“If I could just take a deep breath, maybe I wouldn’t feel so light-headed.” Talia made a show of reaching over her shoulder for the ties lacing her snugly into the corset. The rasp in her voice made her lie that much more convincing.
“Sure,” Zoe said. “I guess I should’ve thought about that, what with your injury and all. I’m sorry.”
Talia walked into the dressing room and waited until Zoe closed the door behind her. The club’s pumping music rounded into muted thumps and whines.
The click of the lock made Talia’s pulse jump with satisfaction.
Now for a little information.
Zoe stepped deeper into the room and Talia pulled shadows down. Layered darkness surged into the room and all sense of mortality was blotted out entirely.
“Talia?” Zoe’s voice was thin in the dark.
Talia took Zoe’s hand, shared her senses with her, just as Zoe’s fear coursed across their connection. No wonder people needed to be ushered across the divide of death. Humanity would be utterly lost without the fae.
Zoe’s gaze found her and focused. Her eyes were wide with alarm. “What’s going on?”
“I wanted to have a private chat with you,” Talia said softly, careful of her voice. “Just you and me, with absolutely no interruptions.”
Zoe swallowed audibly. “What about?”
“Adam.”
“Uh…What about him?”
“Where is he?”
Zoe’s eyes flicked to the right, preparing to lie. “I don’t know. Didn’t he tell you?”
“No, he didn’t.” Damn him. “But I know you know.”
Zoe fidgeted with her feet, but met Talia’s gaze. “I have no idea. Honestly.”
Honestly? Even now Zoe’s emotions communicated her duplicity.
“You’re lying. You know where he went.”
“I don’t. Now let me go—you’re scaring me.” Zoe pulled her hand out of Talia’s grasp.
Talia knew the dark would swallow her, deafen her, choke her with its absolute vacuum of stimuli. She let the horror of that isolation settle in for a moment.
When Zoe began to shake, Talia touched her shoulder lightly and leaned into her ear. “I’m a banshee. I’m supposed to be fucking terrifying.”
“Let me out of here right now.” Zoe’s heart had to be beating furiously. The surrounding shadows trembled with her. Her terror swept across the fluid veils.
Talia was unaffected. The little brat was going to spill if Talia had to make her pee her pants in fright to do so. “Tell me where Adam went.”
“I don’t know.” Zoe shrugged definitively. Her eyes shined with tears, reflective like mirrors in the magic of darkness.
Talia kept her voice whisper low. “Then we’re at an impasse. We’ll just have to stay right here until we can come to some kind of agreement.” How to speed this up? Her turn to lie. “However, you should probably know that it may not be good for you to remain in my shadows for any length of time. These are the shadows of death and will by nature have an adverse effect on your longevity.”
Zoe rolled her eyes, batting away the wetness. “Abigail says I live to old age.”
Talia’s laugh burned in her throat. “Abigail can’t see the fae. There’s no way she could see this coming.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me.” Zoe crossed her arms over her chest.
“But I am hurting you. Right now. How bad it gets is up to you.”
She released Zoe’s shoulder and stepped back, allowing the screaming nothingness to inundate her again. Talia whipped the veils to quicken her thinking process, to goad her fear into real panic.
Zoe’s chest hitched as her breathing became irregular. Her heart beat frantically as black eyeliner ran down her cheeks and her trembles turned into full-bodied shakes.
Stupid kid. All dressed up to welcome Death. Truth was, she didn’t welcome death any more than anyone else.
As if in agreement, Zoe spoke, “He went to the Styx. To destroy the demon Death Collector.”
Shock washed Talia’s skin with ice. She dropped her shadows abruptly and the veils hissed back out of existence.
“He went where?” It was her turn to be horrified. “How did he plan to accomplish that? I thought only I could call Shadowman!”
“Adam found a way.” Zoe stepped back, her hand reaching for the doorknob.
Talia lifted the shadows again, flung out a hand, and held the door closed with a wave of darkness. “What way did he find?”
“Uh…I…” Zoe didn’t finish her answer, and Talia didn’t want her to. The implications were already spinning. Back at Segue, Philip had spoken of a way. An ancient death rite. To usher an immortal monster out of the world, someone had to sacrifice their life. A life to balance out death. Adam had fought the idea then. But now, he couldn’t possibly intend to—He did.