‘‘Hardly,’’ I said with a snort. ‘‘My apartment consists of one room, three bookcases, and a bathroom I share with two girls next door.’’

‘‘There you are. We’d almost given up on you,’’ Aisling said as she caught sight of us.

‘‘I don’t suppose anyone has heard from or seen Cyrene?’’ I asked once Savian was introduced and a brief explanation had been given of our past few hours.

‘‘No, we haven’t seen or heard from her. Do you think something happened to her?’’ Aisling asked.

‘‘All we know is that she left London for Paris in the company of a dragon.’’ My gaze flicked over to where Drake stood.

‘‘Kostya?’’ he asked Gabriel.

‘‘We do not know for certain,’’ he answered carefully. ‘‘Although it crossed my mind.’’

‘‘Why would Kostya want to come to Paris with Cyrene?’’ Aisling asked.

I shook my head and trudged wearily up the stairs to the room she had given us. I puzzled over that very question while I washed off the effects of the afternoon. It didn’t seem to make sense at all—even if Cyrene had done the impossible and caught up to Kostya after leaving Porter . . . or rather, Porter’s remains, why would he want to accompany her?

A thought occurred to me as I was brushing my teeth. I stared in surprise at the empty mirror as my brain chewed over the possibility that Kostya killed Porter.

‘‘It’s a tenuous connection at best, but it’s still a possibility,’’ I told the mirror. ‘‘Cyrene did set off to follow Kostya, and later, they were together at the portal shop. So who’s to say they weren’t together the whole time?’’

If I’d been able to cast a reflection, it would have been shaking its head at the last of my words. I’d forgotten that Cyrene said Porter had kidnapped her, which meant she couldn’t have been with Kostya then.

I didn’t have an answer by the time I trotted back downstairs, but I didn’t have much chance to mull it over before Gabriel whisked me away to Suffrage House.

‘‘You’re sure they won’t have some sort of spell to catch me shadow walking?’’ I asked Savian. He stood with Gabriel and me across the street from Suffrage House. Drake and Aisling and their two guards were already inside the building, doing their part to reconnoiter.

‘‘I’ve never heard of anything. People who could do damage to anything housed there would not have access to the beyond or shadow walking.’’ He grinned at me. ‘‘I guess they didn’t think about doppelgangers.’’

‘‘We’re not normally at odds with the L’au-delà," I pointed out, then shadowed and made my way across the busy street without being struck.