He made the monitors replay exactly what he’d done to Balin and Eunice. When the door hit them on the ass on their way out, Fen burst out laughing. He could hear the giddy note in her laugh too, but also her delight and amusement and relief.
“Amazing! How did it happen?”
“I think it’s the power I was always supposed to have,” Carter said slowly, thinking it through as he spoke. “Except for Roland, the other Defenders have two special powers, apart from shapeshifting. So do the other shifters who were created by Apex. I always assumed I didn’t have any powers because they’d screwed up with me in general. But in retrospect, I think electronic and mechanical things exploding around me or when I touched them was my power trying to work. I just didn’t get the hang of it until now.”
“Why now, I wonder,” mused Fen.
He began to shrug, but his inner beasts spoke up in that strange choral voice they’d been using lately.
Because of us.
Because you accepted us.
Because you love us.
He repeated that to Fen, adding aloud, “Were you stopping me before because you were mad at me?”
You were stoppingusbefore.
Once again, he repeated their words, adding, “They sound really different now. More unified. They’re all talking at the same time, but they’re saying the same thing. Like a chorus instead of a howling mob.”
“I wonder what would happen now if you shifted,” she mused. “Think it’d go better?”
Despite everything, he still flinched at the idea. “Maybe. I can’t say I’m dying to try. Anyway, we have to get out of here. There’s no communications—Eunice turned every single thing we could use to get a message out into stone. I could feel it when I was in touch with the whole house.”
“Right.” She gave a brisk nod. “Let’s go straight to the Defenders. Our original plan is still viable—in fact, it’s even better now that you have a new power!”
He took her hand, then caught her in his arms and kissed her. “There is no one like you for distilling an impossible, hopeless disaster into a solvable problem. It’s what makes you such a genius businesswoman. And battle strategist, apparently.”
She grinned up at him, light dancing in her eyes. “Need to market a coffeemaker or defeat a magical enemy? Call Fen Kim!”
He couldn’t resist trailing his hand against the walls as they left, making the doors open for them and the lights go out behind them without saying a word.
“You’re loving this,” she said as the front door closed behind them.
“I am,” he admitted. “What I’d really like to do is fly a plane like this. I bet it’d be amazing.”
“You should do it. Take me.”
“I will,” he promised, then eyed the car speculatively. “I could push the driver’s seat way back and still drive it. I wouldn’t even need to touch the steering wheel.”
“You should though, just in case we pass a cop. But do it! It’ll be fun.”
“Just a little way,” he said, but his fingers were practically itching at the idea. “It was pretty tiring to do all that stuff in the house. I don’t know how a long drive would go.”
“I expect you have to work up to it,” she said, circling around to the passenger seat. “Everything gets easier when you practice.”
“Where’s Precious? I thought she was flying around out here.” He whistled. “Precious! We’re taking off!”
The golden dragonette arrowed out of the cloud cover, shrilling an urgent warning. As he raised his forearm for her to land on, a gargoyle followed her. It was Eunice, carrying Balin. She set him down and gave a harsh laugh like gravel grinding. The car turned to stone.
Carter grabbed Fen’s wrist and turned to bolt back into the house. A wall of stone rose up around it, blocking their way. They were forced to skid to a halt before they collided with it.
Eunice laughed again, then rose up, her black wings flapping. She soared up into the clouds and was gone.
Fen turned to Carter. “Can you, I don’t know, dissolve it or something?”
He doubted it, but he touched the wall, just in case. It was only stone, cold and rough beneath his hand. He shook his head. “Seems like it only works on electronic and mechanical things.”
