Page 42 of Thief of Night
“God’s tits, that’s startling,” Balthazar told him. “Okay, Charlie, we’re going to try some basics. Get up.”
She stood, feeling a little foolish.
“The first and most important thing is to know how to block the pipeline of energy that exists between you and Red. If you don’t, he could suck you dry if he wanted to, like a milkshake through a straw.”
“What’s stopping him from doing that now?” Charlie asked with a sinking feeling. This was what Posey had been warning her about.
Balthazar shrugged. “If you really don’t know how to block it at all, then good manners, I guess.”
Red smirked.
“And maybe becoming top of the Cabal’s most wanted list,” Balthazar said. “But as you well know, some people live for danger.”
Charlie hated this. “Okay, so what do I do?”
“Do you feel the connection between you and your shadow?” he asked.
“The tether,” she said, nodding.
“If you had to point to a physical place it comes from, where would you say that is?”
Charlie touched her belly. She could picture it just beneath her lungs, a pull from the center of her body.
“Excellent!” Balthazar sounded genuinely relieved. “There are some people who have no idea where they’re connected or have multiple points of connection and that’s so much harder.”
Red watched her, eyes hot as coals. Did he think she was a fool for not knowing any of this? Did he worry what she was learning would make it harder to kill her?
“Some people think of the tether as a leash, but I prefer to think of it as an umbilical cord.”
Charlie made a face. “Gross.”
“Don’t be so sensitive. My metaphor is excellent. An umbilical cord sends nutrients through it, just like our tether allows us to share power and energy. By pinching the cord, you can stop the flow.”
“Like really pinching it?”
“It’s not solid, so you’re going to have to do it with your mind,” Balthazar said. “Imagine the pinching. Or twisting. Just don’t imagine cutting it.”
Charlie felt very foolish as she focused on the thin skein of shadow. She could almost feel it against her skin, as thin as spider silk and the weight of a cloud. She imagined pinching her fingers together over it.
“Well?” she said. “Did anything happen?”
Balthazar sighed. “I suppose not, since your shadow wasn’t actively draining you, although you would think it cost him something to be so physically present for so long.”
“You would think that,” Red agreed, with a smile that was pure menace. Balthazar acted as though he didn’t notice.
“Okay, let’s try something more impressive. Charlie, I want you to stepintoVince.”
“What does that mean?”
“Put him on like a coat. Go on. Try it.”
Feeling very foolish, she walked up to Red. “Is that okay?”
She half expected him to be insulted by this exercise, but he merely reached a hand toward her. She reached back, but instead of touching skin and muscle, her hand flowed into his arm. And as she moved toward him, she moved into the same space he occupied, the air somehow thicker where he stood. She panicked a little, worried she would choke, terrified by the memory of suffocating.
You’re okay,Red told her.I am not going to hurt you.
“Okay,” Charlie said out loud. “Okay.”
