Nope, nope. I would not get attached to this man who’d been merciless in killing.
A little voice whispered to me. Any different than the Sandman?
I frowned. “Look, we’re wasting time. I have maps of the prison. I need to get my friends out. If you’re really going to stick to this deal, then let’s move on it.”
“What about the sickness in the House of Wonder?” Nicholas said more to himself, his fingers brushing across his lips. “I have yet to figure out who has created that little prezzie. Not Frost. That makes no sense, as it is attacking those she is using. And yet, there is magic in the sickness that grows with each day. So, the question of the day is who pulled the trigger? And how did they get it to focus first on the House of Wonder after the nulls?”
I lowered my bag to the ground, keeping my eyes on him as I took out the map and showed it to Ash. “Not that I don’t care, but that’s not my priority right now. I’ve got to get my friends out of that prison before Frost hurts them. After that, we can discuss who is making the House of Wonder sick, why, and how to stop it.”
“Not even the Helix boy?” Nicholas glanced over his shoulder. “I thought he was a favorite of yours.”
An image of Rory lying still, covered in blood, filled my mind, and I had to fight to push it away. “No. Boys are trouble. Nothing but heartache and stupid ideas. And Ethan apparently killed a friend of mine. So he is on the shit list.”
My uncle laughed as if to himself. “I always thought that too about boys. I tried to tell Lexi that. Not that she listened to me at that age.”
“Don’t talk about her,” I said as I put my bag back on and moved to stand next to Ash. Not that he was my favorite person but . . . if I had to choose which one of these two to be physically closer to, it was Ash, hands down.
Because with Nicholas standing quietly, and not even facing me, there was a steady, low thrum of warning tingling through my body. I wasn’t going to ignore it.
“I loved her,” he said. “She was my favorite sister.”
I tensed and stared hard at him. “I don’t care. She was my mother, and I don’t want you talking about her. Let’s focus on the task at hand. How’s about that, Tex?”
Yup, just gave the Shadowkiller a nickname.
He smiled at me. “Tex. I’ll take that.”
And he liked it. Hell, if I didn’t know better, I’d say he liked me.
My world had officially turned upside down.
Ash flicked the papers in my hand. “This gives us an idea of where to start. See here? There are several guard towers, more than anywhere else. But I believe it would be the best place to enter.”
“That seems counterproductive.” I flipped through the pages and saw what was behind the two guard towers: the main cell block. “But the quickest way to get where we need to go?”
Ash nodded. “I do believe we could take them out—”
Nicholas grabbed the map and turned it around. “This? This isn’t a map. It’s a death trap. Don’t even look at it.” He snapped his fingers and the flames that had danced across his palm and fingertips ate at the map.
“Son of a bitch!” I drove a fist into his belly, sending him flying backward as I grabbed the map and doused the flames against my chest. “Donkey ass!” I yelled as I patted the papers, the heat sinking through and making me grimace. My hands were still sore from the beating they’d taken from tearing those shadows away from Rory. Pulling the papers off my shirt, I saw the scorch marks were heavy and had eaten most of the papers. Not all of them, but most.
I glared at Nicholas who stood a few feet away, rubbing his belly where I’d socked him. But he didn’t retaliate. Shockingly. “You have a hard punch. You know that every Chameleon has a first house? The one they would reside in had they not gained all the abilities?”
“This is not study hall!” I yelled at him. “My friends are in danger, and you promised to help me get them out alive, so we are doing that now! Pull your head out of your butt and let’s put a plan together!”
Ash put a hand on my shoulder, and I shrugged him off. “While it may seem roundabout to you, there is often a method to his madness that I’ve seen more times than I care to admit.”
Nicholas was still frowning, rubbing at his body. “I would have been in the House of Night. A first for our family seeing as we come from a long line of Shades.”
“I don’t—”
“Frost would have been in the House of Wonder. It is her greatest strength.” He shrugged and then smiled. “But maybe after I die, I’ll come back as a vampire Chameleon.”
Horrifying didn’t begin to cover that thought.
I looked at Ash. “He wasn’t like this before?” Even when he’d first taken me out of the House of Wonder, he’d been more . . . together. Now he seemed to just be following his train of thought wherever it went.
The gargoyle sighed. “He is . . . slipping. He has moments where he is fully the man I know, but in truth, he is slowly losing himself to the power running through him. I don’t know if it can be helped. That is why we need you. Or one of the reasons we need you.”
Slipping. Like cogs and wheels no longer working together.
“What happens if he slips completely?” I asked.
Ash blew out a soft sigh. “Then we will all be in very, very, big trouble.” He took me by the arm and led me a few steps away, but Nicholas didn’t seem to care. He was staring at what remained of the House of Shade. Ash lowered his voice. “If he loses himself again, then there will be no saving any of us.”
Again. That was not any more reassuring than the word slipping. “That’s what happened the first time, isn’t it? When he killed everyone when he was still in the academy.”
The gargoyle’s dark eyes closed. “Yes. He lost control the first time his abilities converged. He’d been in one of the monthly games, and a friend of his was injured badly. He didn’t have a crew like you, or even Frost. He chose to try and keep his magic hidden, to keep it from causing grief. And when it was unleashed, born from fear for his friend, it was unstoppable. He himself wasn’t strong enough to control it. Fear will do that.”
There was a piece to this I didn’t understand.
“How is he so strong without a crew? Without drawing off others? I thought those were the only two ways a Chameleon draws power.” I frowned. We had to get moving, but it felt important for me to know this. Both so I could understand Ol’ Tex and because I needed to avoid becoming like him. Maybe a little study hall wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
Ash gave a low rumble and then shrugged. “That is the crux of it. I don’t truly know. I’m not sure if even Nicholas knows.”
An uncle with more power than he could handle, and no apparent off switch.
Awesome. Just what I needed.
14
I made my way across the open pier, the sky still dark and littered with clouds that deepened the darkness of the New York waterfront. Pulling out my binoculars, I peered across the water. There was indeed an island in the open ocean, one that I was sure I’d never seen on a map before. And while geography wasn’t a strong suit of mine in school, I was sure I’d remember a Shadowspell Island in the New York City harbor.