Just then, Kate’s grandmother grabs a stick from beneath the hedge and swings it with all her might at the back of the Viking’s legs. Before he can react, my hand is at my waist, my fingers closed around the hilt of a knife. In one fluid motion I slide it from its sheath, raise it up beside my ear, and fling it. The early morning light catches the dagger as it flies toward the giant, the slivery blade glinting brightly before embedding into his neck.

With a look of shock, the man drops both Odette and his knife. He lifts his hand to the hilt of my dagger, jerks it from his neck, and stares at it in surprise. Kate flies into action, and as her grandmother scrambles to catch Odette in her arms and pull her away, Kate’s sword meets the side of the man’s skull. With a clean slice, she takes off the top of his head as easily as carving a pumpkin.

The man crumples to the ground. Kate drops her sword and throws her arms around her grandmother and Odette. Then Vincent is there, wrapping his arms around the three of them, and they’re talking and crying all at once.

I glance back at Georgia. She’s up now, standing and watching her family, but torn between going to them and staying with Arthur’s corpse.

You have to go now, comes Gaspard’s voice in my mind.

“What? Where?” I ask.

I see you rushing off in a minute. You look panicked. Check your phone.

I pull my phone from my pocket and see a string of texts from Siaka.

Leaving school. Meet out front Cluny Museum in 20.

Wait...cancel. Liv wants to meet. Says it’s urgent.

Hey. Back on. She said she can come here. Can you meet us at the Cluny?

And as I’m looking at the last text, a new one pops up.

Help me!

Chapter Twenty Three

In a screech of tires against asphalt, I turn Vincent’s motorcycle into the street bordering the Cluny Museum. I park and check my phone. It’s been seven minutes since Siaka’s message and since then...silence. My heart’s beating out of my chest. What could be wrong? I wonder if Liv reached him. Are they both in danger? Maybe he hurt himself somehow. No, he would have said so. I have a feeling that the danger he’s in is more menacing than an accident.