An Affair of Poisons(37)

I dig my elbow into Madame Bissette’s ample side and race out onto the rue Saint-Honoré. Her shrieks chase us down street after street until we reach the Place de Victoires and duck behind a chandler shop. It’s so early, the stores are dark and barred—not even the vendors are out with their carts. I release Mirabelle and hunch forward, hands on my knees. She leans against the wall, making noises halfway between sobs and laughter.

The air up here smells of rain instead of pottage, and the cobbles are slick and glittery in the early-morning light. I breathe deeply through my nose until the tension in my shoulders slackens. “I can’t believe we made it,” I say.

“I can’t believe you freed me.” Mirabelle’s dark eyes are wide with disbelief.

“I promised I would.”

“Yes, but …” She looks back the way we came, then at me, and eventually shrugs. “I suppose we’re even, princeling.”

She pushes away from the wall, straightens her tattered red skirts, and starts down the street without looking back. Without so much as a thank-you. Rather rude, considering I’ve risked everything to help her. But that’s only half the reason my stomach tightens: If she leaves, she could go anywhere. Do anything. That’s the point of freedom, I remind myself. But up here, with the city sprawling out in a thousand different directions, freedom seems a little too free. Desgrez’s warnings seem very real. And very possible. She could have lied about not returning to her mother. She could have saved the girls just to gain my trust. She could be plotting to lead the Shadow Society back to the sewer chamber.

No. I saw the look on her face when she healed the girls. I saw how she flinched and shrank when Desgrez condemned her for being a poisoner. She won’t betray us.

Are you willing to stake Anne and Fran?oise’s lives on it?

Cursing, I wipe my sweaty face on the inside of my tunic and jog after her. “Where are you going?”

Mirabelle quickens her step. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

“I suppose it’s not, but I’d feel better if—”

She holds up a hand and whirls around. “You kidnapped and threatened to kill me. I’m not concerned with your feelings.”

“Yes, but I also saved you… .”

She shoots me an exasperated look. “Like I said, we’re even.” She rounds another corner and starts up the inclined streets toward Montemartre—the hillside neighborhood overlooking the city center. I watch her go, my toes itching inside my boots.

You will not follow. There’s nothing more you can do.

Pebbles crunch behind me, and I check over my shoulder. The hairs bristle on my neck as I stare into the sinister swaths of shadow and darkened corners. Desgrez could be anywhere. Or her mother, La Voisin. Even if Mirabelle doesn’t return to the Louvre, the Shadow Society could capture her and force her to divulge my siblings’ location.

My sisters aren’t safe unless she’s safely hidden.

I flip my collar high, tug my hat brim low, and trail her at a distance. Up we climb, past sordid gambling dens and rows of maisons de tolerance, with their red-painted doors. “I know you’re still there,” Mirabelle says with an aggravated sigh. She pivots and folds her arms across her chest. “Why?”

I raise my hands and step out of the shadows. “I’m only trying to help. Desgrez will be hunting us. And the city is overrun with your mother’s lackeys… .”

“I know. I’ll avoid them.”

“How?”

“Again, I don’t see—”

Footsteps ring out on the cobbles. Before we can even think to dive for cover, a group of avocats round the corner in a flurry of polished leather cases and powdered wigs. Mirabelle sags with relief, but I remain as rigid as stone, glaring at the side of her face until the lawmen are out of sight and she finally looks at me.

“What?” she hisses.

“If that was Desgrez, you’d be dead!”

“What do you expect me to do?”

“Hide. Like a reasonable person.” I look up and down the road, and my gaze snags on an abandoned millinery sandwiched between two gambling dens. It’s dark and unassuming, the windows boarded up and the steps crumbling. “How about there?”

Mirabelle’s brows lower and she starts to shake her head.

“Just until tonight—to ensure Desgrez isn’t trailing us. Wait until the streets are empty, when you can blend in to the midnight shadows.”

“The sun is barely up!”

“Fine. Don’t. But I’ll be forced to keep following you. For your protection.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“As much as I’d love to get my sisters out of this treacherous city, we won’t get far if the Shadow Society captures you and forces you to compromise our location. So, no. I don’t have anything better to do.”

Mirabelle tilts her head back and groans as she crosses the road to the millinery.

I wait a moment, check up and down the street, and jog after her.

“I cooperate, yet still you follow,” she snips as I catch up with her on the stairs.

“Where else do you expect me to go? I’m not exactly welcome in the sewer anymore.”

“There’s got to be another abandoned shop in this city. Preferably on the opposite side.”