Raya stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. “I wonder where she’s going. Shopping, maybe?”
“Who knows.” Phoenix stood and checked the street one more time, making sure Nathan wasn’t in the vicinity. “Let’s go.”
They trailed Lizzy along the boulevard, hanging back as she stopped to peek in more than one shop window.
Lizzy hailed a cab.
“Now what?” said Raya.
“Haven’t you always wanted to say ‘Follow that car’?” Phoenix flagged down a cab.
Raya made a face. “No.”
“Fine. I’ll say it—in French. Now hurry up and get in.”
Their cab followed Lizzy’s down a wide, tree-lined boulevard, past a circular roundabout, and into a deeply forested area.
Raya read the sign aloud. “Bois de Boulogne.”
“Our Lizzy’s going for a stroll in the park.” Phoenix noted where Lizzy entered the park, then instructed the cab driver to take them a short distance past that point. They would double back and find her.
They stepped out of the cab and followed a footpath into the forest.
Raya shaded her eyes and looked down the path. “Chances are she already knows we’re here.”
“Then that will make it easy to find her, won’t it?”
The path opened up at a formal garden centered around an old and graceful pagoda. Stately peacocks strolled the lawns, occasionally opening their tails in great fans of colorful plumage that glowed in the sun.
Raya spotted Lizzy first. “There she is!” She pointed across the lawn to an ornate rose garden.
Lizzy leaned down to the roses, burying her nose in the petals.
They crossed and approached her.
“Lizzy?”
“Raya! I knew you were around somewhere.” Lizzy looked Phoenix up and down. “Is this your demon?”
Phoenix drew himself up. “I’m not her demon.”
Lizzy’s face was the picture of polite incomprehension.
Raya laid a warning hand on Phoenix’s arm. “He’s not mine—well, not in that sense.”
If someone had hit him with a rose petal, he would have keeled over on the spot. In what sense, exactly, was he hers? “I don’t think we’ve been introduced. Phoenix.” He held out his hand.
Lizzy shook it and giggled. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Anyway, Lizzy—could we talk to you for a minute? Somewhere more private?”
Lizzy pressed her hands to her cheeks. “How exciting!” She followed them off the footpath and onto the lawn, then squealed and came to a stop. “My shoes!” The high heels of her sandals sank into the turf, leaving deep divots. She tugged them off and carried them by the straps as she walked.
They withdrew to a small, secluded clearing behind the pagoda.
Lizzy sat on the lawn and drew her legs to the side, her bare feet nestled in the green grass. “What’s the scoop?”
Raya examined the ground before carefully lowering herself to sit. “Has Nathan told you anything else about his ‘hush-hush’ plan?”
