The Gilded Wolves

***The Gilded Wolves*** is the first book of Roshani Chokshi's YA fantasy series, *The Gilded Wolves* trilogy.

## Publisher's Blurb

*No one believes in them. But soon no one will forget them.*

It's 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood.

Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history--but only if they can stay alive.

## Summary

The matriarch of House Kore, Delphine Desrosiers, is heading towards her carriage when she is attacked by an unknown assailant. Her hand, the one holding the Babel Ring of House Kore, has all its bones crushed. The Ring is also taken by the assailant. She is then knocked unconcious by the attacker.

Séverin Montagnet-Alarie is in an auction, waiting to steal, or "acquire", a compass rumored to have a map hidden inside. After the compass is held out for auction and sold to the patriarch of House Nyx, Hypnos Leclair, Séverin leaves the room and under the guise of the courier of House Kore, goes to the room holding the Forged objects sold during the auction. Passing through the door, he frees his friend, Enrique Mercado-Lopez, who in turn gives him the fake compass. Séverin tries to place the fake compass inside the House Nyx onyx bear's mouth, but the teeth crunch down, trapping Séverin's hand.

Laila searches the courier of House Kore, discovering that he is going to the Palais des Rêve to party. She touches the object's memory, then goes to find Tristan after he told her to go to his workplace in the Seven Sins Garden. He presents her with a gift and asks her to forgive him for taking Goliath into her room. Laila forgives him but tells him never to take the tarantula into her bedroom.

Enrique searches the room for the somno of the onyx bear. He eventually finds a riddle on the bear and solves the problem, allowing Séverin to remove his hand from its mouth. They split ways, with Enrique using mirror powder to get out. On the carriage, Séverin breaks the compass despite Enrique's protests, and they find a map hidden inside.

Zofia Boguska walks into the stargazing room and meets with the others. Enrique and Séverin have returned with the map. They notice a diagram and markings on the side. The markings are translated into the shape of the Horus Eye by Enrique, with inspiration coming from Zofia. According to the Bible, they discover that the Horus Eye reveals the location of a Babel Fragment.

Séverin decides that they will steal the Horus Eye from House Kore, and informs his friends of the plan. They don't agree with his ideas, but Séverin forces it through. He is met by Tristan's strong objection, but it doesn't stop him, and he brushes it all with the usual "I protect you". A week and a half later, downstairs Séverin receives a letter from Hypnos saying he knows he was the thief and requesting a meeting.

Séverin calls his historian, Enrique, to go to Erebus, the House Nyx estate, with him to have a meeting with Patriarch Hypnos Leclair. They walk through the verit stone gate and Séverin uses a trick to plant a bomb in the estate. The place is a maze of mind Forging and Enrique is disoriented when they arrive at the meeting place. Hypnos uses Séverin's love for his crew as a weapon and forces him to steal the Horus Eye from House Kore for him.

Séverin and Enrique return to L'Eden and make sure all the others are safe. When all is alright, they gather up in the stargazing room to talk about their plans. Séverin is berated by Laila for not telling her because she could have discovered the trap. They split into two groups: one going to see the catalogue coin of House Kore at the Palais des Rêve, and the other going to the exhibition to steal an ancient African artifact believed to have the same ability as a verit stone.

Laila is going to perform in the Palais des Rêves, while Séverin, posed as a Sphinx, and Tristan, disguised as a officer, are to interrogate the House Kore courier and see his catalogue coin. When Laila goes to her changing room, she finds Hypnos there telling her that her friends are in trouble, because there is another Sphinx. Laila and Hypnos form a makeshift plan causing a distraction, saving Séverin and Tristan.

Enrique and Zofia go to the exhibition. Enrique swaggers and bumps into a Sphinx, giving Zofia the opportunity to take the man's fingerprints. They go into the exhibition, and take the compass, but are unexpectedly ambushed by a man with a blade-rimmed hat. Zofia removes a chain with a golden honeybee from his neck, but the Sphinxes have arrived. Hurriedly, they flee the room.

Enrique and Zofia return to the stargazing room and begin to solve the puzzle of the African artifact. They use a combination of numbers and Latin words. Enrique prays under his breath and he realizes the answer is his prayer. They arrange the letters in place and crack the code, retrieving four verit stones, just enough for them to get into the House Kore country estate.

Séverin is in his office when Tristan comes in. He confronts Séverin about his plans, but Séverin doesn't heed his brother. Then Enrique comes, telling him they were confronted in the exhibition by a man wearing a golden honeybee. Séverin doesn't tell him that the courier was killed by a person wearing that. In the stargazing room, Hypnos has come with their invitations. They are ready to go on with the next part of the plan.

Zofia puts on a Forged dress Laila picked out for her and meets Enrique and Séverin as they go to the train station to get to the House Kore country estate. They pass through the verit stone gate successfully and Enrique goes to find Tristan, as he is acting as the latter's assistant.

Séverin passes through the doors to the ballroom, meeting the matriarch along the way. He squeezes her broken fingers. Then he meets Roux-Joubert, and doesn't think much of him. Hypnos comes in and asks a favor of the matriarch, and Séverin follows as they go to the library. When they come out, Séverin trips the matriarch, seeing that her feet are mud-stained, meaning the library is under the greenhouse.

The group gathers in their room, reenforcing their plans. Tristan is still against the idea, but Séverin doesn't give him the chance to speak. Laila is to get the key to the library. They split up again, with Enrique and Tristan going back to the greenhouse, and Laila leaving for her own work.

Enrique and Tristan go to the greenhouse. Laila gives Enrique an antidote. As soon as they get there, Enrique unstraps the hump on his back and they set the device off, letting the poisonous air fill the greenhouse and Enrique uses the light bomb in his cane, incapacitating the guards. But Tristan gets poisoned and Enrique cures him with the antidote.

Laila has hidden herself in a cake and can't get out. She struggles a little to get out from the inside of the cake, and after reading the things around the table of Delphine Desrosiers, she activates the somno of the matriarch's desk, getting out the key. She has missed Séverin, so she poses a a nautch dancer and passes the key to Séverin there. She doesn't miss Roux-Joubert, who is sitting behind him.

Zofia meets Séverin in her room, commenting that he is late. He tells her the key wasn't delivered as planned, and she quickly molds the key and goes to the ball to meet with Hypnos. Roux-Joubert offers her a dance, putting a tracking gel on her. She gives the key box to Hypnos and he leaves to return the key to the office and leave for the library with Séverin, while Zofia goes to the greenhouse to meet Enrique, Tristan, and Laila. When they arrive, they see two people sprawled on the ground, and think it's Enrique and Tristan. However, two guards appear, and the real Enrique and Tristan have found disguises.

Together with Zofia and Laila, but without Tristan, who is staying outside to guard the entrance, Enrique goes down the secret entrance in the greenhouse. They walk for a while before seeing the door to the library, but are attacked by a huge fire ball. THere are a riddle and several levers. Enrique figures it out and using a specific mathematical equation, they deactivate the advice and step into the library, meeting Séverin and Hypnos inside.

There are thousands of Horus Eyes in the room, but only one is the real one. The group splits up to search, and Laila sees one behind a book. He unlodges it, triggering a Forged mechanism. A huge beast comes out of the book and attacks them. Séverin notices a white feather and a matching shape in the beast's mouth. He wants to deactivate the mechanism, but Laila does it instead. She is knocked unconscious, but after some time comes to. They take the real Horus Eye and ascend the stairs, their future bright. However, just as they get to the top, Roux-Joubert is found to be waiting for them. Tristan has a Phobus Helmet on his head, and Roux-Joubert taunts them. He asks Séverin for the House Nyx Ring in three days, and after the latter agrees, he leaves with Tristan, leaving the group not much time to turn the tables.

Laila sees Séverin in the Seven Sins Garden. She asks whether he is going to turn Hypnos over. Séverin says he plans not to and they are going to turn the tables. Hypnos sits in the stargazing room, and reveals that the Horus Eye has an effect on a Babel Fragment when close to it. The group perceive that it is able to awaken the Fragment. Laila reads the honeybee chain and says the man with the blade-brimmed hat is underground. By extending the edges of the honeycomb, they find that Roux-Joubert and the other man are from the Fallen House.

Zofia wants to go back to the Exhibition of Colonial Superstitions, because she finds the man coming out of the shadows too strange. Laila offers to go with her, and they almost get caught by the police who are looking for the people who stole the African artifact. Together, they race into the exhibition room, and Zofia's suspitions are confirmed: there is a Tezcat door hidden on the far side of the wall.

Enrique, Hypnos, and Séverin try to crack the bone clock, so that they can find the meeting place of the Fallen House. When they find no conclusion in hours, Séverin smashes the clockface, and they see a riddle. By winding the hands to 2:06 at midnight, they crack the code. The meeting place is in the Paris catacombs.

After Zofia and Laila have returned, they discuss plans on how to infiltrate the meeting place. Using a piece of cloth, Zofia, Enrique, and Hypnos are to block the Tezcat entrance, while Séverin and Laila will go to the meeting place through the proper entrance to the catacombs and get into the Fallen House quarters.

Zofia dresses up for the mission, meeting Enrique and Hypnos. They go to the exhibition, and place the cloth over the entire Tezcat door, preventing entrance. Then Zofia takes out a Mnemo bug and begins filming the boys' movements, and they leave the exhibition to enter the catacombs.

Laila and Séverin are in the catacombs. It doesn't take long before they find the meeting place of the Fallen House. Tristan is wearing a Phobus Helmet, and the Horus Eye is within eye's reach. Séverin uses mirror powder to cover himself and Laila. He asks her to get the Horus Eye and goes for Tristan. However, it is a trap, and Tristan holds a knife to Laila's throat, with Séverin being knocked unconscious.

Séverin wakes, only to see Roux-Joubert. The man tells him that he's going to become a God, and Séverin can do nothing as Roux-Joubert slices his arm, letting golden ichor flow. He then slices Séverin's face, putting his own wound to Séverin's. Séverin sprouts wings, then horns. Roux-Joubert tells him the doctor is to make him a God. He then opens the Tezcat door, giving Séverin a peak at what's happening on his friends' side. Then finally, he uses the Rings of House Kore and the Fallen House to activate the Babel Fragment.

Enrique, Hypnos, and Zofia hide in a corridor, staring as the scene unfolds. They need to help the ones down there, so Hypnos takes of his House-marked accessories and puts them on the floor, drawing Sphinxes to the place where they are. Zofia lights up the emergency path Séverin left for them just as the Babel Fragment stirs to life.

Laila watches as Roux-Joubert struggles to open the Tezcat door. Tristan is playing a dangerous game, as he is not willing in the least to follow the madman's orders. Laila sees through the Tezcat the other members of the Fallen House, and shudders. She pretends it's a goodbye when she goes over to kiss Séverin, sliding a Forged object under his tongue.

Séverin uses the object, Night Bites, a invention from Tristan, to conjure up darkness. During the turmoil, Tristan kills the man with the blade-brimmed hat, and Séverin struggles free of his binds. Laila goes to get the eye but they don't know where to put it. Just then, Roux-Joubert uses the dead man's blood to open the Tezcat door.

Zofia decides to go down to tell them where the somno is. Just as the group run down the steps, the members of the Fallen House come into the catacombs. Roux-Joubert pleads towards the doctor, but his requests are denied. The Fallen House and its patriarch advance on the small group of people.

There is a small scuffle as Enrique and the others fight back, but are quickly incapacitated. Hypnos has no choice but to give up his Babel Ring. Using a distraction, Laila puts the Horus Eye in place, successfully deactivating the Babel Fragment, just as the Sphinxes arrive. After everything is over and done, the group leave the catacombs, a whole bright future in front of them, as they return to L'Eden.

Enrique changes into a formal outfit before leaving for the ball at the Palais des Rêve. He meets Hypnos and Zofia and convinces the latter to go to the ball with them. As Zofia goes to change, Hypnos and Enrique share their first ever kiss.

Zofia is lured to a wardrobe by Laila. She changes into an elegant gown and goes back to find Hypnos and Enrique kissing. Immediately she changes out of her outfit and decides to go on working, not attending the ball at the Palais at all.

Séverin finds Tristan in their carriage, and they leave for the Palais. On the way, Tristan gives him a letter from the matriarch of House Kore. It is only when inside the ballroom with his friends that Séverin opens the letter, only to find that Roux-Joubert has escaped, a late warning. Roux-Joubert appears at the ball and throws the blade-brimmed hat at them. Séverin goes to save Laila, but she wasn't even the target. Tristan is killed right then and there by the blade.

Three weeks later, the matriarch of House Kore and Hypnos Leclair arrive to perform the inheritance test on Séverin, but he no longer wants it.

Three months later, Laila has found that the bird killer in the Seven Sins Garden was Tristan himself. She meets Séverin, and knowing her dwindling time, kisses him, intending to make every last second of her life count. However, Séverin, heartbroken and unwilling, pushes her away, denying the true feeling that he felt during their kiss in the catacombs, and thus forming a rift between them.

In November of 1889, Séverin goes down to his own birthday party but quickly returns to his room, where he finds Laila, who in turn makes him agree to make her his mistress during the Winter Conclave, binding him with an oath before leaving.

Hypnos meets Matriarch Delphine Desrosiers outside Erebus, and she informs him that the inheritance test performed on Séverin had not been falsified, and that he must never know.

## Characters

* Séverin Montagnet-Alarie (POV, 14)
* Laila (POV, 8)
* Enrique Mercado-Lopez (POV, 9)
* Zofia Boguska (POV, 8)
* Hypnos Leclair (POV, 1)
* Tristan Maréchal
* Roux-Joubert
* Delphine Desrosiers
* The doctor