Page 24 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
Lu froze in openmouthed horror. “Me?”
“That’s not entirely accurate,” purred a voice from the shadows behind her. Lu whirled around, searching the darkness, her senses stinging and surging with a weird recognition.
From behind the curve of a giant boulder several paces away, a woman appeared. Dressed in head-to-toe pristine white, she was blonde, pale, and utterly feral. She eased onto the path with a catlike silence, her movements deliberate, her large, luminous eyes shining eerily bright.
Lu exhaled a breath that felt like fire.
Looking at this stranger was like looking in a mirror. The long, wavy hair, the slightly pointed chin, the forehead tipped with a widow’s peak, the tiny mole above the arch of the left brow.
The idea she’d been cloned sidled up and lingered beside her, unspeakably uncanny.
The woman smiled, but it didn’t touch her eyes. She said, “You had a little help, didn’t you, sis?”
There was an awkward pause. Then Morgan, sounding irritated, said, “Hope, this is Honor. Your twin sister.”
Honor. The Girl in her dreams. The Girl who was always so angry. Whom she’d managed, almost completely, to block. Her twin. Lu couldn’t think of a single coherent response. She said numbly, “My name isn’t Hope.”
A voice inside her head replied, Actually, flamethrower, it is.
Honor’s cold smile grew wider.
NINE
Before Lu had a chance to process anything beyond her own shock, Honor’s gaze honed in on the collar around her neck.
“Honor,” warned Morgan, just as the metal around Lu’s throat began to freeze.
It happened so fast. As cold became frost became ice, the collar crackled . . . and shrunk. Lu felt a stabbing pain against her carotid artery, and instinct kicked in.
She lifted her arms and flexed open her palms, aiming at Honor.
When the ball of fire cleared, with a roar and the acrid smell of burning fabric, Morgan was crouched on the ground with her arms flung over her head, coughing, the sleeves of her tunic singed and smoking. Honor was standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at Lu with those predatory eyes, completely unscathed.
“Overreact much?” she snapped.
The collar popped off with a muted tink! and fell in one solid, frozen chunk to the ground at Lu’s feet, where it promptly shattered to pieces.
Lu stumbled back, hands clutching her throat. “Did you just try to strangle me?” she shouted, livid.
Honor’s response was a roll of her eyes and an exaggerated sigh. “And they say I’m melodramatic.”
“What the hell is going on here?”
The growled question came from Magnus, who’d appeared as if from nowhere. He helped Morgan to her feet. Lu noticed he didn’t take her hands, but grasped her under the arms, stepping away as soon as she was standing.
Honor lifted her chin, examining Lu with a disapproving curl of her lip that managed to make her appear even more menacing. “Someone apparently has some trust problems.”
“Honor took Hope by surprise, that’s all,” said Morgan before Lu could spit a retort.
Honor said coldly, “I had to get that thing off of her—”
“By shrinking it?” Lu hissed.
“Metal contracts when it freezes—”
“You might have taken that into consideration, seeing as how it was around my throat—”
“I wouldn’t have hurt you!”
