“You mean who can use a computer?” Ambrose nudges Gaspard, who rolls his eyes but cracks an almost invisible smile.

Bran chuckles. “That, and more. People who don’t live in the past.”

Kate chimes in. “You are a bardia—or you will be one day—and you’ve been living with a Flame-finger for the last five years. Bran’s been telling you about their ways, so you surely understand them better than any of us. Believe me, you’re the perfect choice.”

This is a lot of information for one day. I wonder if I’m capable of living up to their expectations. It sounds intimidating to say the least.

“So?” Kate asks.

I swallow the lump in my throat. “I accept. Of course. You know I’ll do anything you ask.”

“Well, that’s just great!” Ambrose rubs his hands together as he rises. “I propose we all move down to the kitchen for some celebratory snacks.”

“Sorry,” Bran says. “Louis and I need to be on our way.” He turns to me. “I’ll take you to Le Corbeau to meet your Flame-finger counterpart, then you can come back and get moved in.”

“Wait, you’ve already chosen someone for your side?” I wonder how many other secrets my mentor has been hiding from me.

“I’m sure you’ll get along,” Bran says. “He’s a lot like me.”

Ambrose shakes his head. “Not at all like you.”

Bran says, “Well, of course not exactly like me, seeing as he’s eighteen.”

“Still nothing like you,” Ambrose says. “No offense.” He reaches out to give him a side-hug that Bran immediately wriggles out of. Ambrose winks at me to show he knows how much Bran hates hugging and that that’s actually the whole point.

Chapter Four

As I step through the door of Bran’s family’s antiques and reliquary shop, the smell of incense transports me back to the day five years ago when Violette brought me here, accompanied by two of her goons and the disembodied spirit of Vincent. We charged down the stairs to the basement, where just hours before my “colleagues” had killed Bran’s mother and left him tied him up for questioning. But by the time we arrived, Kate and Georgia had rescued Bran and disappeared.

When Bran and I talked through my entire numa history, back when I first got to Brittany, he gave me his version of the story. Him, beat up, gagged and duct-taped to a chair in the basement. Kate and Georgia arriving and releasing him. The three of them escaping through a basement access to the Paris sewers just as Violette and I arrived.

I told him my version: Violette throwing a screaming fit until the two thugs broke through the barred door and charged into the sewer tunnels to search for them. Too late. I cowered while Violette ranted and raved and smashed things against the wall.