mine, her features contorted with fury.
I was clearly ruining her long-anticipated reunion with her husband.
She pushed into my space until she was halfway out the door, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen a woman so close to a blinding rage. Not Regan, when I’d taken the life of the last person who meant anything to her, and not even me when my bones baked closely to the surface of my skin, eyes glowing in a crimson replica of the Tulpa’s.
Because I was only
Her bones were liquid, and rolled beneath her flesh. Her gaze was so white-hot it nearly sliced open the air on the way to me. Solange, I suddenly realized, was not left alone in this room and deferred to because she was especially beautiful. She owned it because she was especially dangerous. Power pooled around her like an electrical current, and I instinctively took another step back. She’d amassed more energy for herself in this world than I’d ever possessed, and it looked like she was about to unleash it all upon me.
Seeing my retreat for what it was, she inhaled sharply to rein in her anger. Clenching her jaw, those liquid bones rearranged themselves again, and she blew out a breath as hot as the air drying out the men below. It scared me more than if she’d screamed. “I’ll tell you what you want to know if you promise to leave. Immediately.”
Gladly, I thought, sighing as well. I nodded.
“To fix a displaced aura, to mend a broken human being, you must merely hold fast to one basic tenet. It’s both simple and hard. It’s also essential to your changeling’s-and your troop’s-continued existence.” She licked her lips, formulating words that I knew would be truth…but as slight and obscure as she could make it. I waited. “Put her, always, physically and otherwise, above yourself.”
I swallowed and shook my head. “I don’t know what that means.”
“That’s not my problem.” She began to shut the door again.
No, I thought, jamming my foot inside. I was too close to just leave now. “Just tell me-”
“Nobody gets anything for free here!” Her eyes fired again, like light catching on the facets of diamonds. “Now, leave!”
She thrust out a palm in my direction, and though it never touched me, a bolt sliced through my solar plexus, the shove staggering pieces inside me like a puzzle coming undone. A breeze swept over places air should never touch, and my mind, my emotion, my thoughts, and all the intangibles that made me
My body arrived a moment later. I sat up quickly-too quickly-and heard an audible snap. Sure enough, I wobbled, hesitated, then leaned over and puked on the floor. Still dizzy, room spinning, I remained on my hands and knees long after the howls of laughter and groans of disgust faded away. My vision was blurred and I had to pinpoint a solid object in order for it to clear, though when it finally did, I was sad to discover the object on the scarred wooden floor was the pendant Suzanne had given me, now broken down into four separate pieces. Slowly I gathered them up in my palm, and by the time I finally looked up, the women who’d gathered along the banister were gone, and most of the men had returned to their cards.
Not the dealers. They’d created a tight circle around me, eyes spinning like silver reels.
I used the curved banister to help gain my feet, letting go as soon as my knees would hold. It looked like I was about to get my ass kicked, because no way was I going back up those stairs. I was still dizzy, but the heat wasn’t going to make it any better, so I pocketed the jewelry, widened my stance, and readied myself to take on a handful of angry dealers.
Eyes still whirling, Boyd only held out his hand.
I glanced over at Bill. He was stroking his chin, looking amused. I took a testing step in the direction of my lantern. The circle shifted around me. Bill leaned his elbows on the bar and gave me a small shake of his head. “Solange says you aren’t to be touched.”
I took another testing step to the side, and swallowed back a second bout of nausea as the ring of men shifted with me. “Then what’s up with the dealers o’death?”
My words were sharp, but my voice was tinny and echoed in my ears. My spirit or soul or whatever it was that Solange had loosened from within me was back, but I wasn’t sure it had all settled in the right place. For the first time I became aware of a high ringing in my ears. I’d have shaken my head, but I didn’t want to be sick again.
“She wants you to leave, but she wants to teach you a lesson as well. And Solange generally gets what she wants.” He shrugged as I thought, No kidding. “One of your gaming chips will gain you passage home.”
I swallowed hard.
Despite Solange’s parting words, and being outnumbered, I might have fought it. It was the heat that decided things for me, though. I could either hand one over, or wait until I was too weak to stop them from picking my pockets clean, and though I hated the way the fight drained from me, intuition told me not to choose this battle. “Can I pick it?”
“She didn’t specify, but if you sit down for a game with the boys, I’ll throw it in the pot.” Giving me a chance to gain this chip back, along with the others.
I sighed, pulling my chips from my pocket, shaking my head as I looked them over. “I grew up in a gambling town, Bill. I know not to chase my losses.” And I needed to get out of here quickly. Thirst and heat fueled desperation, and desperation led to bad decisions.
“That’s okay.” Boyd dropped the chip I handed him into his front pocket. “Next time.”
Still wary, I sidestepped toward my lantern, surrounded by my own personal retinue. The ringing in my head pounded like a heartbeat with every step. “No. I’m never coming back.”
I’d faced multiple attacks on my life, the most recent at the hands of both the Tulpa and Skamar, but I’d never faced anything as intrinsically frightening as what Solange had just done. And that, I thought with my raised hand shaking, had only been her warning.
Bill began his endless round of polishing pretty crystal glasses again, unconcerned. “You will. Then Mackie will finish his ballad, your other name will be revealed, and we’ll own you.”
“You’ve caused us a lot of trouble, Olivia,” Boyd said, his strange eyes fixed like lasers on me. “Maybe we’ll just kill you upon your next passage and give your power over to Midheaven in one big bump. Use it to create something interesting for ourselves.”
“You mean the women will create something for themselves.” Harlan Tripp had returned to his seat, his hands empty of all but playing cards. Apparently my words had provided him with the resolve he needed to resist that drink. For now.
Boyd ignored him, and simply raised his bushy black brows above those still spinning eyes. Apparently he was in a hurry to return to his table, to slice away bits of other people’s souls one sliver at a time.
Shen, one of the divided souls, grinned. “And then Mackie will slit your throat.”
My eyes darted to Mackie, but he was motionless and slumped like a sack of bones. I paused at my lantern to take one last look over the Rest House. Why had the First Mother, that dark twin, created this place? What need compelled a person-thing, goddess, monster, whatever she was-to take human energy to fuel a world where men were forced to languish in their vices? Because though none of the men down here could voice their objections, I could feel them, restless as ghosts, in my mind. Like a city of souls, I thought with a shiver, all the emotion bottled up. Inside, though? They were screaming like banshees.
As for me? I might be the Kairos in my world, but over here I was as expendable as a wad of tissue. I felt that in my cells, a knowledge as instinctive as flight or fight. Today I chose flight.
Boyd pulled my chip from his pocket again, holding it up so the etched denomination caught light. I looked at it regretfully, and he smiled. “Not bad. I’ll have your line of credit waiting when you return.”
I shook my head, but said nothing, already mute with dread, anticipating that power being ripped from me. Fortunately, the heat dried the moisture welling in my eyes before it could give me away. At least I was still keeping up the
I was just about to blow the wick out, already bracing myself for the pain of the passage home, when I caught the gaze of the one man down there that was from my time. A Shadow agent, yes, but the only one fighting the
