Midnight Beauties (Grim Lovelies 2)
“What do you mean? It’s just as she said, a stealing spell. I’ve seen her use it. Here, with the watches, and in Castle Ides and at the British Museum.”
He peered at her intensely. “What was she stealing?”
Anouk shrugged. “Meaningless things. Old artifacts. Pottery bowls. Some artwork. Why? I assumed she was practicing her spell on anything at hand.” Even as she said it, though, she knew how unlikely it sounded. Cricket wasn’t the kind to steal worthless trifles when treasures abounded.
“You don’t see what I see,” Rennar warned. “She has a reason for creating that spell that she’s not telling you. It goes beyond merely stealing for the joy of it. She used the words Ut vol fer rein ut deux.”
“That just means ‘move from one place to another’ in the Selentium Vox.”
“Not exactly. Fer is used only in reference to people. Pas is for objects.” He paused and looked at her, as though that meant something serious. At Anouk’s blank expression, he explained, “It’s people she wants to find and move, not objects.”
Anouk knit her brows together. “She just doesn’t know the Selentium Vox as well as you do. She hasn’t spent centuries casting whispers. It’s a simple mistake. What does it matter, anyway? It worked on the Goblins’ watches, didn’t it?”
“I’m not concerned with whether or not it worked, I’m concerned with why she chose the words she chose.”
“You think she’s up to something?”
“You don’t?”
She frowned. If she was being honest, then of course she did. Cricket was always up to something. But Cricket was also clever and smart and fair and would never do anything to harm anyone who didn’t deserve it. If Cricket was keeping her spell secret, it was for a good reason. “She’s my friend,” Anouk said firmly.
Before Rennar could suggest anything more, the arguments among the Royals rose in tenor. Queen Violante scoffed at Prince Aleksi and asked, “And who is going to be willing to do that?”
“If you want the sight spell,” he told her, “that’s what it will take.”
Anouk’s ears perked up. “What will it take?”
“Sight,” Prince Aleksi replied.
“He means that literally,” Violante explained. “The prince wants one of us to give up our vision. The Selentium Vox requires it as part of the elixir. Someone must voluntarily go blind. Any takers? Ah, you see? I thought not.”
Aleksi said haltingly, “It would be only temporary. Once the spell is finished, we will return the vision to its owner.” He paused. “Of course, no one’s ever performed this spell before. So that’s theoretical.”
Anouk felt sick. “If it isn’t certain, then we can’t ask anyone to—”
“I’ll do it,” a voice at her side said.
Anouk closed her eyes. She wished she could turn back time. She opened her eyes and gave Beau a hard look. “Beau, you can’t.”
“I
t’s my offer to make.”
She let out a groan. “There’s no guarantee they’ll be able to return your sight to you.”
“There’s no guarantee we won’t all be swallowed by the Noirceur,” he said. “Life doesn’t come with guarantees, cabbage. What choice do we have, anyway?” He went over the logic of his plan. “Everyone who can cast a half-decent whisper is needed to gather the clocks and join in the kindred spell. That includes you and Petra. We need Cricket to steal the Heart of Alexandrite. We need Luc to mix enough elixir for hundreds of magic handlers. We need Hunter Black to scale the tower. What magic can I do? That one blasted sleeping spell? That isn’t going to get us out of a bind this time.” His face darkened. “It has to be me.”
She shook her head. “We need someone who can ride that Genevar motorcycle around the city to draw out the smoke.”
“Yeah,” he said plainly. “You, cabbage.”
She blinked, shocked. “I can’t drive.”
“Well, not yet.”
She pressed her lips together. Outside, across the park, the storm clouds surrounding Big Ben were rumbling. She went to the window. The smoke below was now three feet high, swallowing sidewalks and shrubs, bumping up against the revolving door. She crossed the shoe department to the balcony that looked down over the five-story atrium. As she feared, black ribbons of smoke were seeping through the revolving door into the store.
She felt Beau’s presence at her side. He wordlessly looked over the balcony, and Cricket did too, both of their faces tight with apprehension.