Page 58 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
Lu’s ears burned hotter. Tell me what’s bothering you and I promise I won’t do it again.
Jack said, “All right. I’ll get on it. I should have names and addresses for you within a few hours.” Among murmured good-byes, she and Hawk left the Assembly room, leaving Demetrius in all his shaved-head, leather-bound, tattooed glory standing in silent contemplation of the map.
It bothers me that you can do it at all.
Lu sent Magnus a sidelong look. That’s not an answer.
If you had any respect for me, Lumina, it would be the only answer you’d need.
Both the words and the acidity of his tone floored her. Her face went bright red. Mortified, she flung up a wall between them, shutting him out.
“You’ll need clothes,” said Honor quietly, not looking at her. “You can take whatever of mine you need.” She seemed unusually subdued. Somber, even. “And we should test your Gifts, at least a little more before you go. We should practice. We don’t even know if you can—”
“There’s no time,” said Magnus. “As soon as Jack has those names for us, we’re gone. Every minute we stay here is one more minute we risk the lives of everyone in that prison. And everyone here.” His eyes cut to Lu’s. He seemed about to say more, but then he turned to Demetrius and spoke in a lowered voice. “Anything you need to tell me?”
A subtle change overtook the big male. It was nothing sudden, nothing huge, but a look crept over his strong features, an odd expression Lu recognized as the same one that had so changed Magnus’s face only moments before.
Resignation.
He shared a glance with Magnus, fleeting but indelibly dark, almost sad, and Lu’s stomach twinged with foreboding.
Demetrius straightened. Crossed his bulging arms over his chest. Stared hard at the map, as if it had personally offended him, his square chin jutted out like a dare. He muttered, “Cogs in the machine, Seeker, all of us. You know it as well as I.”
Magnus jerked his head toward Lu and Honor, his brows quirked as if he were asking a silent question, and Demetrius shook his head.
Whatever that exchange meant, it definitely held meaning for Magnus, because he closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, then nodded, as if satisfied.
Only he wasn’t smiling.
He adopted the same pose as Demetrius, arms crossed, legs spread, and Lu and Honor were treated to the sight of two big, handsome males glowering down their noses at them. “Have you told Jenna we’re coming?” asked Magnus, looking at Honor.
She tensed. Lu looked at her, sensing her sister’s worry.
“She’s not answering me. Not since yesterday.”
Lu sat up straighter. “Has that ever happened before?”
Honor shook her head, threaded a lock of her hair between her fingers, and began to nibble it. If Lu hadn’t been so filled with new anxiety about what their mother’s silence might mean, she would have smiled; she’d only stopped chewing on the ends of her hair when she began wearing it in a braid a few years ago.
She laid a hand on Honor’s arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Everything is going to be okay.
Honor nodded, but didn’t reply. She stood. “Are we done here?”
Magnus and Demetrius shared a look. It was Magnus who answered. “We leave as soon as Jack has those names, Lumina. Get a bag ready. But pack light; whatever you bring you’ll have to carry.”
Lu nodded.
“And one more thing.”
She looked up at him. Magnus was looking back at her with an expression of dispassion, his face closed off again. But beneath the shadows of his hood, his eyes were aglow, intent and unblinking.
“Your hair.”
Lu reached up and touched her head. “What about it?”
“It’s too . . . distinctive. We’ll get you another pair of contacts to replace the ones you lost when you Shifted, but you need to do something with your hair so it won’t be so noticeable. Dye it. Hide it under a hat. Something.”
Honor said, “I know what to do.”
