“Oh, you know, just getting directions from our friend on the phone.”
The Shade froze, and then, with a hiss of anger, it lunged for Kane. I leaped at it, colliding with its body, my shadow intermingling with the Shade’s own shadow. We fell to the floor, the force of the jolt making me bite my tongue painfully. The Shade screeched in fury, and threw me off, its power immense. I tumbled and landed roughly on the road, hitting my shoulder, and a hot blazing pain jolted down my arm.
Kane’s chanting was a roar in my ears as the spell hit its climax, and I heard the crackling of electricity. The air filled with smoke as something exploded up above us. As I got up, I saw the Shade running for Kane, hands outstretched—then all the lights in the street suddenly went dark, and we plunged into blackness.
The sky was cloudy, hiding the stars, and the lamps around us had all died. There was still an inkling of light, but not enough for the Shade. The body froze mid-run, its hands stretched toward Kane.
“Well,” Kane said. “That was—”
A sudden loud mechanical sound filled my ear. It emanated from the Bluetooth earpiece, and I could hear Sinead cursing in the background. It was the generator, kicking into life.
Down the street, a spotlight flickered to life. Then another. Shadows materialized on the ground. And the Shade came alive. Screeching, it crashed into Kane, slamming him into the smoldering utility pole. It opened its mouth wide—seemingly too wide—as it brought its jaw closer to Kane’s face. Kane tried to push the thing’s forehead away, to keep that mouth away from him.
I ran at them, my chain unraveling from my wrist and dropping into my outstretched palm. I slung it over the Shade’s head, pulling against its neck and shouting, “Angustus!”
The chain reacted to the spell word, its links shrinking, biting into the Shade’s throat. I pulled hard, trying to haul it away from Kane. It twisted, the huge mouth snapping at me. It was inhuman, a mouth free from the limitations of a jaw bone, the teeth filed to sharp points, yellow and brown with rot, the smell overpowering—
“Got it!” Sinead said victoriously in my ear, the generator coughing and dying in the background. The lights died again. The Shade went limp as darkness swallowed its shadow.
“Jesus,” I muttered.
“Lou, your hands!” Kane barked.
I saw the plumes of smoke rising from my fingers. “Oh, shit.”
“Breathe, Lou,” Isabel said. “Breathe and relax.”
I tried, but my breaths were too fast and shallow. The heat built in my palms, and I knew they were about to erupt in flames. A fire would be catastrophic right now, casting us in light, waking up the Shade. I tried relaxing my muscles, one by one, but my mind was whirling, muscles trembling from the adrenaline and effort, the struggle with the Shade. To my horror, a small flame began to dance on my right palm. I clenched my fist, but the flames snaked through the cracks between my fingers, my hand a flaming fist of light.
Then suddenly Kane stood between the flaming hand and the Shade, his body blocking the flickering light. He was entirely silent, his eyes meeting mine, as he gently grasped the wrist of my burning hand, bringing it closer to his body, hiding the blaze. It danced inches from his chest, but he showed no fear, no discomfort. Instead, he wrapped his free hand around my shoulder and pulled me toward him, his body hiding mine. My head spun and I lowered my face, letting my forehead touch his chest, focusing on that sensation of intimacy. After a few seconds, his fingers intertwined with mine, and I realized my hand was no longer blazing. The fear and anger I had felt had been replaced by other emotions.
“Everything okay, guys?” Sinead piped in my ear.
I cleared my throat and pulled back. “Yeah. We’re going for Harutaka now. You can join Isabel, or go back to peeping on the cops.”
“Can’t see a damn thing through those car windows,” she muttered, sounding irate. “These guys fogged them up completely.”
“Let’s go,” I told Kane.
He was pale; the effort of the spell he had cast had clearly sapped his strength. But he nodded at me, and when I began jogging down the street toward the warehouse’s door, he matched my pace.
The warehouse was a few hundred yards away from us, and my pace was fast. We had lost all our wiggle time and then some, because of the lover cops. But really, it was me. I was rusty. I should have known there would be some sort of hurdle, should have prepared for it, should have been ready to compensate. I couldn’t afford mistakes like these when we broke into the dragon’s vault. Everything would have to go flawlessly.
“Isabel?” I breathed hard. “Anything interesting?” The dark streets were deathly quiet. Even with my sharp night vision, it felt as black as coal.
“Nothing new,” she said, her voice calm, almost sleepy. It was impossible to read the future under pressure. She had to stay relaxed, serene, even when things got hairy. She was breathing steadily, probably going through her relaxation techniques, at which I had failed so miserably. “But you should hurry. The moon will be up soon. And I really need to pee.”
The warehouse door was up ahead, and for a minute my heart skipped a beat as I saw the looming figures around it. But they were all completely still, frozen by the utter darkness that enveloped them. The Shades were dormant.
Kane stumbled by my side, almost falling, and cursed.
“You okay?”
“I can hardly see,” he whispered sharply.
“The potion is wearing off. It’s your body weight.”
“Are you saying I’m fat?”
“Look out!” I grabbed him and pulled him sideways just before he ran into an erect, dormant Shade.
“Damn it,” he muttered.
“Here, take my hand.” I grabbed his palm. It was warm, and when he felt my touch he tightened his grip. For a moment I just focused on that touch, on our feet, running fast on the hard cobblestones. But the warehouse towered ahead, and I forced myself to focus, to sharpen my senses.
There were three Shades standing still by the door. The closest one towered high above us, over eight feet tall.
“What the hell is that?” I muttered.
“Shadow body manipulation,” Kane said, breathing hard. He pulled his hand from mine, now that we had stopped running. “The Shades can do that. You know how your shadow is huge if the light hits it from a certain angle?”
“Sure.”
“Well, apparently Shades can use that to warp the shape of their body as well. If their shadow is constantly bigger than the body, the body stretches. They become giants.”