Page 35 of Kingdom of Chaos (Creatures of Chaos #2)

Twenty-One

“Is this the place?” Ensley asks as we walk through one of the entrances to Central Park, the large central green space in the middle of the biggest city I’ve ever been.

“I think so,” I answer. The sign I read said “Central Park,” so this has to be it, right?

“But it doesn’t look familiar?” she asks, a pleat between her eyebrows.

“Not exactly,” I say as I glance around.

“It’s a big park,” Talon says. “We just have to find the right spot.”

“Should we split up?” Titus asks.

Imogen stays quiet, which is weird. I’ve gotten somewhat used to her quips and barbs over the last several days, but all day she’s been strangely subdued.

Especially around Titus. She’s gone out of her way to avoid him as much as possible, and I wonder if she’s embarrassed about how she needed him last night.

I guess I’ll just have to wonder though, because if I’ve learned anything about Imogen, it’s that she’s not a sharer.

Talon is already shaking his head at Titus’ question when Imogen steps forward and loops her arm through mine. “That’s a great idea,” she says brightly. “I’ll go with Locklyn. The three of you can search together.”

Talon starts to argue, but his cousin snaps back at him. “You do want to find this dragon shifter, right? If we split up, we can cover ground twice as fast.”

Talon presses his lips into a hard line. I can tell he’s not a fan of dividing the group, but Imogen has a point.

“Only you and Locklyn saw through this portal, right?” she asks and he nods. “So we’ll make two groups. I’ll go with Locklyn, and you with Titus and Ensley.”

Talon doesn’t look happy about it, but he nods. “Fine, but everyone meets back here in two hours.”

“Sounds great. Let’s go,” Imogen says, and before I have a chance to argue, she starts dragging me away.

“Wait a minute,” I say, but she’s a vampire on a mission and her iron grip on my arm is solid.

I regret that I missed the old Imogen for even a second, because over the next two hours I have to listen to her complain and berate me as we search for the field where I last saw Becks.

We don’t expect to find him here anymore, but the hope is we’ll be able to pick up some clue as to where to start looking for him.

I bite my tongue, keeping my mouth shut for most of the two hours, but as time slips by and we don’t find the field, my anxiety and fear grow and my patience for Imogen’s sharp tongue wanes.

Eventually I snap.

“What is your problem?” I ask, planting my feet as I swing around to glare at her. I’ve had enough of her. I’m not interested in going another step with her by my side.

“My problem?” she asks, her gaze cooling to ice.

She steps closer, the heels of her boots clicking against the sidewalk, but I hold my ground. I’ve been dealing with bullies all my life, I know it only makes you look more like prey if you back down.

“My problem,” she starts, getting in my face. “Is that you are going to get my cousin killed.”

“Talon can take care of himself,” I scoff, even as a flicker of guilt tugs at my chest.

“Oh yes, I know he can. But the problem is that he’s so busy taking care of you he’s forgotten to watch his own back. And not only that. It’s your fault he’s losing?—”

“Imogen!” Her name cracks through the air, and when I look over, I see Talon striding toward us with Ensley and Titus close behind.

Imogen rolls her eyes. “What? Are you really just going to let her?—?”

“Enough. Now is not the time,” he says sharply, leaving her no room for argument. Turning to me he says, “We found the field.”

A burst of hope flares in my chest, only to be extinguished the moment I see his expression. “You didn’t find anything, did you?”

He shakes his head. “I’m sorry. It’s been days. Becks and Kerrim are long gone, and we couldn’t find anything that might help us figure out what happened to him or where he might be now.”

Becks is here in this city somewhere, I know it. But he might as well be on another planet, because without a clue as to where he might be, it would take a lifetime to find him. The city is too vast and unfamiliar. We’re only left with one choice now.

“We have to find the Silent Order,” I say.

“Is that really our only option?” Titus asks with a frown. “Last time didn’t exactly go well.” He reaches over to take Ensley’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She offers him a small, grateful smile in return.

“Locklyn’s right,” Talon says. “But we don’t have to go knocking on their front door. Thanks to Violet, we have the location of their headquarters. Let’s stake it out before approaching them. See what we can find out about this chapter before we make our presence known.”

“Or I could just walk in the front door and compel them all to tell me everything they know,” Imogen says as she checks out her nails, seemingly only half-paying attention to this conversation.

“No,” Talon says firmly. “Blood is much harder to come by in this world. From now on, you need to use your magic only when it’s absolutely necessary.”

Imogen scowls back at him, probably not appreciating the reminder about her weakness.

“Let’s get a homebase,” Ensley suggests. “Then we can plan our next step from there.”

We agree, and as we leave the park I tell myself this isn’t a dead end, even though it feels like one.

We get adjoining rooms in a rundown but mostly clean hotel. Rather than relying on Imogen’s compulsion, Titus pickpockets a couple of humans to get cash. Thankfully, the hotel accepts both the local currency and credit cards, a system we also have in the creature world.

It’s when we’re all sitting around the room, eating burgers while we plan out our strategy for staking out the Order, that Imogen announces she’s leaving.

“Where are you going?” Talon asks with a frown as Imogen starts for the door.

“Out,” is all she says.

“Imogen,” Talon says, getting to his feet. “We could use your help.”

She shrugs. “I’m sure you could, but this is all boring me. And I’m not about to act as the third wheel in one of your little love groupings,” she says, pointing between Titus and Ensley and then Talon and me. “I’ll be back when I’m back. Don’t wait up.”

When the door closes behind her, I glance over at Titus. “Did something happen when she fed from you last night? She can hardly look at you now.”

Titus seems taken aback by the question. “No. She was barely conscious at first. I had to cut my arm myself to get her to drink. When she was done, she barely said two words to me.”

Talon is still staring at the door. “Imogen doesn’t like to show weakness. She’s embarrassed, so she’s lashing out. She’ll be back. She just needs some time.”

That makes sense. Imogen is a proud creature, and needing our help, especially Titus’ last night, was probably humbling for her.

Going to his bag, Talon pulls out the map of New York City that Violet gave us with the location of the Silent Order’s headquarters marked. He lays it out on the small table in the corner of the room and the rest of us crowd around him.

Over the next half hour, we strategize on the best vantage point and how to spy on the Order undetected. It’s decided that Titus and Ensley will go first, then Talon and I will relieve them at nightfall. I hug Ensley tightly before they leave, and tell her to stay safe. She promises she will.

After they go, Talon insists we work on my magic, so we spend the next few hours holed up in the cramped hotel room doing just that.

The times I get stuck, he has me close my eyes and center myself, finding that tangled ball of magic inside me, the one with threads that connect to him.

It works every time to jumpstart my powers.

I practice my fire magic in the bathroom, keeping close to the sink and shower faucets just in case, which ends up being a good call because I almost set the room on fire twice.

Shadow magic is a little easier to summon and control, but neither type comes to me easily, which only adds to my frustration.

“You shouldn’t beat yourself up,” Talon says after we call it quits for the day. “Most creatures spend years developing their magic, learning how to manipulate and control them. Yours appeared full-force overnight. You didn’t get the luxury of training wheels the rest of us had.”

“Was it like this for you when you first started accumulating powers through Shadow Striker?”

Talon thinks for a moment. “It was and it wasn’t.

There was a lot of new magic I had to sift through and learn how to master, but I’d been familiar with my own powers for years, so I had a sense on how to control the new ones.

This is all new for you, so it’s going to be more challenging than it was for me. ”

I sigh. I don’t want to complain. Having magic is all I’ve ever wanted. But this is daunting.

“Hey,” Talon says, pulling my attention back to him when I become introspective.

Getting up from his seat across the room, he comes over to where I’m sitting on the end of the bed and crouches down so we’re eye-to-eye.

“If anyone can do this, it’s you. I believe in you.

You have an inner strength that makes you unyielding.

You’re going to learn to control these powers.

You were always a force to be reckoned with, but now you’re going to be unstoppable. ”

My breath catches in my throat. There’s no doubt from the intensity in Talon’s eyes that he means what he’s saying.

But I don’t understand how he sees me that way.

I’ve never felt strong, at least not in the ways that matter in the creature world.

And yet, when Talon looks at me, it’s like he sees the version of myself I wish I could be instead of the one I know I am.

“I don’t understand how you see me that way,” I confess.

His gaze searches my face before locking on mine. “I don’t understand how you don’t.”

I shake my head. “Everyone always treats me like I’m weak.”

I don’t say it out loud, but even those closest to me have treated me that way. My parents. Ensley and Becks. I never doubted their love or that they care about me, but without magic I’m someone to protect. To shelter. Breakable and vulnerable on my own.

The truth is, even though I know it comes from a place of love, I still resent it.

“I’ve never seen you as weak. From the first moment I laid eyes on you, I only ever saw this beautiful and strong female. Brave enough to declare I was a snake shifter because I had, and I quote, ‘a sketchy slimy vibe.’”

I burst out laughing, remembering that first day he walked into Sloan’s with his knit cap, drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant. “I said that because you were glaring at me.”

He lays a hand on his chest. “Me? I wasn’t glaring. I couldn’t detect your magic and it confused me. I couldn’t figure out why. Of course, now it makes sense.”

“I guess that explains why you were always staring at me then.”

“Does it?” he asks with a grin as he cocks his head.

A lock of dark hair falls over his forehead that I desperately want to brush back in place. I sit on my hands to keep from reaching out.

His gaze dips down to my mouth and the energy in the room changes, becoming charged when it wasn’t a moment before.

There’s nothing between us. There can never be anything between us , I repeat to myself, remembering my conversation with Ensley about Talon just that morning.

Just then, the lock on the door clicks open. Talon is on his feet a split second before Ensley and Titus step into the room. Ensley’s face, lit with excitement and hope, has me rising quickly, my pulse already racing.

“What happened?” I ask, heart pounding.

“I think they have him,” she says, her smile wide and bright. “We found him, Lock.”

I glance at Titus, who gives a confirming nod.

“Sit down,” I say, barely able to contain the rush of anticipation. “Tell us everything.”