“Beau!”
When she called his name, he turned his head in her direction. She was flushed with relief. He’s okay! But he was also alone. Exposed.
“Damn it, Viggo, you promised to watch out for him,” she muttered.
Without warning, Viggo leaped out from behind a barricade of shoeboxes, pistol in hand. His face twisted in surprise when he saw her. “Anouk!”
She stopped, pressing a hand to her heart. “Viggo!”
He lowered the gun. “I thought you were Hunter Black! Cricket warned me he was on the loose.”
She dropped her hand, scowling. “So you set up Beau as bait?”
“It was his idea!”
“Cabbage?” Beau perked up, his sightless eyes searching. She climbed over the mountains of shoeboxes and knelt at his side. She pressed her hand to his cheek.
“Beau, I’m here.”
“Is it true about Hunter Black?”
“We’ll get him. We’ll exorcise the Noirceur before it destroys him.”
Beau’s head tilted in the direction of the window, as though he were asking a silent question. She glanced at the glowing face of Big Ben beyond the glass. No more colored lights flashed on the horizon. The entire contingent of Royals were gathered at the base by the pyre of clocks. Prince Aleksi, Queen Violante, all of the lesser Royals were there, and all the Goblins, except for December. They were waiting for her to banish the Noirceur into the Heart of Alexandrite.
But first, she had to get past Hunter Black.
She knew he was there even before she heard him. His footsteps were heavy on the marble floors. In a roomful of shoes, only his made any sound.
“Anouk.” His voice wasn’t his own. Like when the Noirceur had possessed King Kaspar, it was that awful rumble. There was something familiar about the way he said her name, as though the force inside Hunter Black recognized her. The Noirceur wasn’t sentient, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t drawn to its own kind.
The Noirceur to the Dark Thing.
Nature to nature.
Dark to dark.
Chapter 45
Beau gripped the edges of the chair. His sightless eyes darted toward Hunter Black’s voice. His fingers curled. He was going to do something stupid, she knew it. Something brave.
“Be the damsel in distress for once in your life,” she whispered to him. “Let me save you.”
“Cabbage, no.” But without sight, he couldn’t stop her, and they both knew it.
She turned to Hunter Black. She could hear Cricket and Petra fighting December on the ground floor. Beyond the windows, snow was falling. Clouds were low and dark on the horizon, as though the world itself were angry.
Smoke poured out of Hunter Black’s mouth as he whispered phrases in a language even more ancient than the Selentium Vox. Before she could think, he rushed at her.
“Sokdet!” She threw up her hands in a sweeping gesture. The spell pulled the rug out from under him and he was flung backward, though at the last moment he torqued his body and landed in a crouch. He sprang up and threw a high kick at her ear. She dodged it and pivoted out of his range, sucking in a quick breath while she could.
Viggo, hiding behind the checkout counter, popped up long enough to hurl a shoe at him. It bounced off the assassin’s back harmlessly, but it did cause him to turn with a growl, giving Anouk a rare opening.
“Cessa-col!”
Her spell enchanted Hunter Black’s boots and made them stick to the floor. As soon as he tried to take a step, he lost his balance and toppled over into a mountain of shoeboxes. Couture shoes tumbled all over the floor. He kicked out of his boots and stood barefoot. He came toward her with a growl but tripped on a Bergdorf heel, giving Anouk time to cast another spell.
“Versik, versik sa . . .”