Book 2 The Gods of Light and Liars

Chapter Twenty-One: That Face

He had Alex's face.

Blood still dripped from the Shadowbeast's maw. It looked very, very much like a great cat in this moment. Maybe that was a better name for it, Shadowcat. Certainly, in the presence of its master, it was the most cat-like, pawing at the man's dark robes, rubbing its burned face into his hands. As Hawk watched, those burns diminished, leaving behind whole, scaled flesh. Then it nipped at his fingers, delicately, as if playing a much-beloved game.

"There. If you sought to do harm, it is undone. And you shall not get another chance. What do you want, people of the God-world? What brings you to this forgotten place?"

Em's fingers tightened on Hawk's. And Hawk had already gripped her friend's hand for dear life. He continued to watch them both, a strange, terrible expression of good humor on his face. On Alex's face. Maybe that was why Hawk recognized the nature of that expression; that was how Alex looked when he talked about his father, Baylor.

The one person Hawk assumed Alex could kill without regret.

"We came looking for my husband," Hawk said, after two false starts. God, her mouth was so dry. And you're wearing his face, she wanted to say, but couldn't. Because she knew who this was...or at least, who he was trying to be. The Master of Shadows. The Holian's devil figure. Is this Alex? Does he know me? "I'm Hawk."

"I'm uninterested," said the man with Alex's face. "In fact, I'm a bit put out. I go through all this work to keep you away from the Gods, and you just run straight towards them. I didn't think people from the God-world would be so careless. Or so dense. So let's be blunt. I want you to leave."

"And go where?" Em said, silencing Hawk with a squeeze.

"Anywhere, as long as it isn't here. Go back where the light touches, and leave the rest to me. Sound fair?" The man gave the shadowcat a gentle pet, then strode towards them. Hawk was acutely aware of two things, simultaneously: That there was absolutely nothing but darkness and air behind her, and the man approaching her had Alex's face. Inhuman eyes, but Alex's face none-the-less.

"Sounds like fighting words. Nobody gets to own shit like that, light touching, darkness touching. Sounds too goddamn much like imminent domain to me." They paused, then said, "Come on, dude. You know us. You know both of us. Give off the act for a minute."

"I know you," he said, looking down at them. At Hawk too, but mostly at Emile. "Forgive me. And here I thought I was accosting two strangers, one of whom is either dangerously ambitious, or willfully stupid. I say it again: Leave. Do not return to the procession. Go back to the God-world and leave the rest of us alone. You are neither needed nor wanted here."

He took two steps back, there was a sound like a silken implosion, and suddenly there were two great shadow-cat beasts running across the forest floor. Away from both Hawk and Emile, mercifully. And she didn't doubt that was the word, exactly: Mercy. This being had let her live, and wanted her to know it.

"Hawk, you have to stay with me. Hawk. You're about to fall down this goddamn cliffside, Hawk!" and she was caught by Em, who shoved her hard against a tree. "You're scaring me. This whole goddamn place is scaring me and I need you to stand the fuck up and help me out of this."

Yes. She needed to survive this. That was right. But oh, God, he'd had Alex's face. Could he be—absolutely not. She didn't dare think any routes down that road. Not here, when she was quite literally six inches away from the ledge. She put her head between her knees and took long, deep breaths.

Lights flashed between the panels of her skirt, bouncing with an unseen runner's legs. And then Henry's voice, "Hello! Hello! Em, are you alright?"

And then a sound that made a lot of things suddenly be very okay: Kissing noises. That brought her head up, right quick. Yes. Oh, yes, Henry Dyson was kissing Emile Yung. Suddenly being down a dark hole in a hellscape didn't seem so bad.