Page 21 of Monsters in the Museum (Defenders of the Light #1)

Chapter twenty-one

N ora was disappointed to find that coming to after being knocked unconscious did not get any less unpleasant the more you did it. In fact, this time was definitely worse than waking up in a hospital bed after her prior encounter with the Shadows. This was mostly because, this time, she was face down on hard, cold concrete. As she stirred, the rough pavement under her scraped against her cheek, and she groaned as her body protested her positioning on such an unforgiving surface.

The awareness of her discomfort was followed swiftly by memories of what had happened prior to her blow to the head. Remembering the trap she was supposed to be setting, she attempted to scrabble into a more dignified position, only to find that she was no longer in the museum at all. Instead, she appeared to be in a concrete tunnel, and she had the distinct impression that she was underground. It was a small space with thick pillars on one side, and she could hear traffic on the other. She must have somehow gotten to Lower Wacker, she thought in confusion, before muttering some creative expletives she had borrowed from Adam under her breath.

“Such a filthy mouth for somebody who serves the Light.”

Nora spun around on the ground to locate the source of the voice. Behind her, the outline of a man stood in the gloomy arch leading out of the space.

“Who are you?” The question was out of her mouth before she could think. She grimaced, knowing that the man’s identity was relatively clear from his comment and the circumstances leading up to her awakening.

“I’m exactly who you expected to fall into your trap, although it was really my trap all along.”

“What second-rate heist movie did you steal that line from?” Nora snapped, although she had to admit that she was slightly off balance.

“Oh, don’t be bitter that I knew you would be stupid enough to try a plan like this. I knew all you would need was a little push in the right direction, and the apparent death of poor, unfortunate Leo did the trick.” The man’s voice was somehow familiar sounding, but it was unnaturally modulated, sounding almost like each word was too well enunciated for somebody who spoke the language on a regular basis. The entire effect served to make Nora even more anxious than she already was.

“If this is your trap, then why am I not restrained?” Nora shot back, only to have to stop herself from slapping her hand to her face. There was apparently no end to her ill-advised questions.

The shadowy silhouette of the man shrugged one shoulder in a soundless motion.

“Because it’s impolite to tie up your guests, and not very conducive to good conversation.”

She got to her feet as she responded, extremely uncomfortable being on the ground as her captor loomed above her, even if he was keeping his distance for now.

“Good conversation?” Nora prompted, trying to buy herself time.

“Of course. That’s why I brought you here. So we could chat without being interrupted by a group of idiots with spears.”

Nora remembered Adam’s words of warning. She tried to surreptitiously pat her jacket to see if the dagger he had given her was still hidden in her inner pocket. Apparently, her movement was not as subtle as she hoped it would be.

“I’m hurt that you would instantly reach for your weapon when I’ve shown no intention to harm you. I assure you, though, I am no petty thief. I did not take your sentimental keepsake from you.”

As the man spoke, he leaned sideways to prop against the wall to his left, leaving a gap on his other side. Nora made the split-second decision that this was her moment, hoping that if the decision was rash enough to surprise her, it would be unexpected enough to catch her captor off guard. As she dashed toward the gap to the man’s side, she lowered her front shoulder as Ezra had taught her, hoping to bowl the man over with the force from her running start should he attempt to step into her path. The man didn’t step into her path at all, though, instead turning sideways as if to let her pass. Just as she came level with him, his arm shot out with unnatural speed and grabbed her wrist in a vice grip, yanking her shoulder back and stopping her in her tracks.

Nora screeched in his grasp, trying to stay on her feet instead of collapsing to her knees in pain. His hand was scorching hot, tight, and burned into her skin. Thankfully, he threw her backward almost immediately, releasing his hold on her as she tripped and fell onto her back where she’d started.

“That is no way to treat somebody who has waited so long to make your acquaintance,” the man said, stepping forward so now he did loom over her where she was sprawled on the ground. As he came closer, the scant light from the lamps illuminating the underground street filtering through the pillars finally revealed his face to her. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled at the sight.

It was Leo, but somehow not Leo at all. His skin was too smooth, and his eyes were a piercing blue where Leo’s had always been dull. Leo’s face looked as if somebody had read a description of what he looked like and had built it to those exact specifications with no thought for realism. Everything about the man was so perfectly human-shaped that she could tell instantly that he could not possibly be one at all. This was an agent of the Shadow.

“I forgot to mention earlier,” the agent said as he picked an invisible piece of lint off his immaculate suit. “I didn’t tie you up because I don’t need to. “

“You’re—you’re dead though…”

He tilted his head, “It’s true that Leo died, but I’m not really Leo. I have become more than human. I simply killed the humanity that was left, and now my… transformation is complete.”

“Transformation?”

Leo held up one too-perfectly manicured hand and examined it, “As you can tell, I’m no longer really the Leo you knew. His jealousy and self-loathing were easy to twist. Manipulating him into poisoning you was child’s play. Leo is now nothing more than a ball of his most negative emotions. It fuels me, and I simply wear him as a skin.”

The agent paused as Nora gagged in horror.

“You know,” he continued as if he were commenting on the weather, “It’s so much more fun when I wear the skin of a close friend instead of an enemy. Betrayal is so much sweeter when it comes from somebody we care about. But alas, I was in a hurry and it is much harder to corrupt those who don’t already harbor some amount of hatred. So, I will have to wear the face of your rival while we have our little chat.”

“What do you want to talk about?” Nora asked. If she could get him talking for long enough, maybe the attack team could still track her here.

“Whatever you want to know.”

“Whatever I want to know?” The agent’s answer caught her by surprise. In her mind, it was going to be easy to get him to start grandstanding like a stereotypical movie villain, and then she would just have to avoid being poisoned by his propaganda while she waited for her friends.

“Of course, as the guest, you get to dictate the conversation.” The agent’s reply was casual as he leaned up against a pillar once more in a movement so practiced that Nora would have laughed if she weren’t somehow horrified by the gesture.

“Why did you fake your own death?”

“Oh, that stunt at the gala? I just knew that you would jump to sacrifice yourself once it was clear that people were going to die if you didn’t do something, and it was fun to watch you be so self-sacrificial for somebody you didn’t even like. So terribly in character. I’d have to be an idiot to not suspect a move like that from you, Nora.”

“You know me?”

“Of course I know you.” The agent sounded as if he was explaining something very simple to a small child, “How could I not know you? I’ve been after you for a long time.”

Nora worked to put the puzzle together in her mind. “Right, since the Shadow poisoned me, you’ve been drawn to me.”

The agent let out a sharp bark of laughter that made Nora physically recoil.

“That’s the tale they fed you, is it? I’ll give them points for creativity.”

“Why else would you attack me?” Nora started to ask before catching herself. “They aren’t lying to me. You’re just trying to turn me against them.”

“Suit yourself.” The agent began inspecting his unnervingly uniform fingernails as he asked, “Tell me, how did they convince you to let them train you as a Warrior? It seems like a lot of work for you to volunteer for.”

“It was practical. I could gain important historical knowledge, and if I learned to defend myself, I wouldn’t have to have a guard follow me around forever.”

“Well, they weren’t completely wrong. You do need to be able to defend yourself.” The agent tilted his head thoughtfully. “Although, scaring you into thinking you need to become a weapon for them is rich, considering how they preach to fight against fear.”

“They aren’t using me as a weapon, they are teaching me to defend myself so I can be safe from the likes of you,” Nora spat back.

“You’re right.” The agent shot her a pitying look. “They aren’t using you as a weapon; they are using you as bait.”

Nora spluttered in indignation at how he was turning her every argument against her. “I was not used as bait. I volunteered because I care about them.”

“Let me guess—you think they care about you too?” The agent’s perfect face contorted itself into some semblance of sympathy.

Nora ground her heels in stubbornly. “I know they care about me.”

“Let me guess. Adam gives you one little kiss, and you’ve convinced yourself that he has feelings for you. Funny that he’s known you for months, but it wasn’t until he was sending you to your death that he decided to really show his interest. If it had been the desperate kiss of not wanting to lose you, you would have expected him to be a bit more passionate about it, don’t you think?”

Nora frowned. “He said he meant to kiss me at the gala, but he ended up having to leave. And he was being a gentleman about it.”

“Oh right, he was going to kiss you at the gala, but he ran off to plan how to best send you into danger as soon as you gave him what he wanted by volunteering. And as for it being so long since his last kiss, I wonder why that is. He’s been around for thousands of years, and he’s only had one wife. He’s an attractive and smart man. Surely it’s not for lack of opportunity, so it must be due to lack of desire. You can’t really think that you are enough to inspire him to end his self-chosen dry spell? In the thousands of years he’s walked the earth, he has to have seen the most beautiful and brilliant women the world has to offer, and you are nothing in comparison.”

The agent was really picking up steam now, and Nora could only shake her head and splutter. Her mind scrabbled to refute him, but cracks started to form in her resolve. After all, these were the exact doubts that had kept her from giving in to her attraction to Adam earlier. Still, she grit her teeth and tried to argue. “How would you know all of this? It’s not true.”

“Oh, but you know it’s true—that’s how I know it all.” The agent cracked a smile now. “I can read the doubts right out of your head. I’m just telling you the very things you are afraid to admit in your conscious mind. You aren’t special enough to interest an immortal sorcerer who has seen the world; he’s just using you. Why do you think he even talked to you in the first place? Coincidence isn’t real. It’s because you had something he wanted.”

Nora grabbed on to that thought, knowing she could refute it. “You’re wrong. He didn’t want the weapons at all. I asked him if he wanted them back and he told me I could keep them—that he liked them in the museum.”

The agent’s smile got wider, revealing stark white canines that were too long to fit with the rest of his teeth.

“Oh, it’s not the weapons he wanted from you. It’s your abilities. It’s been hundreds of years since the Eteria has found somebody capable of wielding the Light, but they found you. They tracked you down and lied to you so they could mold you into the perfect weapon to fight for them without you even knowing it. And they’re so set on lying to you about the fact that they know of your abilities that they didn’t even teach you to use them before sending you to face your foe.”

Nora’s heart hammered in her chest. By now, the agent was looming over her so intently that he eclipsed the entirety of her vision.

“But… I can’t. I can’t use the Light. That’s totally impossible. People haven’t been born with a connection to the Light since the Defeat.”

“Then why can I feel the Light within you? If it wasn’t burning inside you, you wouldn’t have been able to survive my touch at all. And I guarantee you that your friends at the Eteria can feel it too.” He spat out the word friends as if it were a vile curse. “They want you for the same reason I do; I’m just being honest about it. It’s because your ability makes you powerful. Why else would a society that has kept itself secluded for millennia so willingly accept you into its fold? Adam may have made you think he was interested, but after years of putting on different faces, he is a master of manipulation. He knows that your affections were the key to getting you to stick around.”

Nora’s head spun so fast that her vision nearly blurred. Adam wouldn’t use her like that, would he? He was so earnest—or at least he seemed to be, but after thousands of years of lying about his identity, he could probably act however he wanted. She struggled to hang on to her convictions.

“Adam told me you would try to poison me against my friends. He told me not to listen to you,” she said, her voice coming out weaker than before.

“Hmm, I wonder why he would have told you that? Maybe so you wouldn’t listen to me since he knew I would try to tell you the truth.” The agent’s voice had taken on a distinctly gloating tone, knowing that he had finally backed Nora into a corner with his argument.

She could barely see or think straight, and she struggled to hold on to the memory of the things that had led her here. She remembered the Sanctuary, Thad’s laughter, Adam’s dancing, but it was all tainted now that she didn’t know if any of it was what it seemed.

She did know one thing, though. Even if her friends were using her, the agent in front of her was using her, too.

She clung to this thought as she hunched in on herself and let a sob rack through her, letting the agent think he had broken her spirit. As she did, she used her bent posture to hide the motion of her hand as she reached into her jacket pocket and eased the knife out of its sheath.

Distracted by his apparent victory, the agent continued triumphantly.

“See, now you know who the true enemy is. Don’t let them use you. Show them that you are the master of your own destiny. Use your power to fight back.”

Nora adjusted the knife in her grip and said, “You’re right. I won’t ever let myself be used again.”

At that moment, she straightened up and flung the knife out in front of her as hard as she could. Luckily for her, the agent had come very close to her during his speech, and her throw managed to hit him squarely in the face.

The agent let out a scream that was decidedly no longer human as it began to claw at its face where the dagger had sunk in. Where Nora had expected there to be blood, though, the face that had once belonged to Leo began to simply peel away to reveal a mass of twisting darkness underneath.

Nora shot to her feet as the last of the human visage fell away to reveal a creature of pure blackness. It looked like the Shadows she had encountered at the museum, except it was much larger and denser. The heat coming off it in rolling waves was enough to make her gag.

The Shadow continued to convulse around the knife embedded where a face should be. Taking advantage of its distraction, Nora pulled one knee into her chest before straightening her leg out with all her might and delivering a solid kick that would make Ezra proud.

The bottom of her boot melted instantly with the contact, but the creature fell back. She didn’t hesitate. She dashed around its heaving form and through the opening behind it into the tunneled road beyond. She ran without direction, dodging cars, her only thought to put distance between herself and the creature behind her. As a car honked at her, she caught sight of a ramp leading back up to street level and dashed toward it.

She emerged into the night air on Michigan Avenue. The melted sole of Nora’s boot cooled in the November air and stuck to the sidewalk, causing her to trip and sprawl across the pavement.

She tried to get to her feet to continue her escape, but the adrenaline that had fueled her this far rapidly faded from her bloodstream. She only made it a few stumbling steps before tripping and collapsing to her knees once more.

People were beginning to stare and mutter, but Nora didn’t care. This was Chicago, and they had probably seen far stranger things on the streets here. She could barely hear the voices around her over the rushing of blood in her ears. The sidewalk in front of her was starting to blur.

Now that she had gotten away, the Agent’s words were coming back to her. Used. Manipulated. She knew he was trying to turn her against her friends, but she couldn’t get his mocking tone out of her head.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the voices around her erupting into shouts, and a herd of footsteps thundered toward her.

“Nora! Nora, what happened?” Adam’s voice came from nearby to her right, and a hand landed on her shoulder.

“Don’t touch me,” she spat, jerking away involuntarily.

“Nora, are you hurt? Where is it?” Adam sounded concerned, and Nora lurched away and to her feet before he could touch her again.

She winced as her weight came down on her foot, realizing only now that the adrenaline had worn off and that the bottom of her foot was scorched. A hand reached out to steady her, but she pulled away again.

She was surrounded by a sea of concerned faces. Instead of feeling comforted by the faces of Antony, Thad, and Ezra, though, she grew angrier.

“I’m fine, no thanks to you guys. And I don’t know where he is anymore,” Nora spat with vehemence. A small part of her brain was shouting at her that these were her friends, that they would keep her safe. That part was taking a back seat to the fear and rage she had been shoving down as it all washed over her in an uncontrollable wave.

“Nora, please.” Adam’s voice was low and soothing to her right. She turned her head to look at him. His hair was wild, as if he had just run a very long distance, and his eyes widened as they darted over her harried appearance. “Please, just tell us what happened. We need to know what happened so we can help you.”

She also spotted Drew, standing next to Adam which made her soften a little. At least she had one friend here.

“I need you to tell me something first,” said Nora, her voice trembling but still full of anger.

“Of course,” Adam said, his face wearing the earnest look that convinced her he cared about her in the first place.

“Have you been lying to me this whole time?”

There was a long stillness after Nora asked the question. In her mind, Adam was about to assure her that, no, he hadn’t been lying, and then he would swoop in with all her friends and make everything better. Instead, Adam tensed, and then his shoulders caved in as if he had just had the wind knocked out of him.

“Only because I had to,” Adam said, his face crumpling, “I know it doesn’t make anything better, but it was killing me not to tell you the truth.”

Nora began to sway where she stood. Before she could fall, Drew’s hands shot out to catch her shoulders. She was so numb that she barely felt him wrap her arm around his shoulders so he could support more of her weight.

“If you give me a chance, I can explain everything,” Adam pleaded. He looked devastated, but it didn’t matter. He had looked trustworthy before and that had turned out to be a facade as well.

“I want to go home,” was Nora’s only response. She dropped her eyes to the pavement at her feet, but Adam’s desperate eyes still bore into her.

Thad’s voice came from somewhere in the group, “You should at least let us take you to the Sanctuary to make sure you’re all right.”

“I want to go home,” Nora repeated more forcefully.

“I can take care of any injuries at her apartment,” Drew interjected. He tightened his grasp on her as Nora began to shake. She wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or the shock, but she was glad for his solid presence either way.

“What about a debriefing? We don’t even know what happened down there,” argued a voice Nora didn’t recognize.

“For goodness’ sake, can’t you see that she’s in shock!” Drew erupted next to her, “There’s time for that later. Right now, she just needs to rest and feel safe.”

“Okay.” Adam was the one who responded, and Nora’s head snapped up. “She can go home if she needs to.” He sounded so defeated that Nora almost felt guilty, but not enough to stop her from looking back down at her feet without responding.

There was a flurry of activity that Nora didn’t pay attention to, simply leaning into Drew’s side and trying not to collapse. Nora was nudged forward and ushered into a cab that somebody had hailed before Drew slid in beside her. She turned and buried her face in the warm flannel of his shoulder, and it wasn’t until she noticed the fabric was wet that she realized she was crying.

Drew rolled down the window and leaned out to ask somebody, “What about a guard for tonight? Will she be safe?”

Adam’s sad voice drifted in through the window.

“I don’t think the Shadow will come after her. Something tells me the agent got everything he wanted from her tonight.”