A very old trick of the necromancer’s trade, one I’d almost fallen for.
Where were the guys? I turned to see they’d all tumbled to the ground and took a step back, horror flooding me. She’d killed them.
“I’ve slowed their hearts,” Jasmina said. “An easy enough task for a necromancer of my caliber.” Her eyes swept over me. “Very interesting, you are far stronger than even your father knows. Why would you hide that from him?” She paused, and as she looked me over, I scrambled to take hold of the connection between me and the guys to speed up their hearts.
For a split second I didn’t think I’d be able to, and then they pulsed stronger at my command.
She smiled at me. “I can see why the new Chameleon was drawn to you.” She stepped out of the rubble, her long black robes swirling around her feet.
“My father would have used me,” I whispered. I hadn’t meant to say that, but the words had slipped out of me.
Jasmina smiled. “Well, that is the prerogative of a parent, isn’t it? To use their children to further their own position in our world.”
I shook my head. “No. It isn’t.” This was not the place to start explaining my messed-up family.
I tried to step back. Couldn’t.
I turned my head so I could look over my shoulder and gasped. The boys were still on the ground. So much for me waking them. “You cannot have them.” I whipped back around to stare hard at her. “What did you do?”
“You can’t guess? Then you truly are not trained at all.” She clicked her tongue at me. “I suppose that is to be expected. Untrained. As wildly unpredictable as the Chameleon you are tied to.”
I managed to move a foot, setting myself into a fighting stance, one that Gen had shown me in our one and only training session.
The director threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, please. You aren’t serious, are you? Ridiculous little girl.” She snapped her fingers at me, her death magic swirling toward me. Black, it was black as the starless sky, and it crept across the ground as if it had all the time in the world.
“Why are you doing this?” I had to find a way to stop her.
“I want to know where Wild is. I want you to find her for me.”
Of course, normally, I could feel Wild in the back of my head just like I could feel the emotions of the rest of our crew. Hell, I could even feel Ethan there like a bump on a log. But I couldn’t find Wild. Like something was between us, a block of some sort.
Not that I would have turned her over to Jasmina. If I couldn’t stop Jasmina, I had to at least slow her down. “Why do you want her? What has the House of Night got against my friend?”
Her smile spread. “Because Frost is not done with her. Not yet. We need Wild for one more task before she dies.”
Frost. She had a Shade, Ruby. A vampire, Jared (dead thanks to Wild). And now a necromancer from the House of Night. Did that mean we were looking for at least three others in her crew? They were loose, even if she wasn’t, and it was clear they had every intention of busting her out.
Jasmina held her hand out to me and flexed her fingers. The deep black of her magic curled up and around my body, not unlike the snake that had crept into our room. I didn’t dare take my eyes off her. “I won’t help you hurt her. You can’t make me.”
“Ah, but you will come with me. Because if you don’t, I will kill all five of those boys right now. Every. Single. One of them.”
My throat tightened. I knew a checkmate when I saw it.
I wiggled my fingers into my pocket and pulled out the key. If one of the boys found it, maybe they could still save Wild.
I let it fall as the older necromancer grabbed my arm and pulled me with her. Her dark eyes swirled with power and anger. “Wild killed one of our crew. Don’t you think it’s only fair we do the same to her? Just one, don’t you think? Yes, I do too.”
Her words were strange. As if she were answering someone only she could hear. Not that it mattered.
Her hand lifted, and she held it toward the boys. I screamed as I tackled her, knowing that what I was about to do was as forbidden as bringing Ethan back to life.
“NO!”
3
Wild
The tunnels I’d been dropped into by Ash were old, far older and narrower than any of the subway tunnels currently in use. The sides were made up of old, crumbling brick that broke away in pieces under my fingertips.
But despite the obvious age of the tunnel, there were emergency lights flickering here and there, enough that I could see my way as I ran. Not that I planned on being in this place for long—the goal was to find a way out. I ran with my hand against the wall, looking for a ladder that would take me up and out of this place.
“You cannot outrun me now,” Ash said, and his voice sounded sad of all things. “I can find you.”
Either he hadn’t checked the connection between us, or he was relying on his damn gargoyle ears to track me.
“I’m not going to just let him, or you, take me!” I shouted back.
“He is not what you think. And he needs you to trust him.”
Stupid, that was a stupid request if I ever heard one.
Ash’s voice echoed, and I knew he was close. Very close. My hand slid over a depression in the wall. Not an alley or anything so convenient as that, more like a hollow where the ground behind the brick had sunken, right next to a vent that had a curl of foul air rolling from it. But . . . if I could do what Rory had done for me in the forest when the Shadowkiller was stalking me, I might have a chance. Hiding was a Shade talent. If I did what he did—cloak myself in shadows and slow my heart—then maybe Ash would walk right on by and I could backtrack.
You know, do something I’d never done before and hope that I could pull it out of my ass.
I pressed my back into the depression and closed my eyes, willing my heart to slow as I breathed slowly, doing my best to ignore the stench from the vent. Thinking about how it had felt with Rory’s arms around me that night, how the calm and stillness had crawled over me.
I was sure now it had been the Shadowkiller scouting the grounds, looking for an opportunity to take me even then. I breathed in and out, thinking of the shadows and willing them to hide me, to let me disappear in plain sight, even as I continued to block myself from the threads that tied me to Ash, my friends, and my uncle.
Slowly, my body felt as though it melted into the stone and cement at my back and sides as my breathing continued to slow. Calm flowed over me, and my heart slowed dramatically.
Footsteps padded still, closer and closer, long talons scratching against the stone ever so quietly.
“You cannot hide from me,” he said, right in front of me, the shape of his body just visible in the dim light of the tunnel through the narrow slits of my eyes. I didn’t move and kept my mind focused on one thing. The quiet safety I’d had with Rory, the feel of his body tightly pressed against mine, protecting me, his breath against my ear and the slowing of both our hearts. The way he’d whispered to me and kept the fear that had been roaring through me quiet, which kept me from bolting out right in front of the Shadowkiller.
Which only left me feeling . . . empty this time. Rory should have been with me, holding me. Instead of kissing Gen. A spurt of emotion sent my heart rate escalating and I caught it quickly, slowing it. Pretending he was with me.