“I guess this means our coffee date is canceled,” I said. The betrayal gnawing at the pit of my stomach turned my voice to frost. She just shrugged, demonstrating with one gesture that I was nothing to her. I wanted so badly to rush her, to push her, to demand an explanation. But I had seen her fight before and knew that even without a weapon, Violette was lethal.
There was a movement from behind her as two of the numa rushed out of the shadows toward us. In the same second I saw Arthur, who had been hanging back, leap toward them.
“These humans are mine!” the tiny revenant screamed without even looking over her shoulder. All three men came to a standstill a few yards behind her. Maintaining a careful distance from the numa, Arthur called, “Violette, let the girls go!”
She spoke, never taking her eyes off Georgia and me. “You’d like that, Arthur, wouldn’t you? Whatever happened to my old companion, who agreed that humans were barely worth the blood we spilled for them?”
“That was your opinion, Vi. It was never mine.”
“I know you, Arthur. I’ve known you for half a millennium. We’re practically the same person. Why didn’t you come with me when I asked? We have a new road to follow now.”
“I never thought it would be this road, Vi. And I’ve played your whipping boy for long enough. I said what you told me to about leaving Kate out of house meetings. And I looked the other way when I knew you were in contact with our enemy. Hell, I even dropped off a message from you to that one . . . that Nicolas,” he said, pointing back in disgust to where the fur-coat guy stood motionless in the shadows. “You’ve always used them for information, but I never thought you’d stoop to working with them. Or bowing down to their new-blood American numa overlord, for God’s sake.”
“There is no American, Arthur,” Violette said, with a short laugh as I gasped. “I made him up and claimed to be his emissary. I played an influential bardia in the pocket of a numa in case they balked at obeying me. But they’ve been following my orders for over a year. If Lucien hadn’t botched up the order to bring me Vincent’s head, you and I wouldn’t have had to endure this whole charade with Jean-Baptiste. The numa take orders from me now, and the revenants will soon be overthrown.”
“What do you mean they obey you?” Arthur asked, incredulous. “Four numa attacked us in an alleyway. You killed one of them. And you’ve stood by and watched Vincent destroy more than one.”
“Let’s just say I had a few troublemakers who didn’t want to accept my authority, whom I was more than happy to dispose of. It was very effective in allowing me to measure our Vincent’s strength. I do love strategizing, as you well know, dear Arthur.
“But now that everything has been set in order, you can take your place next to me as my consort. Give me your allegiance, and I will forgive your reluctance.”
“Never.” Arthur’s proclamation made him sound like the medieval knight he had once been. Or like his namesake, the king of knights.
Violette gave an enraged growl and—spinning so quickly I barely saw her move—landed a karate-style kick to the side of Georgia’s head, taking out her fury on my sister.
I threw myself on Violette, wishing I had something besides my body to fight her with. A sword. A quarterstaff. Any weapon that I had trained in, since I had never fought hand to hand.
I did my best to remember Gaspard’s lessons as I ducked and bobbed to avoid Violette’s martial arts–style attack. Although I couldn’t get a punch in edgewise, my actions distracted her from my sister, who was cursing loudly as she pushed herself up on her hands and knees. “Run, Georgia!” I yelled. “Get out of here!”
“And leave you to fight alone?” Georgia said indignantly. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw her pull herself up into a crouching position and spring back toward us.
I heard the numa fighting with Arthur and knew he was too occupied to help. This was our fight, and though Georgia and I were inexperienced, I bet on the two-on-one ratio giving us the advantage.
My hopes were quickly dashed as Violette’s fist connected with my shoulder. I heard something crack and felt a sharp pain as I staggered backward. She used the moment to kick Georgia in the ribs. My sister backed up to the guardrail, her hands pressed to her side and her face contorted in pain.
“I’ve seen the way you look at Arthur. Did you think you could steal my partner?” Violette asked Georgia in a cold, even voice.
“From what I understand, he’s not yours to lose,” Georgia said, a bitter smile curving the corners of her mouth.
“How would you know that, you stupid mortal?” Violette said, and spun to glance toward Arthur. Which gave me just the opportunity I was waiting for.
I used my good arm to land a punch to her head. My knuckle crunched hard against her jawbone. She screamed in rage and staggered backward a pace, but seemed otherwise unaffected. Violette was stronger—and tougher—than I could ever have imagined.