“Nothing—?
for now. But I might have an idea.”
The others were already far ahead. Anouk nudged Beau, and they joined the others at the base of Big Ben. The grass in the square was brown and, like everything else, coated in frost that crunched beneath her feet. The smoke had spread out over a five-block radius around the tower, hovering up to their ankles. Anouk could barely see her oxford shoes. Several Goblins climbed on top of the park’s marble monuments as though they thought the smoke might swallow them.
“It’s poisonous,” Rennar said, gesturing to the smoke with a grimace, doubtlessly remembering his brush with the smoke in Castle Ides. It was billowing out of the upper windows of Big Ben, pouring steadily down into the street. “The more of it we breathe, the more it’s going to poison us. If we try to go in there, we’ll die.”
“We aren’t going in Big Ben.” She turned on her heel to the building opposite the clock tower. It was the department store that had just had its grand opening, Pickwick and Rue’s, taking over a former government office building above the Westminster Tube station. The banners out front boldly proclaimed it to be London’s best new shopping destination, with a confectionery and coffee shop and gourmet market on the ground floor, and upper levels packed with exclusive Chanel, Burberry, and Dior treasures. “We’re going in there.”
“Shopping?” Cricket looked puzzled but not altogether against the idea.
“Not exactly.”
Rennar raised an eyebrow but didn’t question her. With a few commands, he ordered the Royals to follow Anouk through the crystal-studded front doors. Inside, the store was frozen in brand-new perfection. Glass jars of sugared plums tied up in ribbons. Gorgeous displays of boxed pears. Earthy-smelling coffee bundled in beautiful packaging. Everything was untouched, sparklingly new. Since no amount of magic would make the elevators work, Anouk led them up a spiral staircase in the center of the store that rose all five stories and was connected by balconies to the many departments: Menswear on the second floor, Accessories on the third, Home Goods and Lingerie on the fourth, and, at the very top, Ladies’ Shoes. They wound past displays of heels and golden sneakers and studded boots until Anouk stopped at the building’s most ambitious architectural feature: a one-story-high domed window that looked out across the park, directly at Big Ben.
She pushed a pair of fireball Louboutin heels off a display table, climbed on top, and addressed the crowd.
“I know many of you are here against your will,” she announced. “But this is bigger than what any of us want. The ancient Royals trapped the Noirceur in time, and the Coven of Oxford awakened it in every clock within the city limits of London. But they couldn’t control what they unleashed. So it’s up to us to contain the Noirceur once more. This is an effort that requires all of us, the four orders of the Haute, working together.” She gestured behind her at the clock. “I’ve seen what’s inside that tower. It’s an enemy like you’ve never faced. Something that can’t be manipulated. Can’t be stabbed. Can’t be charmed with spells.”
Prince Sorin’s expression was tight. “Can it be swept up with a broom, little maid?”
Beau turned on the prince and gave him a smart clip on the jaw. Sorin stumbled back into a display of ballet flats, clutching his chin.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a maid,” Beau said.
“He’s right.” Rennar folded his arms. “Anyway, she’s your princess now. The beasties are our allies. Disrespect them again and I’ll throw the next punch.”
This silenced the Royals, though Beau went broody, not liking Rennar stealing his thunder. Anouk ignored their pissing match and laid out the plan as concisely as she could: They would divide into teams, go through each of London’s inner neighborhoods, and use Cricket’s new stealing spell to transfer every clock to a pile at the base of Big Ben. Grandfather clocks, church-spire clocks, wristwatches, alarm clocks, ovens with digital clocks. Once all the clocks were gathered, they would join in a kindred spell to trap and contain the Noirceur into the Heart of Alexandrite. At the same time, to protect them from the worst of the poison smoke, Hunter Black would scale Big Ben and seal the windows. Meanwhile, Beau would ride the Genevar motorcycle with one of the Goblin’s portable audio players strapped to the back, drawing the noxious smoke out of the city with music blaring. They didn’t need to contain the smoke, just get rid of it.
December’s eyes grew wide at the idea of saving the world with rock music. “Consider the Goblins in.”
Rennar turned to Cricket. Under his breath, quietly enough that only Anouk and the others gathered closely could hear, he asked, “You truly penned such a stealing spell?”
Cricket looked offended. “You don’t think I can?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think if it’s true.”
Cricket rolled her eyes, but he’d challenged her, and to prove it, she quietly whispered the spell to him while the rest of the group argued about which neighborhoods they’d take.
Suddenly, the Goblin with golden dreadlocks cried out, “My watch!” Then the Goblin girl with the rose tattoos did the same. Soon all of the Goblins were grabbing for their pocket watches in a panic, finding nothing at the end of their watch chains.
“Calm down! I’m just proving a point!” Cricket pointed to a display table near the stairs. Every one of the Goblins’ watches was stacked in a tidy pile amid the Chanel loafers. A few Goblins cried out in relief. “See? The transference spell works.”
Rennar’s expression was unreadable, as though something about Cricket’s performance had troubled him. “It’s a clever spell, but there’s a problem. The spell requires the caster to know what is being stolen. An easy enough feat when it’s limited to all the pocket watches in a single room. But we cannot possibly know where all the clocks in London are.”
The chatter in the crowd turned sharper. Dissenting voices began to grow louder. Sweat broke out on Anouk’s temples. Those old fears came back to her.
Failure.
It sounded almost like a real whisper, and she twisted around sharply and stared at the bright round clock face across the street. The two clock hands kept inching forward, and with each tick, she felt her muscles tensing. Suddenly she was back in the Cottage, feeling Frederika’s wild eyes on her, inescapable. Reliving the awful final moments of Esme and Marta and Frederika and Heida. How Lise had cried out when her sister burned.
“We need a sister spell,” she blurted out, surprising the others so much that they quieted.
Unlike what she’d first assumed, a sister spell didn’t involve a pair of related witches—?it involved a pair of related spells. Sister spells weren’t common. They required not only a team of magic handlers working together—?and when had magic handlers ever managed to coordinate on anything?—?but also more than one spell. Casting two spells simultaneously was dangerous work that involved weaving together the spells word by word.
Queen Violante stroked her chin. “A sight spell to pair with the stealing spell. A spell that would allow us to see every clock so that we could then bind it with Cricket’s spell.” She waved over Prince Aleksi to discuss the possibilities, then called in Petra for her advice, then brought Luc over so he could tell them about available forms of life-essences.
While they were conferring, Rennar moved to stand next to Anouk and said quietly, “What has Cricket told you about this spell of hers?”