Page 231 of Shadowman

Definitely not a flare gun. These are fuckingfireworks, like the ones you’d watch on the Fourth of July, coming from the other side of the island.

It dawns on me as a third pops off, a shower of sparkling white…

Luthor and Ren.

They love fireworks. It’s one of their very few shared interests, and they talk about it all the time.

Fireworks over the ocean…

Fuck. That’s them. It has to be.

Either one of them, or both.

Maybe it’s a signal.

I have to go.

Shit, but what about Trevel?

There’s too much going on. This is all so fucked.

Either way, I have to get the hell out of this mansion and go in that direction.

Leaving the Warden’s bedroom, I’m struggling to stay quiet when all I want to do is barrel through this fucking place. The prison is on the other side of the island, but it’s no more than a mile and a half from here.It’s dangerous, but fuck it. I have to go.

I’m on autopilot as I move, leaving the mansion the way we came, through the garden. This place is really something else… It’s almost unfathomable. Ominous, creepy as hell, but somehow beautiful.

Just like Manuel Blanco.

The mansion almost feels like an extension of him, emphasizing the sensation that he’severywhere, even when you can’t see him.

As soon as I’m in the woods again, I’m on even higher alert. There are voices coming from all around. The last thing I want to do is stop, but I can’t risk being spotted by The Ivory’s guys, so I take cover behind a tree, listening while people run around, clearly in distress. Up ahead, I see that stone house, remembering how Trevel fucked me into the ground just outside of it only about an hour ago.

I swear to God, I’m lucid dreaming…

People are coming in and out of the house, guys rushing off in different directions, yelling at each other in Spanish. I can’t understand much of what they’re saying, but one word stands out above all the others…

Jefe.

They’re looking for The Ivory.

Jesus fuck, was he inside the prison when it fell??

Could The Ivory be… dead?

No time to think about that.As soon as the coast is clear, I take off running once more, zipping in between the trees, sticking to a separate path.

What I wouldn’t give for a compass right now…

Based on where I know the East Wing to be, I’m just heading back in the direction we came. Since the fireworks came from somewhere along the shore, I’m straying farther east, peering through the trees to get a view of the coast. But the rubble from the fallen guard tower is blocking a direct route. I’d have to either go all the way around to check the shore for Luthor and Ren, or head more inland to go for Trevel.

I come to a full stop, looking left, then right.

Luthor and Ren are one way. Trevel, the other.

My heart is leaping so hard, I’m dizzy.

Soaking wet, I’m shivering from the cold, and from the uncertainty in my chest. Raindrops tumbling from my hair, running over my trembling lips…