26. Chapter 26

26

R ebecca’s gaze flicked toward the pile of severed homunculus remains beside the staircase, her stomach twisting. She’d nearly been taken out by a mess of limbs, but this wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

No way in hell could Maxwell Hannigan or anyone on his security team have created such a monstrosity like that one, let alone five .

Even if Maxwell possessed the level of sheer stupidity required to create creatures like that, he still didn’t have the right kind of magic. That was completely beyond a shifter’s abilities, and he didn’t have any Necromancers on his team.

Maybe Maxwell wasn’t responsible for the attack on the compound still currently underway above them. But he sure as hell was taking advantage of the chaos, anyway.

Was this his coup after all?

Part of Rebecca wanted to throw in her losses and cut out of this garage right now, before the tension in the air thickened any more. Before Maxwell decided to make his move and the shit really hit the fan.

He’d made it no secret he didn’t trust her and didn’t want her around. If he’d somehow dug up any secrets of her past in the last few days, she couldn’t stick around long enough to hear his accusations, though he would’ve needed help finding those secrets in the first place.

She’d hidden them too well.

Still, if he had something else in store for her, if Rebecca had somehow missed the most crucial parts of this little takeover all because she’d thought she was being smart by locking herself up in her room…

Gods, when did pretending to be someone else get so damn complicated?

And what was Maxwell waiting for?

Aldous had finally stopped bitching at his Head of Security long enough to take a good look around him. Yes, the entire task force was already well armed. Yes, they all watched him intently.

And yes, it looked like everyone else down here right now was itching to get started with something , just as soon as they received the signal they’d been waiting for.

From whom?

Until this moment, Rebecca had assumed that by making herself unavailable to Leonard and Diego’s little plans, there wouldn’t be anyone to give the signal.

Then she found Diego across the garage. The Cruorcian’s red-glowing eyes flickered toward her before he raised his eyebrows in silent question and lifted the fully automatic assault rifle he’d swiped from the armory.

As if telling her now was the time.

Fat chance.

Rebecca shook her head as inconspicuously as possible and hoped he understood she still refused to be a part of this. Whatever this was.

She wanted to see what Maxwell would do first. Until now, the shifter had given no indication that he was ready or willing to turn against Aldous when the opportunity arose. Except for showing his face at that first meeting in the library, of course.

No surprise now that Maxwell was still the hardest person to read in any room, including this one.

Something was about to blow any second now.

No surprise, either, when that turned out to be Aldous.

“What the hell is everyone just standing around for?” he screamed. “Are you waiting for a fucking cookie? I want these assholes found, and I want them on their knees at my feet. Five fucking minutes ago!”

Maxwell’s only response was a deepening frown.

Was he warring with himself about his upcoming decision to deliberately defy orders from a superior? Was he just ready to rip Aldous’s head off because he’d finally reached his limit with being treated that way?

Rebecca watched him intently, wondering if the shifter had finally come this far in his plans only to realize he just couldn’t go through with it.

If that happened, all of Shade was screwed all over again, and Aldous would still be here.

The changeling’s already splotchy face darkened even further, more of his natural green-tinted skin showing through his human illusion as he clenched his trembling fists, clearly on the verge of losing it. “I said fucking move! And anyone who doesn’t obey a direct order will answer to me personally! ”

Whether he was ready to follow through with the threat didn’t matter.

Because a low, rumbling growl reverberated through the entire garage, coming from seemingly every direction at once and nowhere.

The task force held together, though it came with a lot of shuffling, sidestepping, and nervous glances sent to those standing beside them when the growl ended in horrid laughter that sounded like death being tickled silly.

Not the kind of thing one heard every day. Even with magical blood.

Rebecca could have sworn she knew that voice. While her physical senses and her adrenaline and her battle readiness had all spiked thanks to Zida’s fun little vial of whatever it was, her ability to piece together external facts with memory was clearly still very much affected.

She wasn’t left in the dark to guess about it for very long though.

A flash of dark, turbulent energy that sucked at the low light in the garage—almost as fervently as Rebecca’s own Bloodshadow magic—strobed into existence at the foot of the staircase. From pure nothingness, a dark shadow materialized, taking on form and shape and solidity.

The shadow became a body. The body moved, and that same dark voice ricocheting off every surface around them returned, laughing like this was all one enormous joke.

“That won’t be necessary.”

Every magical in the garage brandished their weapons, magitek devices, and inherent battle magic, all of it aimed toward the dark coalescing shadows at the base of the stairs.

Rebecca would have loved to conjure her spear again right now, but that would only open the wrong kind of door for the wrong kind of questions to be asked of her later.

She summoned a handful of crackling red battle magic instead and put herself on full alert with everyone else.

Aldous looked just as stupefied to both hear that ominously laughing voice and see those shadows moving in the shape of a person. Unlike everyone else, though, he puffed out a sigh and instantly relaxed before stomping off in that direction.

“Wait.” Maxwell reached toward the changeling with his free hand.

Aldous shrugged out from under the shifter’s grip, scoffing as he waved aside his Head of Security’s concern. “Jesus. Everybody keep it in your pants. Like a bunch of terrified little kids down here stepping out into the woods on their own for the first time. What the hell is wrong with you people?”

He marched toward the stairs as if he hadn’t noticed a thing.

Then the shadowy figure took on full clarity and detail .

The baggy black pants. The oversized black sweatshirt with the hood pulled up to obscure its owner’s entire face but for those creepily off-putting, all-black orbs that served as his eyes.

The long, thick black leather gloves encasing both hands, which no one among Shade’s ranks had seen in their natural state.

It was Hector.

Rebecca realized this only a few seconds before it dawned on everyone else.

Aldous had fully relaxed at the sight of his pet nurúzhe finally joining them, but the rest of the task force tensed.

She saw it in the tightening jaw lines and darkening stares and wearily exchanged glances tossed about across the garage.

Even Maxwell seemed surprised by the nurúzhe’s appearance, though he hid the surprise beneath another scowl as he folded his arms.

Across the garage, Diego took a step forward in Rebecca’s direction.

She instantly shook her head again.

No, something else was going on here. Until she knew what that was, no way in hell would she humor Leonard, Diego, the other Shade rebels, or their plan, whatever it was. She wasn’t even supposed to be a part of it anyway, so why did Diego keep looking at her ?

Beside her, Zida clicked her tongue and shook her head before muttering, “This ain’t right. Something’s going on here.”

No one could disagree with that.

Aldous quickened his pace toward Hector’s fully solidified form and spread his arms, heaving a sigh of relief. “Finally! Someone who knows what the fuck they’re doing. Took you long enough to join us, Hector. Where were you?”

“I was…indisposed.” Those lightless black orbs in the center of the guy’s dark hood moved with a life of their own—or maybe a lifelessness of their own would have been a more accurate way to describe it.

The guy could have been a life-sized statue if it weren’t for those unnatural eyes, completely pitch-black from all his work with death magic. Maybe even with dark alchemy as well—creating and animating lifeless bodies to serve their master in fulfilling the sole purpose for which they’d been made.

It seemed like a ridiculous idea, far-fetched, grasping for straws. But as Rebecca watched Aldous practically prance toward the nurúzhe standing at the base of the stairs, Hector’s black eyes sucked the light out of and away from everything around him.

Those eyes suddenly had a suspiciously similar gleam to the homunculi’s all-black orbs—the only true feature on any of their not-faces.

But Hector ? Really ?

Aldous didn’t say another word to him until they stood only a few feet apart. Then he stopped, looked Hector up and down with a tight smirk, and let out an equally tight chuckle. “Indisposed. Oh, I’m sorry … Did we interrupt an important part of your day?”

Hector tilted his head back just enough to let some light into his hood to illuminate no more than the slow grin spreading across his lips.

Rebecca hadn’t seen that before, and it was a grin she could’ve gone without seeing forever.

The guy’s teeth were surprisingly, brilliantly white and straight, twinkling from within all that darkness surrounding him.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Hector replied.

His sniveling, nasally voice made Rebecca grind her own teeth together in an effort not to throw herself at him to shake the smugness right out. This self-righteous little prick was almost worse than Aldous.

No, she’d never gone on a mission with him. She’d never had a private conversation with him. But Hector exuded the kind of superiority that made her want to punch him in the face.

“But I do have to admit none of this turned out the way I’d expected,” Hector added.

“Ha! You’re not the only one. Please. I’m just as astounded by our Head of Security’s failures as you are. We all put our faith and trust in Hannigan. And now, in our hour of true need, what does he do? He lets us down.”

“Hannigan?” Hector’s hood turned toward Maxwell, but without being able to see his face, one could only assume he was also staring at the shifter.

Then a low, non-committal hum rose from the nurúzhe’s shadowy hood. “Really, Aldous. I couldn’t care less about the shifter you somehow believe is deserving of his elevated position. No, that’s not why I’m here.”

Aldous nodded vigorously, then stopped when his tiny brain caught up with the fact that Hector hadn’t agreed with him. “What’s that now? Did I just hear you say you didn’t care ?”

“Not about the shifter.” Hector turned his body, his hood and shoulders hunched forward. As if it weren’t already clear where he’d focused his attention now, one hand lifted slightly to point with a black-gloved finger at a pile of severed homunculus parts lying beside him. “But this is interesting.”

“What the hell is that?” Aldous barked, taking two quick steps backward as he finally seemed to notice the remains for the first time. “Is that a—”

“It was a test, really,” Hector replied. “I had hoped to root out some of the more promising candidates, though I’d be surprised if there was more than one. ”

“What are you talking about?” Aldous shrieked. “This compound is under attack! I am under attack! Our best people can’t figure out who the fuck is doing the attacking, and you’re worried about—”

“I also imagine,” Hector continued, looking away from the homunculus parts to scan all the faces in the garage, “that only one of you could have possibly managed to do something like that . So who was it?”

No one said a word.

If the tension hadn’t already been so thick to begin with, the task force would have held their silence anyway. Hector wasn’t particularly appreciated or admired by the rest of Shade’s members.

For the most part, he kept to himself. He rarely made an appearance, and when he did, it seemed all he wanted was to stir up strife among the others, with a healthy dose of condescension, and flaunt his own perceived superiority.

Honestly, he and Aldous deserved each other.

Being nurúzhe didn’t do him any favors in the popularity department, either.

That didn’t mean these magicals weren’t still afraid of him.

Three seconds later, Rebecca found herself as the target of dozens of gazes all at once. Some of them flickered away from her before eventually being drawn back. Others fixed on her and seemed stuck there.

Beside her, Zida roughly cleared her throat and scowled at the others all staring at Rebecca, but the effect wasn’t nearly as powerful as Hector’s question.

Which he had to have known.

Now, those light-sucking, all-black orbs of his settled directly on Rebecca’s face as well, and a low, sniveling chuckle filled the garage. “But of course . You look like you’ve had quite the night already, elf.”

Rebecca glanced down at herself, every inch of her outfit dusted with specks of plaster and dirt. The same clung to her blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. Bits of stripped wiring and wood chips and exploded building materials coated her from head to toe.

Not to mention her disastrously scuffed pumps and the handprint of light gray encircling her left wrist, which had now darkened to a medium gray that almost matched the hue of the garage’s concrete floor.

Not really a good sign.

“You’re the one who did this, then?” Hector asked, pointing again at the decimated homunculus behind him as he moved toward her with slow, calculated steps. “Is that it?”

She said nothing .

“Hector!” Aldous barked before hurrying after the nurúzhe. “Enough screwing around. We’re under attack, and you’re the only one who could be—”

The changeling stumbled backward when Hector stopped abruptly and turned around to face Shade’s commander. He fixed those intensely creepy black eyes on him, then tilted his head—which was only made visible by one shoulder slumping down as his entire torso dipped to the side and his shadowy hood turned slightly skyward. “ Are we?”

Aldous’s mouth popped open, then he offered the nurúzhe a flabbergasted sneer. “Under attack? Of course we are! You heard the explosions and the alarm. There’s a breach somewhere in this building, and if you don’t find it right now—”

“I hear nothing.” Hector spun away from Aldous to continue his path toward Rebecca again. “You know, I had hoped to give you a bit of a more exciting challenge with the first one. Maybe even the second, but…”

Another dark chuckle escaped him. “I never imagined it would have taken five . Yet here you stand, still breathing, still looking relatively intact. Except for that wrist …”

Though his face remained hidden within the hood, Rebecca felt his pitch-black eyes directed toward her left arm.

The first thing she did was fold her arms to hide the marks as casually as possible and try her best to glare right back into a pair of eyes that were impossible to track.

Holy shit.

The attack. The explosions. The homunculi.

Hector was behind it all.