Midnight Beauties (Grim Lovelies 2)

Anouk gave her a long, steady look. “It’s done.”

Anouk dropped the Heart of Alexandrite into the bag and Cricket wrapped it up, stowed it in her pocket. “That’s it, toute le monde!” she announced. “Time to get this sparkly thing back to its jail cell. It doesn’t matter if every creature in the Haute knows that this is where we’ve placed the Noirceur. We’ll have every trick and whisper aimed at protecting it. I wish them luck.”

The taxi honked again. Anouk gave the driver what she hoped passed for a smile and, still in a daze, moved onto the sidewalk. The taxi driver yelled something out the window and sped past.

A Pretty in a suit and tie, chatting into his phone, stopped abruptly in front of the three sisters of the Crimson Court. He stopped talking. Slowly lifted his sunglasses.

“Rennar,” Queen Violante said, staring in contempt at the Pretty, “they are noticing us.”

Several Pretties had stopped in the street and were eyeing the crowd of finely dressed Royals and witches and Goblins, perhaps wondering if some strange and glittering new circus had come to town.

Rennar rolled his eyes and cast his hand over the surrounding area. “Non avis nos.”

The Pretties who’d been eyeing them turned instead to fix their gazes on pigeons, and if any of them still noticed the magic handlers, they walked by with a huff as though fighting to pass a slow tour group.

Anouk turned to Big Ben. The tower stood as it always had, limestone and iron. She’d trapped the force within it but not destroyed the tower itself. The giant pyre of clocks at the base ticked away steadily. A group of Pretties dodged around a fallen grandfather clock as though—?thanks to Rennar’s whisper—?nothing were amiss in the existence of a small mountain of tens of thousands of clocks.

“Well.” Violante beat the remnants of soot from her silk gown. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need a drink.” She lifted the hem of her dress and stomped off on teetering heels (which looked suspiciously like the fireball Louboutins from Pickwick and Rue’s) toward the pub on the corner.

Prince Aleksi’s shadow loomed over Anouk. The handsome prince nodded solemnly at her before he and the other members of the Lunar Court followed Violante to the pub. Anouk rolled her eyes. For all their bravado, she had the feeling that they’d rarely been tested like that in all their centuries of life. Every bottle of wine would be drained tonight in the penthouse of Castle Ides, she imagined. Would they toast her? Their princess, their savior, their beastie?

Probably not.

The Goblins were dancing in the streets. London was their home city; expelled by the witches, they finally were back. December came roller-skating up to Anouk; she grabbed her arm to wheel herself to a stop. “Anouk! I’m so sorry about trying to kill you. My mistake. Come on, we’re throwing a party and the whole city is our club.”

Anouk steadied the wobbly Goblin. “Save me some champagne, okay? I’ll join you when I can. There are a few things I have to do first.”

December skated away to join a group of Goblin revelers.

Anouk turned to Pickwick and Rue’s and looked up at the window, hoping to see a figure standing there, tall and handsome with a sandy mop of hair, looking down at her with eyes that could once

more see.

Her smile disappeared. No one stood at the window.

“There!” Cricket pointed to the revolving door. It was turning, and in the next partition, Hunter Black appeared with Beau by his side. He was holding Beau by the upper arm, guiding him out. When Beau felt the sunlight on his face, he tilted his chin up.

Anouk ran up to them breathlessly. Beau turned at the sound of her footsteps, but his eyes didn’t track her face. She threw her arms around him. “Beau. Oh, Beau. I should have known better than to trust their promises.” She spun toward Rennar. “Why can’t he see? His vision should have returned.”

Rennar held out his hands. “The ways of magic are mysterious. We played with forces using methods we’ve never used before. No one knew exactly what would happen.”

She scowled at him, but then Beau pulled her close. “A small price to pay,” he said, “for a lifetime together in a world that’s no longer broken.”

She pressed her cheek against his. “We’ll get your vision back. Someone will have the answer. I’ll find it.”

“I know you will, Princess.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “Now get me someplace where we can eat and drink and sleep and kiss. And kiss. And kiss.”

She smiled and pressed her lips to his.

When she broke away, she caught sight of Hunter Black standing a few paces off, head turned so that his charcoal hair obscured his face.

“Hunter Black . . .”

He turned his head slowly, as though wounded.

Anouk rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Hunter Black. He did it to save you.”

He swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. “He shouldn’t have. Mada Vittora made me to be his protector, not the other way around.”