I held up my hands. “No. I mean, yes. I just-”
“Get out.” She pointed one slender arm at the door, black silk pooling to the ground.
“But-”
Jacks was suddenly by her side. “My wife wishes for you to leave.”
“Wife?” Shock made my voice too loud.
“Out!” Solange repeated, matching the tone.
“Not now,” he said, and there was nothing seductive left in his touch as he dragged me to the door.
“But you didn’t answer my question!” I jerked my arm away, and he grabbed it again. “I need to fix the changeling of Light and only you can tell me how.”
He spun me toward him after depositing me on the other side of the doorway, and still holding tight, leaned close. “You can’t. All you can do is take back your own energy.”
“What?”
“Kill her, Archer. It’s the only way to save everything you love.”
And he slammed the door in my face.
Only a moment of stunned silence passed, perhaps two, before I was pounding on the locked door, demanding reentry. I didn’t care who heard, what sort of energy I was expending, or who wanted it for their own. I was so desperate to get back in that room that I was only marginally aware of the women gathering to watch me at the other end of the banister. Meanwhile, my mind whirled.
Kill Jasmine? That couldn’t be the only way.
I continued pounding and yelling, therefore missed the rapid footsteps approaching from the other side, though that also could have been because they belonged to the smaller of the two persons who’d thrown me out. The door jerked wide, and I briefly saw Jacks’s silhouette by Las Vegas’s viewing window, but then Solange thrust her face in mine, her features contorted with fury.
I was clearly ruining her long-anticipated reunion with her husband.
Jacks was Solange’s 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 part Shadow, I thought, swallowing hard. And for the first time I saw past Solange’s borrowed beauty-the adornment she put on using everyone else’s life energy-to the woman, the Shadow, that lay beneath.
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 me were pushed from my body. It was nauseating to both be there and not, and while my feet were bolted to the ground, everything that truly animated me flew backward, whistling against the wind, tumbling down the staircase to end up in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.
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. Nobody gets anything for free here.
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.”