There was clearly only one explanation.
The grand celebration he had held for Miao Miao that day had drawn the attention of certain ill-intentioned beings.
Lynn barely hesitated. The Night Doctor gear on the coat rack flew over and fitted itself onto him.
"Miss Doll, are you there?" Lynn asked, narrowing his eyes.
"I am."
The utterly emotionless female voice rang out in the room.
His eyes flickered as Lynn crouched beside the bed, drew his Witcher Revolver, and disengaged the safety.
"Have you noticed anything wrong?"
The female voice said quietly, "Stay in the room. Don't go outside. That creature is in the corridor."
Lynn's eyes flickered. "What is it?"
The female voice said quietly, "A white crow mask."
At those words, Lynn immediately frowned. The information the Matriarch had given him about Plague Doctors flashed through his mind.
A pale crow mask represented a rejection of the Night Doctors' principles.
They were a band of turncoats who stood against the Night Doctors, spreading plagues and evil throughout the Dark World.
"A Plague Doctor?"
Lynn narrowed his eyes.
"Figures. With a crowd this big, it's hardly surprising that something slipped in."
Anything else might have surprised him.
But as defectors from the Night Doctors, their presence in the City of Night did not strike Lynn as surprising.
Still, he was deeply puzzled.
If this really was a Plague Doctor, why had he chosen to target him?
Was it merely because of that morning's celebration?
Had this been planned all along?
Or was it a spur-of-the-moment decision?
Lynn narrowed his eyes. "Can we get out?"
He quickly activated the Night Doctors' ghost mode and reached toward the wall, but almost the instant he touched it, a blood-red network of veins flashed across its surface.
His hand was instantly repelled.
Ghost