I force myself to calm down and scan the area. It’s nearing eleven in the morning. Normally tourists would be lining up beneath the turrets of the Musée de Cluny to visit its collection of medieval art, objects and weaponry, not to mention the museum’s star exhibit, the Unicorn Tapestries. But the Cluny is closed for a whole year for renovations, “Fermé/Closed” signs plastered across its facade. Louis once mentioned that, saying the closure made it easier to visit the Flame-finger archives. Before, he’d had to sneak in late at night or early morning.

He had told me that to get there, he had to cross through the excavation site in the below-ground area that contained the ruins of Roman baths. At street level, a barrier runs along the perimeter of the site, but I home in on a spot in the chain link fence where a door is hung with an “employees only” sign. Sure enough, the padlock is missing and the door slightly ajar. Glancing around to make sure no one’s watching, I slip through and ease it closed behind me before heading down the metal stairs.

The excavation is a huge open-air pit dug in a wide area around the museum itself. The skeleton of stone walls that once housed the Roman baths form a two-story tall maze through the space. I head past them to the edge of the excavation—a sheer wall of dirt and rock rising straight up twenty feet to street level.

It’s dark along the wall, the sunlight unable to reach the bottom of the pit, so it takes a few minutes for my eyes to adjust. No one is here. I walk a bit further, turn a corner, and there they are. Siaka, Liv and a guy I don’t recognize grouped around an opening in the earthen wall.

The magical door leading to the super-secret Flame-finger archives is wide open. The fact that a stranger is standing with Siaka in front of it makes my blood run cold. This is bad. Very bad.

As I approach, I see that the guy is tall with shoulder-length blonde hair and wears jeans and a camouflage jacket. He blocks the door with his body, with Siaka and Liv facing him. His grin widens when he catches sight of me, causing the others turn to see what he’s looking at.

Siaka looks terrified. “I shouldn’t have texted you. You should leave!” He sees the blood on my shirt and freezes. “You’re hurt!”

“It’s barely a scratch.” I ignore his warning and walk steadily forward, drawing my sword as I near.

“So that’s why you’ve been stalling,” the guy says to Siaka before turning his attention back to me. “Oh well. The more the merrier.”