She nodded. This was all Beau knew—the world of cars. The brushes helped. They closed off that terrifyingly big world. Water rained down on the windshield like a spring shower, and she felt like she was back in her turret bedroom during a good hard storm. She breathed in the comforting smell of cleansers.
“We lost the crows?”
Beau ran his hand over the steering wheel fondly. “I told you I could drive.”
She cocked her head, looked at him a bit differently. Her whole life, he’d been like a brother to her, the kind who teased her about dust bunnies. She’d never seen this side of him: confident behind the wheel, dangerously fast. What else didn’t she know about him?
The brushes outside swayed in their rhythmic dance back and forth.
“What now?” she asked.
“The scrying crows’ whispers will have spread to Castle Ides. It’s only a matter of time before Viggo and Hunter Black go to the townhouse and see what happened. And then they’ll be looking for us. They’ll think we killed her.”
A cold feeling returned to Anouk. She looked sidelong at Beau. If he hadn’t done it, then who had?
She swallowed. “I wish Luc were here.”
“Well, he isn’t.” It was unlike Beau to snap like that, and it made Anouk realize that he felt Luc’s absence as keenly as she did.
She took a deep breath. “We should go to Cricket’s apartment. She’s the oldest, after Luc. She’ll know what to do.”
“Won’t her apartment be the first place they’ll look for us?”
Anouk shook her head. “Not necessarily. It’ll take them at least an hour to get to Rue des Amants. Besides, I lied to Viggo today. I told him Cricket was out of town.”
Beau raised an eyebrow. “Lied? You?”
Anouk smacked him on the arm.
He feigned being hurt, but then his expression turned grim again. He tugged on a ruffle on her apron. “This will need to go. Your dress too. You can’t walk around like that, covered in blood. We’ll be stopped by the police.”
Anouk tugged off the apron, balled it up, and threw it in the back seat, but the blood had soaked into her dress too.
“I don’t have other clothes.”
Beau thought for a minute. The soap cycle ended, and another rinse began. Through the snaking watery lines, Anouk could almost make out the city lights beyond. Terror started to claw up her throat again as she thought of the crows, of the danger, of the unknown city, but there was an exhilaration with it this time. Wasn’t this what she had always wanted? To be out in the city? To walk among the Pretties? The loud machines of the car wash rumbled to a stop, the final drips rolling off the car.
Beau rested a hand on the gearshift. He eyed Anouk’s clothes, tapping a finger against the steering wheel.
“It’ll be okay. I know a store we can go to.”
“But we don’t have money.”
“We don’t need it at the place I have in mind.” He drew in a long breath. “It doesn’t open for another few hours, but they might open it for me.”
There was apprehension tucked into his voice. Once again, Anouk acknowledged that, as well as he knew the map of the city streets, and the Pretties’ traffic signals, and their rules of driving, he was almost as innocent as she was when it came to how anything actually worked in their world.
A green light turned on, and he drove out of the car wash slowly, both of them checking the empty skies, back into the dark streets of Paris.
Chapter 7
Anouk pressed her face to the car window as they made their way through the city. Beau stayed off the wide thoroughfares where the crows might find them again, instead rumbling down side streets through the Porte de Clichy, into Batignolles, past the Théâtre de Paris. Even in the early morning, the city was alive. Street sweepers in green overalls with matching caps pushed plastic brooms. Electric lights illuminated back rooms of the bakeries and patisseries, where Anouk glimpsed women with flour on their arms. The next square was overtaken by open-back trucks overflowing with buckets of multicolored blooms and vendors in thick coats haggling over bouquets of peonies and anthuriums, lilacs and Peruvian lilies. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine she was back in the courtyard with Luc.
And then, all too soon, Beau turned down a side street and the market was gone. The lane was impossibly tight, hugged on both sides by squat buildings leaning on one another’s shoulders.
“Maybe we should go to Rennar,” Anouk blurted out, surprising even herself.
“Rennar? Are you mad?”
“He didn’t seem dangerous at the party.”
But that wasn’t quite true, she thought. He hadn’t seemed malicious, but dangerous? She swallowed, thinking of that dark eye-shine.
“Well, he is,” Beau said flatly. “We aren’t going to the Royals.”
The tight lane spilled out onto a curving road, and Anouk checked the skies. Clear. Tall iron fences rose on either side of the street, behind them vast, dark expanses heavy with the shadows of trees.
“Is that a forest?” she asked.
“A garden. Forests are only outside of the city, in the country, I think.”
She stared at the iron gates. The garden seemed to stretch on forever; how much vaster must a forest be than this? Luc had told her stories about forests, wild places that were the domain of wolves and bears and hawks. She half expected to see the glint of red eyes watching from beyond the gates. Beau went around a traffic circle and then rolled onto a bridge. Towering trees changed to monuments of white marble that glowed even in the darkness. She leaned forward, trying to take it all in at once.
Beau stopped the car abruptly. “This is it.”
Anouk pressed her face against the window and gazed up at a six-story building that took up an entire city block. Dazzling lights lit up the words she had seen on boxes that Mada Vittora brought home.
“‘Galeries Lafayette,’” she read reverently. “But we can’t shop here. It takes money to buy clothing.” She didn’t have to mention that Galeries Lafayette was the most expensive department store in all of Paris.
“Wait for me to come around.” Beau climbed out of the car, checking the skies again, and opened the door for her. “Mada Vittora doesn’t use money here. She has something called an account. Whenever I bring her here, she takes the clothes and they keep track of everything and send a monthly bill to someone. They know me here. They’ll believe me.”
“But she’s gone.”
“They don’t know that.” He looked anxiously at a giant lit clock face on the opposite building. “And by the time the news spreads, we’ll be far away.”
Anouk climbed out of the car, scanning the skies for telltale dark wings. None, but her pulse wouldn’t calm. Except for a few cars and delivery trucks, the street was quiet. No shoppers. No doormen standing at attention. The department store was dark inside.
“The sign says they don’t open until nine.”
Beau’s eyes scoured the street, slicing back and forth. Looking for crows. Listening for the roar of a gunmetal-gray motorcycle. A jogger ran past them, wearing tight clothes and white headphones. The woman slowed as she approached, jogged in place a few beats, and then turned sharply and started sprinting back the other way.