That brought a wry twist to Tristan’s lips. His eyebrow lifted in a derogatory arch. “I doubt he’s concerned about offending the sensibilities of a woman wearing tight jeans, boots and a shirt short enough to expose her midriff. Not that I have any complaints about you being down to two buttons left on your shirt, but you’re far from the image of a lady.”
Had he just dissed her? “Fine. Go shout your head off and curse every ghost in here if that makes you feel better than saving your sister from the Medb.”
That slapped the arrogance off his face, along with some of his color.
She hadn’t intended to give him a verbal kick in the nuts, but she was running out of time and, at this point, so was Tristan.
And she’d had enough of his hardheaded attitude.
“You’re right,” he admitted, wiping an agitated hand across his blond hair, raking the short hairs out of shape. “We have to find the soldier’s chamber, and fast. I wish he’d at least have had a sense of time so we’d know when Kizira might start killing Alterants.”
“I agree, but we have one small problem. What about these walls?”
“Hell. You willing to suffer trying to knock these railroad ties loose with kinetics?”
Not really, and she didn’t think that would improve their situation anyhow. “I could handle the pain and we’ll heal eventually, but using any power at this point might tick off these ghosts even more. Can you teleport us to other areas down here?”
“I’ve only teleported in and out of the maze at the couple places where the subway intersects these tunnels, so I don’t know if we could actually teleport outside the maze from here. If I tried to teleport us from here and the maze shifts something solid into an area I remember as being an open landing, we’d die. It’d be like hitting a solid wall at mach speed.”
She saw no other way out. “We’re screwed.”
“I can go first. If it works, I’ll come right back for you, but it’s going to take me a minute or two before I can teleport again.”
“Wait a minute. You’re going to leave mehere? What if you hit something solid and splatter? I’m stuck down here forever.”
He shoved his hands to his waist and leaned toward her. “What’syouridea, then?”
“I don’t know. Let me think.” She removed her glasses and rubbed her tired eyes, then put the glasses back on. What had he just said? “You need a minute or two to teleport a second time even for a short distance? That’s why you didn’t shift to fight the demons that attacked us in the jungle, isn’t it? You were saving your energy to teleport from one continent to another when we reached the next village.”
He crossed his arms and gave her his silent routine.
Confirmation, as far as she was concerned, but . . . “Was that another side effect of your Kujoo cocktail?”
Still no answer. Fine. Taking a look around, she said, “The ghosts did this to us. Why don’t you ask them nicely to let us continue? Apologize for disturbing their home.”
A small muscle flexed in his jaw while he thought. He finally grumbled something, then stared at the railroad tie wall and said, “I’m sorry I disturbed you. If you’ll let us pass, I will respect your home.”
Nothing happened.
He glared at her. “Happy?”
“Do Ilookhappy?” She dealt with Nightstalkers all the time, Grady in particular. Sometimes they just wanted to show off what they could do and show you who ran things in their world. She turned slowly as she spoke to the ghosts. “You have an interesting home. Nothing built above ground is anything like this.”
Tristan’s sigh suggested she was a moron.
A gas lantern took shape on one of the walls, and a rug appeared beneath her feet.
The look on Tristan’s facenowwas priceless.
She cleared her voice and said, “I’ve been admiring all of the maze. Do you have anything else to show us?”
Nothing happened.
Crossing her arms, she waited patiently as railroad ties began disintegrating. Once there were only two left, she stepped past Tristan and said, “Now, I’m happy.”
He caught up and passed her, moving in a hurry. “This way.”
Evalle kept up with him, but five minutes later she had her doubts that he knew where he was going. Every time he reached a new choice of direction in the maze, he’d shoot off without hesitation, then hit a dead end, backtrack and do it again.
