A quick thrust. One simple movement.

She would drive me mad unless I did it.

We stayed that way for another second, another hundred seconds—tense, poised—but a shout sounded from across the treasury, breaking our standoff. “It’s here!” Célie’s laughter swelled between us. “I found it!” With a smirk, Lou stepped backward. Away from me. In her absence, I could breathe again. I could hate.

The woman would drive me mad until I did it.

“You’re lucky,” I said darkly, sheathing my knife.

“Funny. I don’t feel lucky at all.”

Her smirk seemed brittle as she turned to follow Célie’s voice, gifting me her back. Every fiber in my being longed to lunge. To attack. I even bent my knees, stopping only when a sapphire glinted in my periphery. I froze. From within a drawer of the wardrobe peeked the silver hilt of a Balisarda. It looked as if it’d been stuffed there haphazardly. Stowed away and forgotten. A jolt seared through my body. A lightning strike.

Carefully, quietly, I slipped the Balisarda into my bandolier.

We found Célie, Jean Luc, and Beau congregated beside the fire. Coco converged on them the same moment we did. Immediately, Célie thrust the unexceptional ring into her palm. “I found it,” she repeated, breathless with excitement. With something else. When her eyes flicked to Coco’s collar near imperceptibly, I followed the movement. A locket glittered there. “Here. Take it.”

Coco examined the ring for a long moment before she smiled. “You would be the one to find it.” With an appreciative nod to Célie, she handed it to Lou, who slipped it on her finger like it belonged there. I frowned. “Thank you, Célie.”

“We should go,” Beau urged. “Before Morgane comes back.”

In agreement, we retreated down the stairs, but it wasn’t Morgane who met us at the door.

It was Manon.

Ask Me No Questions

Reid

Feet planted wide—arms gripping each side of the threshold—she met us with a frighteningly blank expression. Trapping us here. All traces of her tears had been scrubbed away since the corridor below. “Chamomile tea, Louise?”

Lou edged to the front of our group, her hand brushing mine as she passed. The touch tingled. I jerked away. “You looked like you needed it,” she said, gesturing to Manon’s general dishevelment. Her airy tone felt forced, as did her smile. “I’m assuming you didn’t heed my advice and drink it. When have you last slept?” Manon didn’t answer. Shouts below wiped the smile from Lou’s face all the same. Her eyes flew wide. “You—did you tell my mother—?”

“Not yet. I had to be sure of the intruder. But I told others. They will inform Our Lady soon.”

“Shit, shit, shit. Shit.” Exhaling a harsh, incredulous breath, Lou clenched her fists before seizing Manon’s collar and yanking her into the stairwell. Beau slammed the door behind them. “This is fine. They don’t know I’m here specifically. We can still—”

“You will not escape again, Louise,” Manon said, her eyes still flat and unexpressive.

“Just—just—” Lou wrung a fist in the witch’s face, and Manon stiffened like a board, unable to move. “Just shut up for a second, Manon. I need to think.” To Coco, Jean Luc, and me, she said hastily, “We can’t go out the way we came in. Any brilliant ideas?”

“We fight our way out,” I said instantly.

Jean Luc’s brow furrowed as he considered strategy. “There are six of us. Enemy numbers unknown. We’ve claimed the higher ground, but we’d need to form a choke point—”

I pounded my fist against the door. “We have one. They can’t break the enchantment—”

“You’re both idiots.” Lou turned imploring eyes on Coco. “Was there anything in the treasury we could use?”

“Can’t you just show them the Goddess has revoked Morgane’s blessing?” Beau waved his hands wildly. “You are their queen now, correct?”

“Again, why didn’t I think of that? I’ll tell you what, Your Highness, why don’t you command your people to stop burning witches, so all of our problems go away?” She turned back to Coco before he could answer. “There was magic fire.”

Clenching her own eyes shut, Coco rubbed her temples. “And plated glass. I also saw chains and swords and—” Her gaze snapped to Lou’s once more, and realization passed between them like a bolt of lightning.

“The window,” they said together.

Lou nodded frenetically. “We’ll need to climb.”

Coco was already dragging Beau and Célie back up the steps. “It’ll be risky—”

“No riskier than a choke point—”

The implication of their words finally settled in. My stomach churned. “No.”

“You’ll be fine.” Patting my arm in a distracted way, Lou raced toward the stairs. “I won’t let you fall.” When I made no move to follow—when the shouts behind grew louder—she lost patience, doubling back and yanking at my hand. I yielded one step. Not another. She spoke with frantic cajolement, still tugging. “Please, Reid. We have to climb, or we’re never getting out of here. They won’t just kill me. They’ll kill you too. Horribly. Slowly. You want a choke point? You don’t have a Balisarda, so you’ll feel every single moment.”

I bared my teeth in a grin. “I’ll risk it.”

Frustration flared in her eyes, and she lifted her hand once more. “If you don’t move, I’ll make you move.”

“Please”—triumphant, I swept my coat aside, revealing the Balisarda and pivoting between her and the stairs—“do.”

When her mouth fell open, astonished, I relished it. Relished her surprise, her fear, her—

The hilt of another knife smashed into my crown, and I staggered forward, into her. She tried to catch me. We both nearly broke our necks. Behind, Beau stood panting, knife still raised. “I don’t need magic to knock your ass out. I’ll drag you onto the roof if necessary. You aren’t dying like this.”

Jean Luc appeared beside him. They stood shoulder to shoulder, towering over me. As if they could intimidate. As if they could threaten—