I had to work to keep my jaw shut for fear it would bang on the table. “I’m not working for anyone.” I shook my head. “What do you know about the Chameleons?”
“That’ll cost you.” She turned her hand palm up. I pulled a twenty-dollar bill out and put it into her hand. She smiled and leaned forward, beckoning me to do the same. I made myself lean close even though I could see dried blood on the corner of her mouth. “The two of them are battling it out to see who will rule our world, and they are sending agents out everywhere. We had two come through already this week. One from each.”
I tried not to get excited. “Ruby one of them? Big gargoyle the other?”
Her jaw did drop. Apparently, I’d stolen her thunder. “How did you know?”
“I have my sources.” I leaned back in my chair.
She blinked and leaned away. “You didn’t get kicked out of the academy, did you?”
I shook my head. I didn’t feel the need to tell her I hadn’t graduated. Maybe would never graduate at this point. I mean, assuming I made it through the next few hours alive and all.
“What is this place really?” I asked. “It’s not just a youth shelter.”
She shrugged. “A waystation of sorts. You can get what you need here for a job. Maybe information on an enemy. A place to hire a hit on the competition.” Another shrug and a sly look.
“Tell me about the ones who came through here.” I drew the conversation back to what I needed.
Izzy tapped her fingers on the table to a tune only she could hear. “Yeah, Scar picked up some poison. The other one, he was looking for some sort of key. Said it might have gotten left behind in a bag. You look familiar, do I know you?”
Again I just shook my head. My hand went to my pocket even though I already knew my brother’s key would be gone. Lost somewhere between the House of Wonder and here. Hadn’t Ash ducked into and then out of the barracks for the House of Shade earlier? Could he have been looking for Tommy’s key?
“Two poisons, whoever got dosed got a real crap way to die,” Izzy went on with her blabbing session. “That’s what the one picked up.”
I didn’t bother to tell her that I’d been on the receiving end of said poisons.
“What else do you know about them?” I needed info and if I could get it from Izzy, all the better.
She licked her lips, tongue darting to the corner of her mouth.
“Well, pretty sure one of the Chameleons is still locked up. She’s under heavy guard, mostly from the House of Wonder. Out on Shadowspell Island.”
My guts twisted into a pile of knots. Taking into account that Ruby had broken into the House of Wonder without tripping an alarm, it didn’t bode well that Frost’s guards were from the same house. How many of them were working with her? Or could it be all of them?
That would be a whole pile of bull crap if it was the case.
Izzy leaned forward. “I heard . . . that the woman is going to get some kids from the academy into the prison. Going to kidnap them, like before.” Her voice lowered even farther. “To feed off their energy, so she can escape.” She fluttered her hands like a pair of wings flying off the table.
It could be coincidence, but I didn’t think so. I had no doubt that Frost would want revenge on me for killing her vampire lover, Jared. And the best way to hurt me? Go after my family or my friends. My family was too far away for her to get her claws into easily, but my friends were right here.
Which meant both of the other Chameleons were after them.
I reached out and took her wrist in my hand, driving my thumb into the center of it. She winced and then let out a low whimper.
“When was this supposed to happen?”
Izzy bit her lip and her eyes darted rapidly around the room. “That big explosion back at the House of Wonder, you hear that?”
I nodded.
“That was when they were going to get scooped.”
Her pulse didn’t jump around as if she were lying. I pushed her hand away. As far as she believed, her words were truth.
I drew my hand away, narrowing my eyes at her. “How do you know all this?”
She made a motion with her hand for more money, and I slapped another twenty into her palm. Izzy pulled out a yellow, blood-stained piece of paper. “Ruby dropped this.”
The note was short and to the point.
Blow up House of Wonder. Take 2 HON, 1 HOW, 1 HOC, 1 HOU
I flipped the paper over and saw my friends’ initials sketched into the paper lightly under each designation. Like a freaking recipe for carnage and how to hurt me.
Instant suspicion rolled over me. A recipe of what was going to happen landing in my hands right when I wasn’t sure where to go? How dumb did Ruby think I was? How could she have known I’d be here?
Carson. The man who’d directed me here. Crap on cowboy boots, I was being funneled somewhere. Bait and push.
I stared at the note, wondering how much stock I should put into it. Just because I was being set up didn’t mean that a portion of it wasn’t true. “She dropped it?”
“Yeah, fluttered out of her back pocket.” Izzy blinked a few times. “I waited for her to be gone before I scooped it up. I ain’t stupid.”
No, she wasn’t stupid. But she wasn’t a Shade either.
For now, I had to treat this as real. Which meant this changed everything. My friends were in serious danger. And I couldn’t even connect with them because Ash or my uncle would pinpoint me.
“Damn.” I pushed the paper back to her and she tucked it into a pocket.
Her smile was pasted on her face so hard, I thought I saw one eye twitch. “So. You staying here all night? Good place for a break.”
“Yeah, of course.” I lied right to her face and a sigh slid out of her. As if she were relieved. Not suspicious at all. “But let’s get back to those weapons. I won’t sleep without something sharp close by.” I also needed a map to Frost’s jail. “You said you know how I can get goods?”
My friends were in trouble. I was being set up. I needed to move, and move fast.
She snorted. “Yeah, yeah, you want Gordy. He’s got a little of everything.”
“He close by?”
“Yeah, not far. About a five-minute walk. He set up shop close by when he realized that all the losers come through here and need goods they can’t get from the academy anymore.” She winked. “Think of it like a black-market sort of deal.”
I nodded and started to stand, but she grabbed my arm and tugged me back down, once more getting all conspiratorial on me.
Her voice lowered to a whisper. “You know something about that note I showed you, don’t you? Tell me.”
I shrugged but didn’t look away from her. “What I know, I keep to myself.”
“I’ll give you a twenty back.” She held out a single bill to me, and I smiled. She paled.
“Okay, okay, you keep your secrets then. That’s what I deal in, so I had to ask.” She grinned, but it was strained.
Izzy continued to tap her fingers on the table. “But tell me again, why send a Shade here? I mean, what are you looking for?”
I wanted to grab her and shake her. This back and forth was her way of getting info, I understood that, but it was time-consuming. And irritating.