Page 18 of Fortress of Ambrose
Part Two
Nine
Quell
The Wexton MidCenter Hotel, where Dragun Headquarters is located, is plastered in yellow caution tape.
My magic answered weakly, but Jordan was able to cloak. The early-morning Chicago air is icier than my toushana, whipping around us as we approach the tall glass doors. The last time I was here, Jordan had intercepted me as I tried to kill Beaulah and convinced me to partner with him. He brought me here to get the Dragunhead’s permission. It’s hard to believe that was only months ago.
He smooths the condensation off the windows before cupping his hands to them. “There’s no one here.”
We share a glance. He slides the tape aside and pulls at the sliding doors. They don’t budge.
“Have you seen any of the brotherhood?” I ask.
“No, but I’ve heard things.” His jaw works. “If the rumors are true, the protocol if the Dragunhead is incapacitated or, in this case, has vanished, is to promote me, the Dragunheart. But the rumors about what I’ve done are far worse. My best guess is with no clear leader, the Draguns fled, too. Some may stick together in small flocks. But with no governing, who’s to stop them from doing whatever they want with toushana?”
“You talk about them like they’re Darkbearers.”
“A Darkbearer is bound to toushana. A Dragun just borrows toushanafrom the Sphere’s magic. The only real difference between them is a code of honor. Without the brotherhood, that’s gone. Toushana is enticing, even for those of us trained to use it.”
“I’m not so sure it’s that cut-and-dry.” I peer through the window. The place looks like it’s been ransacked, with overturned furniture and the art on the walls in pieces on the floor. “Would Draguns come back for people in the Cells who were going to die anyway?”
“Protocol is to establish a new spot and sanitize this place.” He gazes inside again. “Whatever is happening isn’t protocol.”
“Get me in there. If Knox is gone, maybe there are clues to where she went.”
He tugs the doors harder.
“Use toushana.”
He tenses.
“If you won’t, I will.” I am about to nudge him aside when he flattens his palms, and a weak whiff of black unfurls in his grip, much fainter than before.
“Back,” he says.
“You’re scared of it. It works best when you trust it.”
“Quell, it’s more complicated than that. This is theSphere’smagic. More toushana than you’ve ever touched. Even if I wanted to, I can’t give in to that much power at once.” He flinches, and the magic in his hands grows. “Something’s happening,” he says.
I watch closely, imagining commandingthatmuch toushana. “What does it feel like?”
“Like my flesh is wrapped around an iceberg.” More black seeps from him. “And somehow it burns like holding the sun in my bare hands. When it flows through me, I don’t feel it. I don’t feel anything.” Shadows shift the air around us. “I cease to exist completely and the world is—” The growing fog billows to the ground.
I reach for his wrist to push his hand onto the locked hotel doors butstop myself, remembering the risk of getting too close. We share a glance. Something burns in him that has nothing to do with magic.
“To the door,” I tell him. His magic slinks along the ground. Magic tugs in my chest toward him, and I put more distance between us. His magic eases closer to the hotel’s glass, blackening every inch of the pavement it touches, subduing everything in its path.So much power in one body. No wonder it’s killing him.
I glance at the spot where his wound hides beneath his shirt. “Does it hurt? What do you feel?”
“Darkness. Everything is unfeeling darkness.” When the shadows connect with the glass doors, they shatter. A shrill alarm rings.
He stares as if he’s seen a ghost. “I didn’t want tobreak in.”
“You directed the Sphere’s toushanawithcontrol.”
Sirens wail in the distance, and I urge us inside. Jordan presses his talon key against the elevator button, and the doors open to take us down. His head rests backward, his stare dead ahead.
