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“Have you seen it?” she demanded, flinging the box down on the counter—I had to make a leap for it before its contents spilled onto the floor. “Our second shelter, I mean?”

“No,” I said, already cramming a slice into my mouth—I hadn’t eaten breakfast, and I was starving. I added with difficulty around the mouthful of steaming cheese and roasted vegetables, “I’ve not had a chance.”

“Well, Mina’s there now, trying her best not to gawp. Those white kittens have been spoken for, by the way. One of the bank tellers paid for them not one hour after Mina unlocked the door. As soon as they’ve had their shots and their”—Élise did her usual scissor motion with two fingers—“they’ll be on their way to their new home.”

“That’s wonderful,” I said, swallowing. “Is Mina—”

“She’s coping just fine on her own,” Élise said, waving her hand. “She managed to catch four cats from Le Séraphin. But oh, Agnes—it’s just ludicrous. The place was a jeweler’s before Havelock bought it. A jeweler’s! It still has its display cases and everything—we’ve had to put the cages on top of them. The ceiling has a goddamn mural painted on it! Mina says she’s had two people looking for engagement rings.”

“Good,” I said. “Whatever gets people in the doors. But four cats is not enough inventory. Why don’t you take Clowder and her kittens over? Bring Pirate, too—he’s one of His Majesty’s favourite targets, and I know he’d like a break from being tormented. Mina’s already sent messages to our old volunteers—we need extra hands if we’re going to get our new cages filled, and I want them filled today, if possible. The paper says it will be even colder tonight.”

Élise stared at me. “Are you listening? Our new shelter has a marble floor, Agnes. It has a marble floor with a mosaic in it!”

“That sounds like a lovely feature,” I said imperturbably. “We will have to be careful about who we transfer to the new place. Mme. Minette, for instance, has difficulty remembering her manners where the litterbox is concerned.”

Élise gave a groan of frustration and picked up a slice of pizza. “Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m talking to you or one of your checklists.”

“Élise, I would love to work myself up about this, but after the night I’ve had, I wonder if anything will ever surprise me again.”

I recounted the whole misadventure for her. Élise listened with a furrowed brow, steadily eating her way through half the pizza. I expected her to ask questions about Havelock, or appear surprised by what I’d done, but she was not. When I had finished, she set her crust down and cut right to the point.

“I don’t understand why you’re bothering with this Artefact,” she said. “Who cares if Havelock has it or not? Why doesn’t he just—I don’t know, duel Valérie? Is he not the most powerful magician in the world?”

“Valérie is determined to find Vortigern’s book. From the sounds of it, she’ll never give up looking. Havelock would have to kill her.”

“All right,” Élise said, a question in her voice.

I stared. “She’s his sister, Élise!”

Élise continued to gaze at me in puzzlement, and it took me only a second to work out why: my perspective on Havelock might have shifted, but Élise’s had not. Why would the Witch King show mercy to anyone who threatened him, even his own family?

I saw Élise examining me in turn, seeming to come to her own conclusion. “Oh, Agnes,” she said finally. “You see him as one of your cats now, don’t you? Because you took care of him.”

“I do not,” I said, outraged, all the more so because I’d been musing over the same thought not long before, and it was unbelievably unfair that Élise should be able to read me so well.

“You do. You think if you just clean him up and give him his flea treatments, you can make him respectable.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I scoffed.

“You always have to care too much,” Élise went on. “About cats. Or people. It’s why you never fired Mina, though she stole half our donation money last Christmas.”

“And she’s barely stolen a penny since,” I protested. “Don’t tell me that I wasn’t right—what would we have done without her these past weeks?”

Élise inclined her head in acknowledgment. “But it’s dangerous to always think the best of people, love. Surely you see that now? And cats, for that matter—only you would have kept that feral bully around given all the things he’s done.”

“Now you’re bringing His Majesty into this!” I protested.

“Agnes, that cat is a terror,” Élise said. “At times I wonder if he’s even a cat and not some demon in disguise. I know you say he loved Robin, but if that beast were even ten pounds bigger, he would have killed and eaten the both of you in your sleep.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about. And anyway, he needs me, and there is a gentleness in him, even if it’s mixed up with wickedness. How can you condemn a creature for doing what’s in his nature?”

Élise folded her arms, giving me a meaningful look. My face heated, and I added hastily, “I was only speaking about His Majesty. Élise, you know how I feel about magicians. I haven’t—”

But at that moment, the door opened, and Yannick came hurrying in.

“Hello, hello,” he said, looking agitated. “What a mess! Valérie’s apprentices are at it again. Did you hear about that chocolatier’s? And I still can’t find Havelock. He wasn’t at the other place.”

“He’s here,” I told him. “Or he was here, last night. I’ve not seen any sign of him today.”