'What the hell are you doing? You brought a Chasseur to our door!' Belle descended on me the moment I walked into the attic. It was comprised of one large room with peeling lilac wallpaper, empty save for a mattress on the floor, and adjoined to a small and hardly functioning kitchen.

'I'm sorry! I had no-'

'And why are you limping?' Belle interrupted as she glaringly raked her eyes over me.

'I- that was my distraction, I had to pretend-'

As I attempted to explain Belle stormed back towards the window, checking for the Chasseur and the carriage. 'I can't believe this, Constance! Right on our doorstep!'

'Look, there was no other way.' I tried again calmly. 'I was pretending to be injured and once I had bought you enough time, I tried to leave but the Captain insisted-'

'Captain? Oh, it keeps getting better.' Belle interrupted again, heavy with sarcasm.

'-insisted on helping me. I had to keep playing along – he was suspicious.' I was growing a little irritated by Belle's anger and condescension.

'You know we'll have to leave now, abandon this place, and return to the coven. And you can never show your face here again.'

'What? No!' I couldn't keep the desperation from my voice. I had waited too long and trained too hard for this chance – to be out in the city, part of the mission to save my coven, finally doing something that was important. This would not be taken away from me. Most certainly not by a stupid green-eyed Chasseur captain.

'He has no reason to suspect me! He knows my face, yes, but he knows me as a normal civilian. By running, it would make us look guilty. If we leave now we really can never come back.'

Belle said nothing as she stared onto the crowded street below. She was a stickler for the rules, but I knew she was in no hurry to return to the coven. At last, she sighed. 'Cecile and Avery have taken the Livre Blanc and gone back to the forest.'

She turned to face me with grave eyes. 'Someone tipped them off.'

I bit my lip. 'I know.'

The one good thing about this whole debacle with the Chasseur had been the distraction it provided from complete disaster that had been our mission. Somehow the Chasseurs had been waiting for us. That was the real issue here, although it wasn't ideal that I had somewhat breached the secrecy of our operation.

'The Chasseurs knew that we would be collecting the spell book from The Bellerose….' Belle sighed again. 'This is getting too dangerous. There is clearly some sort of informant; we were all very nearly killed, and the book captured. And to make matters worse, your face and our hideout are now known to the Chasseurs.'

It made a rather bleak picture.

'Tell me what you said to him, what you told him.' Belle resumed her interrogation.

'Only that I had been knocked down by some women in the tunnel, and that I had hurt my ankle.'

Somewhat pacified, Belle continued. 'And what did he say?'

'Just that they were hunting us. But he said something about having 'sufficient reason' to believe that they were chasing witches. So, yes that suggests an informant.' I concluded unhappily as I made my way across the room and sank down onto our battered old mattress.

There was a long silence as Belle continued to stare down at the people bustling through the winding streets. The sun was clawing its way higher in the sky, but the mist showed no signs of relenting.

'If we tell them about your Chasseur it will be over for us.' Belle said bleakly.

'So, we keep it between ourselves.' I shrugged, striving to keep my tone neutral and disaffected, and disguise the hope that was brimming within me.

I took Belle's silence as affirmation.

'And that was it? Nothing else happened, nothing else was said?' She walked across the room until she stood in front of me, searching my eyes intently.

'No, nothing.' I kept my face blank. Satisfied, she nodded and walked into the kitchen.

I had made my choice. If Belle knew about my appointment at the Chasseur Tower she would immediately send word to the coven, and we would leave and never again be trusted with anything this important.

I now had a decision to make. I would either have to plunge head-first into the viper's nest or hope the serpents wouldn't slither out and drag me down.