Grace squeezed her aching hand and looked at the boy. He was in his early twenties, wearing a brown leather jacket, blue jeans and white trainers. His hair was fashionably dyed in yellow, his bangs sloped half over his eye, and he had a sharp nose and thin, knife-edged lips. He had sculptural features and a blue diamond stud in his left ear that glowed in the sun. When his head turned slightly, there was a faint volute of light flitted across the ear drill.

Although he was casually dressed, he had a domineering feeling around him. There was no hiding the nobility in his bones, and this boy had...