Especially when they take to dressing in men’s clothes and running through the woods late at night, hunting for witches and big bad wolves.”
The others burst into laughter, except for Simonet. He continued to watch me with reserved eyes.
I waited for the others to finish their mindless chuckles. “I’m not interested in exposing your dirty secret activities.”
“No? Then how can I help you,
Mademoiselle?”
My cheek twitched, but I kept my body rigid. “I only want our province, once and for all, to be rid of you.”
They stared at me in stunned silence. Then exploded into laughter. One man actually wiped tears from his eyes while attempting to regain his composure.
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Laurent looked over the heads of his comrades and smiled. Other raucous conversations had resumed behind us, drowning out whatever was said at our table. Laurent smiled at the group and leaned forward. “Mademoiselle, let us be honest. You’ve done very well. You struck at us and actually did some damage. I’m not so proud that I cannot admit you beat us down. Twice. So you have my respect and admiration, and I congratulate you.” His grin hardened into stone.
“And now it’s over. You cannot seriously hope to
‘rid’ your little province of me. Or the rest of our order, which happens to hold eighty-eight members. All with the same abilities that my friends and I share.”
I tensed my back and shoulders, keeping my lips impassive. I couldn’t let him know he frightened me. “Eighty-eight? Still?”
He grinned, seeming genuinely amused. “I apologize. You have reduced our ranks down to, what? Seventy-five? Yet as I see it – seventy-five to one? I think we can still rely on our numbers.”
“Rely on them while you have them.”
Laurent leaned forward again, incredulous.
“So you’re serious, are you, Helena? You intend to take us all on?”
I said nothing.
He kept his eyes on me as he leaned toward Simonet. “Tell me what you see, Simonet.”
I met Simonet’s cold eyes, which seemed to pierce my soul.
“She’s passionate in her position, Your Grace. Unfortunately for her, she has no real plan.
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She might continue to do damage, but she knows she won’t last long.”
I tried to steel myself against all fear. To keep him from seeing it.
Laurent turned to his right. “What do you think, Sharrad? Does she look serious?”
Sharrad locked his gaze on me. His thin lips spread in a cruel smile. “I think she looks delicious.” His stare burned into me until I could actually feel his hunger.
“You don’t frighten me,” I told him, stiffening my shoulders to convince myself. “You killed my Grand’Mere and you scared me in the tunnel when I was a child. But you won’t frighten me again.”
Laurent squinted and exchanged looks of confusion with Simonet and Sharrad. “You think that Lieutenant-General Sharrad killed your Grand’Mere?”
“I recognize his eyes.”
Laurent seemed to understand, but acted as if I had said something amusing, while Sharrad’s nostrils flared. “Helena, dear. The wolf that killed your Grand’Mere is dead. Your friend, the woodcutter, killed him with an ax. That was not Vigo Sharrad, the head of our police force. Tell her who it was, Vigo.”
Sharrad’s blue-gray eyes blazed. “That was my brother, Gustave.”
I shuddered, while Laurent grinned with malice. It was Sharrad’s brother, with the same unsettling eyes.
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“And tell her what you’ve wanted to do since that day, Vigo.”
Sharrad twitched, as if wanting to pounce on me. “To devour the one who killed him. Which we did, a few years back. And to finish the job Gustave started.”
“He means you, my dear,” Laurent said with delight. “Helena, consider what you’re getting yourself into. I’m willing to forget these recent incidents and we can part ways. I don’t expect us to remain friends, but if you walk away now, I promise you’ll live.”
“No guarantee from me,” Sharrad said.
Laurent put up a hand to quiet him. “I can keep our order in line, Helena. Including our honorable
