Page 132 of The Mask Falling

What happened next was unclear. It was too dark to see anything but the glint of eyes before both Rephaim blurred out of sight. I sprang to my feet and ran after them, revolver in hand. Moonlight spilled from above again, stripping the ground white.

I found Arcturus kneeling in the snow beside the fallen Rephaite. “He will wake before long,” was all he said.

“What were youthinking, taking him on without a weapon?” I said in a heated whisper.

“It was his weapon I wanted.”

He rose with an exquisite sword in hand. Its blade was the length of my arm, and it looked for all the world like a seamless blend of glass and pearl, iridescent where the moonlight touched it.

“It has been a very long time since I last held an opaline blade.” He gave it a satisfied spin, making the air rush and the æther vibrate. “This will serve.”

Seeing him with a blade gave me a strange feeling. Renelde, who had now caught up with us, did a double take. “What the fuck is that?” she whispered to me. “Looks like a frozen rainbow.”

When the other three reached us, we padded up the steps and down another thorny path. Now the Château de Versailles was to our left, and we were level with it. Cast-iron gas lamps illuminated its façade.

“We have to find another way,” I said. The moon disappeared again. “The moment we leave the groves, we’re exposed.”

“Thereisno other way.” Renelde leaned a fraction of an inch out of our cover. “Where are the Vigiles?”

“Over there.” I nodded to the right. “They’re moving, but not in this direction.”

Malperdy got his binoculars out again. “I can see the window.” He lowered them. “Still broken.”

He handed me the binoculars. Even with the gas lamps, it was difficult to find, but I finally made it out. Above two pairs of white pillars, a third-floor window was missing most of its glass, as if someone had launched a piece of furniture through it.

With a deep breath, Malperdy duckwalked forward, the coiled rope slung over his shoulder. Ankou stopped him, grasping his wrist with a murmur.

“I’ll check the coast is clear up there,” Malperdy muttered, hands just visible in the light from the mansion. Ankou pressed his lips together. “As soon as I lower the rope, join me.”

“Be careful, Mal.” Renelde readied her pistol. “We are right behind you.”

“Super.” Malperdy blew out a breath. “Wish me luck.”

He darted out from the grove, across a stretch of snow, and fell into a crouch behind a hedgerow. I waited, not daring to breathe. If anyone was watching the grounds from the windows, they would have had a clear shot at him, yet the night remained silent.

Malperdy must have had the same thought, because he made his next dash, straight for the palace walls. He was quick as a fox. Quick as the sudden unveiling of the moon.

Not quick enough.

The gunshot cracked the night like a stone through ice. We all dropped to the ground, so fast my chin almost hit the snow. Cold soaked into my undershirt as a soul-rending scream curdled the air.

“Fuck,” Léandre breathed.

To his left, I could hear Ankou, his breathing ragged. Beside me, Renelde clenched a fist to her lips. “Paige,” she whispered thickly, “can you tell if the sniper is still there?”

“There are too many people.” I spoke under my breath, my heart thunderous. As Malperdy let out an agonized sob, a shudder in the æther made me climb to my feet. “Vigiles. Move.”

The five of us retreated, stepping in our own footprints. I sensed the Vigiles descending on Malperdy.

“Now we are trapped,” Léandre said, once we were back in the middle of the grove. “Like rats.”

My gaze was on the unmoving Rephaite. In unison, Arcturus and I looked at each other.

“Warden can get us past the snipers.” I hauled the sodden cloak off the Rephaite and thrust it at Arcturus. “Quickly.”

He swung it over his shoulders and knelt to strip the Rephaite of his leather gloves and sword belt. The others watched as he put them on and pulled the other Rephaite into the overgrowth, out of sight.

“Des empreintes,” a voice bellowed. A beam of light gleamed through the close-knit branches. “Les cambrioleurs ont de l’aide. Trouvez les—”

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