The voirloup launched itself across the floor. Releasing a battle cry, Mallory raised her knife and plunged it into the beast’s chest—but she knew immediately that she had missed the heart. Probably wouldn’t have killed it anyway. Too shallow. Too not-silver. She racked her brain, trying to remember anything else about voirloups…
The beast reared back, taking her knife with it.
Armand gasped. “Wait! I do have something!” He dug into his pocket, and Mallory had a vision of him throwing silver coinsat the beast, and wondered if she’d be able to let him do it without grabbing them for herself. But his hand didn’t emerge with a coin—rather, he held a ring.
A small silver ring with a large blue stone.
Mallory released an incredulous cry. “You can’t throw away Triphine’s ring!”
“I’m not. This is one of your fakes,” he said.
Her jaw dropped. “One of… did youstealthat?”
“I was going to pay for it.”
Mallory didn’t know if she believed him, but in the next moment the voirloup was howling and Armand was pulling back his arm and—
“Wait!”
The ring sailed across the room, straight into the beast’s maw, silencing the howl. The creature reared back, claws digging at its throat.
Mallory raised her eyebrows, almost impressed.
But then the beast coughed twice and swallowed. She imagined she could see the ring sliding down its gullet, disappearing into its ravenous stomach.
The voirloup spat a glob of saliva onto the floor and sneered at them, preparing to pounce.
“Why didn’t that work?” said Armand. “You said they were silver!”
“I lied.”
Expression darkening, Armand grabbed for the coin purse strapped around Mallory’s waist and yanked it off, breaking the strap.
“Hey!”
“Your rings might have been fake,” he said, yanking the bag open, “but I bet those coins weren’t.”
“Don’t you dare!” She threw herself at him, trying to snatch the purse back. Too late. The money was in his hand. His hand was reeling back. “Please, don’t! That’s my life savings! Those coins are—”
Gone.
Armand threw every lys she had earned over the past year, the money she’d painstakingly sequestered away in preparation for the day she and her sister could leave this bloody city behind. All gobbled up by the voirloup in one slobbery gulp.
It wheezed in pain.
“I needed those!” she shouted.
Armand ignored her, using the voirloup’s distraction to pry up the window sash. “Come on.”
“I amnotjumping out a window.”
“Yes, you are.” He tossed one leg over the sill, then stretched his hand toward her. “Take my hand.”
The voirloup tore the dagger from its flesh and flung it toward Armand. He ducked. The knife struck the open window, cracking the glass and ricocheting off into the night.
The beast fixed its attention on Mallory again, fury twisting its expression.
“You cannot fight that thing!” yelled Armand. “It will kill you!”
