Coco’s eyes flashed. “I’d tear out her throat.”
I smiled ruefully. “It’s my own throat I’m worried about.”
“So what then?” She dropped my hand and pushed to her feet. “You’re just going back to Soleil et Lune?”
“For now.” I shrugged as if unconcerned, but the movement felt too stiff to be convincing. “No one but Bas knows I live there, and he managed to escape.”
“I’ll stay with you.”
“No. I won’t let you burn for me.”
“Lou—”
“No.”
She huffed impatiently. “Fine. It’s your own neck. Just . . . let me mend your fingers, at least.”
“No more magic. Not tonight.”
“But—”
“Coco.” I stood and took her hand gently, tears pricking my eyes. We both knew she was stalling. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a couple of broken fingers. Go. Take care of yourself.”
She sniffed, tipping her face back in a losing effort to contain her tears. “Only if you do.”
We hugged briefly, neither of us willing to say goodbye. Goodbyes were final, and we would see each other again someday. Though I didn’t know when or where, I would make sure of it.
Without another word, she released me and melted into the shadows.
I hadn’t even left the alley when two large figures stepped in my path. I cursed as they pushed me none too gently into the alley wall. Andre and Grue. Of course. Though I struggled against them, it was pointless. They outweighed me by several hundred pounds.
“How you doing, sweet thing?” Andre leered. He was shorter than Grue, with a long, narrow nose and far too many teeth. They crowded his mouth, yellow and chipped and uneven. Gagging at his breath, I leaned away, but Grue buried his nose in my hair.
“Mmm. You smell good, Lou Lou.” I smashed my head into his face in response. His nose crunched, and he staggered backward, swearing violently, before lunging for my throat. “You little bitch—”
I kicked his knee, simultaneously elbowing Andre in the gut. When his grip loosened, I darted toward the street, but he caught my cloak at the last second. My feet flew out from under me, and I landed on the cobblestones with a painful thud. He kicked me over to my stomach, pinning me there with a boot on my spine.
“Give us the ring, Lou.”
Though I twisted beneath him to upset his balance, he only pushed harder. Sharp pain radiated up my back. “I don’t have—” He reached down before I could finish, smashing my face into the ground. My nose cracked, and blood spurted sickeningly into my mouth. I choked on it, stars bursting in my eyes, and fought to remain conscious. “The constabulary busted us, you asshole!” An unpleasant realization dawned. “Was it you? Did you bastards snitch?”
Grue snarled and rose to his feet, still clutching his knee. His bulbous nose bled freely down his chin. Despite the blinding pain, vindictive pleasure stole through me. I knew better than to smirk, but it was hard—so hard—to restrain myself.
“I ain’t no snitch. Search her, Andre.”
“If you touch me again, I swear I’ll rip out your fucking eyes—”
“I don’t think you can issue threats, Lou Lou.” Andre yanked my hair back, extending my throat, and caressed my jaw with his knife. “And I think I’ll take my time searching you. Every nook and cranny. You could be hiding it anywhere.”
A memory surfaced with crystalline focus.
My throat over a basin. Everything white.
Then red.
I exploded beneath him in a blur of limbs and nails and teeth, clawing and biting and kicking every bit of him I could reach. He stumbled backward with a cry—his blade nicking my chin—but I didn’t feel the sting as I swept it aside. Didn’t feel anything—the breath in my lungs, the tremble of my hands, the tears on my face. I didn’t stop until my fingers found his eyes.
“Wait! Please!” He forced them closed, but I kept pressing, curling my knuckles beneath the lids and into the sockets. “I’m sorry! I—I believe you!”
“Stop!” Grue’s footsteps pounded behind me. “Stop, or I’ll—”
“If you touch me, I’ll blind him.”
His footsteps stopped abruptly, and I heard him swallow. “You— Just give us something for our silence, Lou. Something for our trouble. I know you pinched more than a ring from that knob.”
“I don’t have to give you anything.” Backing toward the street slowly, I kept one hand pressed firmly against Andre’s neck. The other remained lodged in his eyeball. With each step, sensation returned to my limbs. To my mind. My broken fingers screamed. I blinked rapidly, swallowing the bile in my throat. “Don’t follow me, or I’ll finish what I started here.”