It took a hot second for the gravity of everything that had transpired here to sink in.

I gently pushed Cain aside, as I reached for my phone and dialled ‘112’. I waited for the voice on the other side to finish with their usual politeness, before reporting in a flat tone.

“I’m under the Solferino bridge. There was a fight. Two adults are seriously injured. One is mildly injured and-”

I looked at Cain. Other than that persistent weary look in his eyes, and the blood coating his hands, I could not see any injuries. But then again, he somehow managed to smudge blood all over his face, and clothes, so it was hard to tell. I also hadn’t forgotten about the injury I myself had inflicted on him.

“Mademoiselle? Mademoiselle? Are you yourself injured?” The voice on the other side of the phone instantly asked.

“Yes…” I distractedly replied. “I am all right. But you need to send an ambulance.”

“All right, help is on its way. Can you tell me more about what kind of fight it was?”

My eyes drifted once more to the scene around me. I couldn’t summarise it in a handful of words even if I wanted to.

“Madmoiselle, are you still there?”

“There was an artefact used, to create a non-magic zone.” I said before hanging up the phone.

I took a second to breathe in, then out, trying to calm myself down. Then I turned to Cain. I wanted to ask if he was okay, and whose blood that was that he was covered in, but part of me also wanted to tell him to go home and wait for my return there. If the police were to arrive, and ask how we were related, or how he’d gotten here, that would be a problem.

But having a blood-covered child running through the city could be a problem in of its own.

“Well, at least you have had the decency to call an ambulance.” A male voice spoke somewhere on my left.

I slowly lifted my head, only to meet eyes with that illusionist. He was soaking wet, and slightly shivering from the autumn’s cold, but that annoying smug look had returned to his face.

Cain and I had the same idea. Although the boy was quicker to execute it. He jumped up, and dashed towards the man, before punching him in the face.

“Ow, ow, ow…” He muttered as he rubbed his nose.

That gave me enough time to come up to him, and whack him in the neck with the hilt of my katana. He fell to his knees but didn’t lose consciousness. Another hit, at the base of his skull this time, finished the job.

“What now?” Cain asked as he glanced around, no doubt trying to see if there were any threats left.

The only person who was still conscious was that woman. She didn’t so much as look up when I knocked down the illusionist, too busy maintaining pressure on the chest of her companion, whom she’d turn over.

“The police will be here soon.” I said. “If you want to go home, you can. I need to stay. It will look worse if I leave too. But you might get into trouble if you get involved.”

“I’ve already gotten involved.” Cain replied with a flat tone.

I nodded, dismissively. If push really did come to shove, I could always call my father and ask him for help. If his money wouldn’t get us out of this, his reputation no doubt would. But that would go against the one thing I had been working towards; independence from him, and lack of ties with the characters from the novel. But that bridge had been crossed when I went to Geneva.

Suddenly a very obvious thought came to my mind. These people had some sort of link to my father. I knew I had already done enough harm, but, I reckoned I could at least try and ask some questions before the police got here.

I slowly headed towards the woman, since she was the only one currently able to answer questions. I felt a tug at my shirt. When I looked around, Cain was holding the end of the fabric, with a fearful look on his face.

“What are you going to do?” He asked.

His voice was quiet, to the point where it was hard to hear. For a brief second, I wondered why someone like him would try to stop me, of all people, from interrogating that woman. Did he think I was going to harm her?

“I’m just going to ask a few questions.” I softly replied.

“Like hell you are.” The woman swore in a sour tone.

“The police and ambulance are on their way. So you’ll have to answer questions eventually.” I turned towards her.

She locked eyes with me. Although there were still traces of that fierce look of someone who knew and understood the superiority of their abilities, her eyes were now filled with a mixture of fear and worry. I glanced at Cain, then at the battered man laying a few meters behind us. That was truly a fear-inducing sight. But I had seen it before, in that lab, so perhaps that was why I was feeling strangely detached from the situation.

“Who sent you?” I asked.

The woman didn’t reply. She only glared at me. Thankfully Cain had picked up on the situation, and shifted into his half-wolf form before taking a few steps forward, and ordering:

“Answer the question.”

The woman looked away and bit her lower lip. Her hands were still applying pressure on the chest of the elementalist, and, as she was kneeling beside that man, she was as defenceless as one could be. Cain took a few more small steps forward, stopping just outside of the range of her daggers, if she were to decide to pick them up again. He extended a claw forward, in a threatening manner.

“Speak.” He ordered.

I couldn’t fail to notice that his own voice was shaking ever so slightly.

The heavy silence brought on by the refusal of this woman to talk was suddenly pierced by distant police sirens. We were running out of time.

Just as I was about to give up, and tell Cain to clean himself up a little, before the arrival of the cops, the woman finally spoke:

“There was an American man. I don’t know who he was, who he worked for, nothing of that. He offered me and René money. Not a lot, but he told us it was a low-risk job. That you were weak and had no skills. We were to capture you, but there was a bonus if we got you dead. I don’t know the other three. We only met with them two days ago. That smartass nominated himself our leader, and came up with this plan. René was against it. I should have listened. The money really wasn’t that good-”

“Why did that man want me dead?” I asked, before she had had the time to side-track once more.

She shook her head.

“I don’t know. I didn’t care either. In our line of work-” She paused. “But he didn’t tell us you were a high ranker. And he didn’t say anything about the kid.”

The police sirens were getting louder and louder. It wasn’t long until they’d debark on the promenade, and take all of them away, first to the hospital, then to jail.

The woman looked up, and locked eyes with me once more.

“You might be one strong and evil bitch, but you’ve messed with the wrong people. That man wasn’t very resourceful, but he was determined. I’ve been in this line of work longer than you’ve been alive, so take my word for it when I say his kind is the most dangerous out there.”

“What did he look like?” I asked.

I wondered if it could be one of the characters from the novel. Although I wouldn’t think of any reason for them to hire hitmen instead of doing the job themselves or any reason for them to know of my existence at all –

“Nobody move!” A voice called from the street above the bridge.

Two police cars, and three ambulances had just arrived at the scene. They were also accompanied by a yellow car the markings on which I did not recognize, but I assumed to be some sort of swat team that dealt with artefacts (there wasn’t much else it could be).

“Cain,” I turned towards him.

“I’ll hide.” He said, seemingly having understood my intentions without me needing to say a word.

Or perhaps he was scared of the crowd of cops and paramedics that ran down to meet us on the promenade. Either way, he was long gone by the time a cop had run up to me to arrest me.