Midnight Beauties (Grim Lovelies 2)

In a few brief moments, he taught her how to start the ignition, how to use the clutch and front and rear brakes, how to signal, how to lean in to curves. His love for engines was palpable. Driving had been his greatest pleasure working under Mada Vittora, and he was a good teacher. When the lesson was finished, they climbed off the motorcycle, smoke swirling up to their knees, and she took his hand. She opened his fingers and laid his rough palm against her cheek.

“The blindness will only be temporary, Anouk,” he said softly.

“That’s what they say, but they wouldn’t hesitate to lie if they thought it’s what you needed to hear.”

He didn’t answer right away. Big Ben kept ticking away, the only sound in the city. He flicked an errant piece of ash off her cheek.

“My beautiful gargoyle.”

“What happened to ‘cabbage’?”

“I was wrong. You’re fierce and strong and terrifying and nothing to make soup with.”

She smiled and kissed him again.

* * *

Anouk drove them back to Pickwick and Rue’s on the Genevar motorcycle, a little wobbly at first, but by the time they pulled up to the revolving glass door, she’d more or less gotten the hang of it. Smoke had risen above their knees, and the entire park was obscured beneath it except for the tallest monuments. Upstairs in the department store, they discovered that everyone had been busy

mastering Cricket’s transference spell. They’d stacked high heels on one table and were whispering them to another table on the other side of the department. Steadily, the shoes transferred locations pair by pair.

Cricket set up the pair of fireball Louboutins and motioned for one of the Goblins to practice again. “Welcome back,” she said to Anouk. “The Goblins picked up the spell right away. It took the Royals longer. They’ve spent their lives mastering how to get other people to do their dirty work.” She gave a long eye roll. “But they got it in the end.”

Anouk felt a figure looming behind her and turned to find handsome Prince Aleksi. His eyes were fixed on Beau.

“It’s time, Master Chauffeur.”

Hunter Black and Cricket dragged an armchair up from the Home Goods department and placed it by the window, where, even without his vision, Beau would be able to hear the ticking of Big Ben and know if their attempt had been successful. Beau took a seat hesitantly, his fingers clutching the armrests.

Prince Aleksi placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Do you have a high tolerance for pain?”

Beau’s face paled a shade. “Just do it.”

With a touch of orange powder on his lips, Prince Aleksi whispered the spell to capture Beau’s vision. His words were uttered as solemnly as a prayer, and Anouk felt like she was back in the Cottage’s great hall with its vaulted ceiling that had once been part of a church, Esme praying softly by the fireplace. Oh, Esme. It was horrid to think of her gone. Marta and Heida and Frederika too.

Beau kept his eyes fixed on Anouk while Prince Aleksi performed the spell. The other members of the Haute stood at a distance, watching silently. Halfway through the spell, she noticed something strange about Beau’s gaze. His head was turned in her direction but his eyes were fixed a little too far to her left. She took a step toward him and he didn’t track her movement.

She felt a sharp tug in her stomach. “Beau?”

He swallowed hard. His hands felt for the armrests as though he needed to reassure himself they were still there. “It’s okay,” he said, though it didn’t seem like it was okay at all.

Prince Aleksi continued his whisper and a gleam appeared at the corners of Beau’s eyes, marbled with iridescent colors like a shimmering puddle of oil. Without breaking the whisper, Aleksi waved over Luc, who came with a pitcher—?pilfered from Home Goods—?and held it up to each of Beau’s eyes, catching the rainbow-streaked tears, until Prince Aleksi stopped his spell.

“That should be sufficient. Combine it with the other ingredients. Three sips apiece. The first for an open heart. The second for an open mind. The third for open eyes. Everyone, drink deep.”

Luc poured the elixir into three wine goblets that they’d also found in the Home Goods department. The members of the Haute passed one among themselves. The Goblins took another. Anouk went to stand next to Cricket by the window.

“About your spell,” Anouk said haltingly. She thought back to what Rennar had said about Cricket’s wording referring to stealing people, not objects. She lowered her voice. “I thought you just wanted to be a better thief, but there’s more to it, isn’t there?”

Cricket slid her a guarded look. “Nope.”

“Then why’d you steal those artifacts from Castle Ides?”

Hesitancy flickered in Cricket’s otherwise normally cool eyes. She pressed her lips together and then took Anouk’s hand and pulled her into a private corner behind a rack of shoes. “Do you remember at Montélimar when Mada Zola showed us those portraits of the ancient selkas? The original beasties?”

Anouk tilted her head, curious. “Of course.”

“Well, I know this sounds complètement fou, but when Countess Quine turned me into a cat at the château, I had something like a vision. It happened again when Petra turned us into animals to pass through the Chunnel.”