I let my gaze pass over the direction she’d indicated, easily picking out the Regent by the circle of courtiers fawning about him. He had the look of his son, but with many more years, grey hairs, and paunch around the middle.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d have the audacity to show your face here.”

I turned around to find Aiden standing behind me. He was freshly shaven and dressed as befitted his station, yet he looked haggard. A decade or more older than I knew him to be. “My lord.” I bowed low. “I take it you aren’t the individual I have to thank for the invitation to tonight’s fête?”

“Bad enough that I have to suffer you traipsing around my city as though you were…” He broke off, finally realizing the degree of attention we’d garnered from his outburst. “As though you were human,” he said. “Not the cursed devil of a creature I know you to be.”

“Not cursed any longer,” I replied, plucking a glass of wine off a passing tray. “You should really try to keep up with these developments.”

His face darkened. “De Troyes said you wanted to make a bargain. I’ll hear you out, but then I want you gone.”

I shrugged. “As you like.” Bending, I whispered in Sabine’s ear, “You know what to do. But be careful.”

Aiden led me out of the hall, down a few narrow and low-ceilinged corridors, and into a study. “Shut the door,” he snapped at Cécile’s brother, who had followed us out of the main hall. “I don’t want anyone overhearing this.”

I selected a seat next to the banked fire where I could watch him pace, careful to keep Fred, and the pistol he had in his grip, in my line of sight.

“De Troyes has told me that you’re willing to dispatch your father in exchange for my assistance tonight.”

“Anushka is here in the castle,” I said. “I’ve strong reason to believe your mother has been harboring her, although I cannot say whether it is by choice.” Aiden opened his mouth to argue, but I held up a hand to cut him off. “The witch has been maintaining her immortality using a spell that involves a specific set of conditions and the sacrifice of her female descendants. She intends to murder Genevieve de Troyes tonight.”

Aiden’s eyebrows lifted. “But that means that Cécile is…”

I gave a slight nod. “I’d like your assistance in catching Anushka before she completes the spell.”

He stared at me in silence for several long moments. “You must think me a fool. If I help you catch the witch, you’ll kill her and release your scourge upon the Isle.”

“Yes,” I said, shoving aside the anger I felt at his terminology. “I will kill her. But what you need to understand is that her death is inevitable. My father’s adversary, the Duke d’Angoulême, has discovered her identity. He means to take control of Trollus using my younger brother and then kill her. Which means you have a choice: deal with him or deal with me.”