“The Maze of Death.”
“Where is that?”
“You’ll see. That’s where I’m taking you.”
TWENTY-TWO
Fury and aggression swept around Evalle on all sides. Storm’s earlier teasing vanished. In one step, he moved slightly ahead of Evalle and told Tristan, “She’s not going into the Maze of Death or anywhere else with you.”
“She’ll go anywhere I say,” Tristan argued, moving entirely too far into Storm’s space.
Evalle considered blasting them both against opposite walls. She stepped between them. “She’s right here and not agreeing to anything anyone says right now!” She put her hands up on each chest. “Take a step back before I get testosterone poisoning.”
She asked Tristan, “What makes you think I’m going anywhere with you after you just vanished this morning?”
Tristan held his hands out, palms up. “I stayed with you until this alley cat showed up. I had to get back to check on the other Alterants.”
“You could have teleported all of us to Atlanta,” she argued.
“No, I couldn’t. I can only teleport one at a time.”
Evalle had an even bigger beef with Tristan, now that she thought about it. “Why didn’t you teleport me and you to that village or back here so we wouldn’t have had to face those demons?”
Storm interjected, “Obviously his superpowers aren’t so super.”
Tristan cut a warning look at Storm and ground his jaw muscles.
She warned him, “If you aren’t going to give me straight answers, I can’t in good conscience go anywhere with you again.”
Tristan finally told Evalle, “Icouldhave brought you back here when I first escaped, but I couldn’t have teleported again right away. That meant risking that you would call in someone before I had a chance to locate the Alterants. Your Belador buddies and those in VIPER would have swooped down to snatch them.”
So Tristan couldn’t transport a group, eh? She filed that away for later. “Okay. Never mind. We’re here. You’re here. Where are the other Alterants?”
Tristan shook his head. “They’re not where I left them in the maze.”
She checked Storm’s face, since he was the walking lie detector.
He gave a little hike of his eyebrow, which she took to mean that he’d heard the truth but had reservations about accepting that as the entire truth.
What might have happened to volatile Alterants in a place like the Maze of Death? She didn’t like the idea of being trapped with spirits from a hundred and fifty years ago, whom Grady had intimated were not necessarily friendly. “You left them in that maze for the past week with all those spirits? Maybe they freaked out and found some way to escape and got caught in the fog outside.”
Tristan put his hands at his hips. “Teleporting is the only one way in or out that I’ve found. None of my three Alterants can teleport. I don’t think they’ve left the maze.”
She said, “So you know about the fog.”
“I saw the yellow haze and all the crazies when I was topside.” He grinned with malice. “That should keep VIPER busy.”
Evalle chastised Tristan with her frown. “Did you get near the fog?”
“Hell, no. I don’t want any part of something that could force me to change.”
She kept it to herself about her encounter with the fog.
Storm asked Tristan, “Why’d you put the Alterants in that maze?”
Tristan just stared for an answer.
“I do not have time, Tristan,” Evalle said. “If you want my help, then you’re going to have to give both of us some straight answers.”
