“Do you know what the disks will do when the storm breaks?”
“Not a damn clue. Might be nothing. Might be a lot. If we see a mushroom cloud suddenly blow out half the damn city, we’ll know for sure. Fuck it all. Did you Hound for Stotts?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Shame slanted me a look that was pure appreciation. “I’d be interested to know how you pulled that off.”
I tugged the crystal out of my pocket and held it up for him to see. It was still cool, but not frostbite cold. “Ever see this before?”
Shame glanced at it. “God’s balls, woman. Where did you get that?”
“In there.”
Shame made a quick right turn and nearly hit a car that honked as it went past us. He stopped in a lot behind an office building and twisted in his seat. “Give.”
Yes, I was hesitant to give it to him. But whom else was I going to trust with this? Whom else could I even ask about it? Maybe Violet. If she were conscious.
I handed it to him. Shame held it like it was made of gold and unbroken dreams. “It’s natural,” he said. “Who-no, how can this even exist?”
“It carried magic. Enough I could Hound the room.”
“Still does. It’s weak, thin, but it is refilling, slowly. . like the heartbeat of the world.” Shame licked his lips and swallowed hard. Then he slowly pressed it against his mouth. He closed his eyes and a shudder shook him.
“Shame?”
With visible effort, he lifted the stone away from his lips and held it out to me, without looking at me, without looking at the stone.
“Take it. I’d drink it dry.”
I hesitated. Shame wasn’t looking good, but the stone seemed to have brought a little color into his lips. Maybe letting him use the magic in the stone would help. “Maybe you-,” I started.
“No.” He looked away, looked out the window at the dark city. “You don’t want me to have that. It will only make me want more.” I saw the reflection of his smile in the glass, and it was pure hunger and need, coupled with a willpower I didn’t know he had.
I shoved the stone in my pocket and Shame rubbed his hand on his thigh, as if trying to rub off the sensation it had left behind. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and held it between his fingers, but didn’t light it. He went back to driving like nothing had happened.
Except I could tell his hands were shaking, and he was sweating. Not pain. Hunger.
“What did you see when you Hounded?” he asked as if we were talking about the weather.
This was the weird part. Shame had been raised in the Authority. He knew more political backstabbings and payoffs among the people in the Authority than I’d ever get the inside skinny on. His mother was a voice in the Authority, essentially speaking for every user who trained under Blood magic. He had more connections than Velcro.
If I told him the Authority was behind the breakin, whom would he tell? Did he already know someone in the Authority wanted the disks enough to attack my pregnant stepmother?
There is a reason I am not a spy. I do not do the cloak-and-dagger bit worth a shit. I prefer to lay my cards on the table, and then draw a gun to clear up any misunderstandings.
That meant it was default mode again-the truth.
“Someone from the Authority broke in. Fought with Kevin. Hurt him. Hurt Violet. With magic.”
Shame was silent. I watched his body language. Something like curiosity or like he was trying to figure out where that information fit in with other information.
“Could you tell who it was?” Flat, even. He knew how to keep his emotions in check when he wanted to. Wasn’t that a surprise?
“Dane Lannister.”
Shame frowned. “Seriously?”
I nodded.
“Huh.”
“Do you know why he would do that? Couldn’t he have told Kevin he wanted the disks?”
Shame took a deep breath, let it out. “I don’t know. There are always things going on in the Authority that I don’t know about. I haven’t heard. . No, I haven’t heard that Sedra wanted the disks.”
He stopped at a light, tapped his fingers on the wheel. “Could be a last-minute thing. Don’t know why they wouldn’t have clued Kevin in. But Violet. Yeah, they might not have wanted her to know. Still, force is usually a last resort.”
I snorted. “You people are always throwing magic around. What do you mean, force is a last resort?”
“Us people? You’re a part of us too. And it is. A last resort. They used magic?”
“The spells were. . collapsed. Tangled. Crushed.”
Shame pressed his head back into the seat of the car, straight-arming the wheel. “I am so going to ask for a raise. This job blows balls. You want me to take us to Mum’s place instead? We can get some answers. Find out what the cool kids are doing.”
We were just a couple blocks from the hospital.
“No. I want to see Violet.” And if she was awake, I planned to ask her a few questions. Like if she had been making a move on the Authority, trying to strong-arm them into something and holding the disks as collateral. She was smart and she was strong. It would not surprise me to find out the business associates who were angry with her over releasing the data on the disks were actually members of the Authority, maybe even Sedra herself.
And the way Kevin felt for Violet, the love he would not admit to, might just be enough to make him take her side. Might be enough to make him fight Sedra’s bodyguard for her.
Love did strange things to people. Left them weak, made them stronger than ever before, or destroyed them.
Shame drove into the parking structure and wound his way up the concrete ramps until he found an open space.
“You coming in with me?” I asked.
He lit the cigarette and sucked down the smoke. “I’m not letting you go in alone.”
I stopped, my hand on the door handle. “Why?”
“That’s the way it is.”
“Talk, Flynn.” I wanted to know whom he was working for, or spying for. His mother? Jingo Jingo?
“I owe Zay. For letting you down. For letting him down. I should have known. Seen it coming. Chase is such a bitch.” He opened the door and blew the smoke out in a thin stream.
Oh.
“Yeah, well, we all could have done something differently. But we didn’t. Now we go forward,” I said, “ ’ cause looking back won’t fix anything. Stay here-it won’t take me long to check on Violet.”
“Wrong. Chase and Greyson are still loose. Still on the hunt. Still looking for you.”
“They got Zay. They don’t want me.” But as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew it was not true. Greyson wanted my dad, the rest of him that was still inside me. What they did to Zay just got him out of the way so they could do what they really wanted.
“Holy shit,” I said. “They attacked Zay because they want to get to me.”
“I swear, you are denser than lead,” Shame muttered. “Of course they wanted him out of the way to get to you. And they wanted him out of the way because he is the guardian of the gates. The one and only magic user who can use light and dark magic to break the barrier between life and death. Knocking him out means that when the gates blow open-and I’d bet my left ball they’re going to-he won’t be able to close them.”
“There are other Closers,” I said. “Terric, Victor, Nikolai, and Romero, more of the Seattle crew.”
“None of them use magic like Zayvion Jones. No one does. Not even Victor. Or Terric.”
An image, a flash of Chase and Greyson casting magic together, using magic in ways I had never seen, making it go against its own laws, rolled through my mind.
“Soul Complements,” I whispered.
