Each footstep jarred through Edgar as he slammed his feet onto the concrete. The wind was roaring in his ears, his surefooted rune twinging as he sped up. He thought he could sense the other two behind him – he saw Joy hand Giles a throwing knife out of the corner of his eye before returning his focus to running.

He skidded to a halt just past the alleyway, and Giles nearly careered straight into him. Everything was scarily silent apart from their heavy breathing. Edgar tentatively walked back towards the young fairy's body, a dagger drawn, and he could hear Joy behind him, fiddling with the Sensor, to check if a demon had been in the area. Giles stayed at the alley's entrance, scanning the road with his beady eyes.

"Eiderdown?" Edgar called tentatively, looking around the dark passageway as best he could without light. He took another couple of steps forward, and he nearly slipped on something smooth and round – he glanced down to find what looked like a small pebble. Noah's glowing stone, dark now it was away from demonhunter blood. Edgar reached down, and he pressed it into his palm – it threw light around the alleyway, illuminating everything, from the dead fairy, to Joy's book, and to the untouched blade lying where he had left Noah standing. It sparkled in the bright light, reflecting it back onto the brickwork like a mirror. Edgar's eyes widened. "Noah?" His voice was slowly climbing in pitch.

A small beep sounded from behind him, and he jumped, wheeling around; Joy was just sliding the Sensor back into her belt, and she shook her head at Edgar. A rogue strand of hair fell in her eyes. "No demonic activity." Her eyes fell on Noah's sword, and she stepped forward. She squatted in front of it, and she picked up something that looked a lot like a broken twig. "His stylograph," she breathed. Edgar could have sworn the colour was fading from her cheeks. "Whoever did this meant business." She reached out for A Storm of Swords, which was still just inches away from the pool of congealing fairy blood, and she flicked through it, probably checking for the note. The page started to disintegrate where her ichor-covered sleeve touched it, as though it had been dunked in acid.

Edgar picked up the shards of Noah's stylograph, and he clenched them in his fist. Drawing his own, he scribbled a tracking rune on the back of his hand, and he took a deep breath, waiting...

"Edgar, look at this. You too, Giles." Joy's voice broke his concentration, shattering the rune's power, and it faded to a pale scar. Edgar clenched the broken stylograph tighter, as if the pain of it piercing its skin would distract him from the hollowness inside him...

Giles' heavy footsteps echoed loudly in the small space, and Edgar turned his attention to Joy, who was thrusting a slip of paper in their direction. He took it from her, peering down at it – it was written in the same hand as the rest of the notes, with unnecessary flairs and accents on the inked letters. "It must be the same guy," Joy was saying to the alleyway in general. "The guy who took Noah's the guy who's been killing the fairies. That note wasn't here earlier. He must know we're onto him."

Giles shifted his weight beside him. "What's it say, anyway? Are they like those 'catch me if you can' notes?"

He peered curiously over Edgar's shoulder, and Edgar pushed himself to his feet, stumbling over the words several times in his mind before daring to read them aloud. "Quoth the Raven 'Nevermore.'"

The other two were silent; Giles confused, and Joy deep in thought. Edgar thrust the note back at her, letting her shut it safely between the pages of A Storm of Swords, and he turned the shattered stylograph over in his fingers. Beads of blood were oozing out of a couple of minute cuts, but he clutched it tighter, hoping to cling to the tracking trace that could lead them to Noah.