She darts her eyes between Finn, the boys, and me. “A messenger came with this.”

She flashes me a note that’s been fisted in her sweaty hand. Scrawled in frantic handwriting are instructions on how to enter the catacombs and where to find us.

“From who?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “We don’t know.”

Before I can ask more questions, one of the boys sends another knife careening at Lena. She dodges it and picks it up from where it clatters to the ground.

“What the hell is going on?” she asks.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

“Jesus, more of them?” the shorter boy sighs.

“Let’s kill them all, eh,” the taller one replies.

I reach out with my power and take hold of the taller one, freezing him in place. His eyes go wide with panic, but he spits, full of bravado, “You don’t scare me, witch.”

I point my dagger at him. “Explain, now.”

He sighs and rolls his eyes. “Just here doing exactly what your beau wanted of us. We’re here for you, too.”

“But why help Finn?” I know how he operates, he doesn’t deal in violence or threats. He deals in hope, in offering people exactly what they’ve always wanted. “What has he promised you?” I won’t get the truth from Finn himself. He’d manage to spin it into some half thing to make himself look better. I need these boys covered in his blood to tell me.

The blond I don’t recognize spits blood on the floor and replies, “Because he promised he’d make us immortal.”

The unconscious boy tied up on the ground stirs. He blinks open his watery eyes and stares up at us arguing.

“Sir,” he moans, looking up at Finn with pleading eyes. In accented English, he begs, “I am Benny. You know me. I am a member of Les Selectionnes. Please, help me.”

I turn to Finn in horror, the pieces slotting together. Finn never told the magicians at the lake his name. I found that odd.

How’d this boy get from an hour outside of Paris to the tunnels of the catacombs?

How convenient it was that every body found was an unidentified young transient, a runaway.

“You were supplying the sacrifices,” I say to Finn. It isn’t an accusation. It’s a fact.

Finn shakes his head, but I can see in his face that it’s the truth. “Frances…”

“Did you create the whole community for this? You gave them hope! Was it nothing more than a body farm?”

He takes a step toward me, but I stop him in his tracks with my magic. “I did it for us.”

The words of his letter echo in my head. What I’m building, I’m building for us.

I take a step away from him and shake my head. “What did you do, Finn?”