Vander snorted, unimpressed. But Ingrid stepped forward. She didn’t consider herself gentle, but she understood what Constantine meant. “I want to help.”
She was lucky, all things considered. She had found out about the Alliance, about demons and gargoyles, all before Vander told her she had demon dust. She had known right away that she fit in somewhere. Léon and the rest of the Dusters out there didn’t have that.
Vander rolled his shoulders. “Fine. If Ingrid’s going with you, so will I. But if this boy poses any sort of threat—”
“He is a good boy,” Constantine interrupted.
“A good boy who murdered his family,” Vander retorted.
Ingrid took Vander’s hand, lacing her fingers tightly with his. It surprised him into silence. As intended, she thought with a slight grin.
“We’ll help,” she said again.
Her teacher pushed back his chair and stood, his gray eyes flickering with unusual vigor. “Excellent. Tell me, then—is either of you familiar with the Paris sewers?”
CHAPTER TWO
Gabby gripped the handle of the sword and felt the balancing weight of the silver blade. The bridge was empty, closed to traffic, both pedestrian and wheeled. Tattered canvas sheets draped over long-forgotten bricks and granite blocks fluttered and snapped in the winds coming down the Seine. The river was the color of Connemara marble, and above, cement-gray skies threatened more icy rain.
She followed the scuttling movements of the rattilus demon as it rushed toward her from behind a pyramid of bricks. She hopped onto the bridge’s footpath, then up onto the metal railings of some scaffolding, the tip of her sword aimed at the ratti.
The name was deceiving. The creature advancing on Gabby was no river rat. It was the size of a greyhound, and just as long and bony. The ratti’s tail, saw-toothed and twice the length of its body, was its killing feature. Gabby had narrowly missed being struck by it twice in the last five minutes.
This was not going well at all.
“Come on, you nasty Underneath rodent,” she muttered as she grabbed a vertical bar and braced her foot on the next crossing of rails up the scaffolding. Poised as she was, Gabby would have the advantage. She’d hack off that vicious tail and send the demon back to the Underneath in a burst of green sparks.
Foresight. Gabby truly did think it was her strength when it came to hunting demons.
She pulled herself up—and felt her foot slip out of the notched crutch of the two crossing rails. The back of her knee landed hard on the notch, and she lost her grip on the cold metal bar. Gabby flopped backward, dangling upside down from the scaffolding. Her hat, pinned as it was, stayed in place, but her skirts rushed down around her face, exposing her knickers and completely blocking her view of the rattilus demon.
She’d have to work on that foresight.
Gabby slashed her sword through the air blindly, knowing the demon’s razor tail could be coming for her from any direction. In that moment, she felt fear. It jolted her pulse out of the calm rhythm she’d taught herself to maintain these last many weeks, hoping to hide her feelings. Because Gabby knew that she wasn’t the only one who could feel her pulse. She could never truly hide or mask what she felt. Just like her sister, brother, and mother, Gabby was never entirely alone.
She took a deep breath and, still upside down, chased the fear away. She did not need Luc to rush to the bridge, all black wings and sharp talons, to save her. He didn’t like to coalesce during daylight, but Gabby knew that he would. If her fear set off his trigger to shift, he would come. But Gabby could save herself.
She straightened her hitched-up leg and released her hold on the scaffolding. She fell, smashing her shoulder on the pavement. Luc will definitely have felt that. Skirts back in place, Gabby finally saw the ratti again—less than a foot away, with its tail cutting through the air toward her head.
Gabby ducked and the saw-toothed tail bit into the metal scaffolding. She rolled to the side and lifted her sword—and then a firestorm of green sparks exploded right in front of her face.
Two silver throwing stars with sharp, gearlike edges, polished to a radiant shine, clattered to the pavement in front of Gabby as the demon’s death sparks vanished.
Gabby groaned. “How am I supposed to learn how to kill demons if you’re always leaping in and doing it for me?”
Light footsteps came up behind Gabby, and then a petite figure dressed in crisp breeches and a stylish Zouave jacket knelt down in front of her. Chelle picked up the two blessed silver stars and rolled her eyes at Gabby.