify your actions, but you can at least not fan the fire."

Rosé stares at her, shocked, and so do I.

"And, Sehun," Lisa continues, "you know Rosé never played by the rules, so why on earth do you expect her to now? Just because she's isn't straightforward like Sejeong doesn't mean you should attack her character." She pauses and no one even tries to speak. "So go ahead, Sehun, ask what you really want to know, and then both of you get over yourselves and get back to work."

A stunned silence falls over the room.

And after a few moments of considering her offer, Sehun says, "Why are you two really here?"

Lisa sighs, like she knew this was coming. "I can only answer for myself-"

"Lisa, you don't have to-" Rosé starts, clearly feeling guilty that Lisa is revealing something personal because of her.

"I do," Lisa says to Rosé, before turning to me and Sehun. "My parents had a high standing in the Fox Family; they did a great deal of advising for the head family and helped them govern. And they hated Taecyeon-they believed he was single-handedly dishonoring the legacy of Strategia, tarnishing the good we had done over the centuries. For years they spoke out against him, trying to get the Foxes to take a stand like the Eagles had." She nods in my direction. "But their warnings were ignored. Then the Tigers began targeting members of other Families, and my parents fought harder; they had foresight-they argued that the Tigers' actions would eventually spill over onto the children, and onto the Academy." She takes a breath. "But as you all know, Taecyeon seeks vengeance on those who speaks against him, and my family, even with their high standing, were no exception."

My chest tightens with worry at this all-too-familiar story.

"I was seven years old at the time," Lisa continues, "and they drugged me with Angels' Dream." She glances at me for a brief second. "When I woke up in the morning, my parents and older sister had been murdered in their beds. The Tigers kept me alive as a reminder to my Family of what happens when you speak out against Taecyeon."

Angels' Dream-no wonder she reacted when she saw it. My heart breaks for her. I know too well the pain of losing family members to the Tigers, but I cannot imagine the terror she must have gone through that morning.

"My Family didn't disown me, but they might as well have," Lisa says. "They wanted me to go away so they wouldn't have to act; claiming there was no evidence the attack came from the Tigers. And I wanted to go away, too; I couldn't stand the sight of them and their cowardly avoidance. But instead of me living with second cousins on the coast like they planned, I left Thailand altogether. And a year later I was lucky enough to find another family that suited me better. I haven't been back since."

"By another family, she means my family," Rosé says. "Lisa came to live with me and my terrible siblings and my lackluster parents."

I can see the shock in Sehun's eyes.

Rosé stares at him. "Now are you satisfied, Oh Sehun? Or do you want us to sign a pact in blood?"

Suddenly it all makes sense, Rosé and Lisa's closeness, and the way that Rosé is always trying to protect her, even though Lisa is the better fighter.

Sehun looks at Lisa. "I am truly sorry," he says.

I never would have suspected that might be the reason Rosé was here, to right a wrong done to Lisa, but now I'm looking at her in a new light.

"I'm sorry I doubted you, Rosé," Sehun says, and I can tell he means it.

Rosé looks surprised by Sehun's admission and maybe a little embarrassed that we now know she's not as unfeeling as she wants everyone to believe. "Well . . . right. Fine. I mean, you should be. Let's just get back to searching for this door."

And we do. Sehun and I return to opposite ends of the bookshelf. We spend the next fifteen minutes going over every inch of the wall-twice. I even use the little step stool to look on top of the shelves, but I don't find anything, not a suspicious crack or a hollow-sounding part of the plaster.

"Nothing," I say.

"Nothing over here, either," Rosé replies, and Lisa, too, walks away from the fireplace.

"Let's switch spots," I suggest. "Maybe fresh eyes will help."

"If I didn't find anything over here, you're not going to, either," Rosé says, and even though Sehun and Lisa don't say it out loud, it's obvious they are thinking the same thing.

"Then what would you suggest, Rosé?" I say, frustrated by the dead end.

"That the bouncer is freaking magical," she says, frowning.

I turn in a circle, staring at all the little odds and ends that make this room unlike the other stores and apartments I've seen down here. And then it suddenly occurs to me that we missed something.

"You guys," I say. "There's no dust in here, right?"

Sehun stops what he's doing. "Right."

"And the fact that there's no dust means the Tigers altered this space. So now I'm wondering what else might have been altered. For instance, was this furniture originally here, or was it staged by the Tigers?" I ask, walking around the room, examining the things in the middle of it that initially thought were irrelevant.

"Debatable," Sehun says. "Occasionally there are furnished stores or houses in the labyrinth, but that doesn't mean the Tiger didn't add items to this particular room."

"Exactly, which means we could have dismissed something as old and discarded that is actually a clue," I say, and we all go back to searching the room again.

I start at the workbench, examining the shoe-shaping tools, but before I get very far Sehun starts talking again. "The step stool," he says with an excited lilt to his voice that makes us all leave what we're doing. He picks it up and moves it. "See how the floor underneath is scratched?"

We all look up at the same time, immediately realizing our mistake.

"It's not that we missed something where we were looking . . .," Sehun says.

". . . it's that we were looking in the wrong places," I say, finishing his sentence.

Sehun moves the stool back to its original position and stands on it, reaching above his head. "It's hard to find a door in a wall when it's actually in the ceiling." He runs his hands along the wood and stops suddenly at the edge of a crossbeam. He smiles down at us. "Got it."