Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell) - By Jenn Bennett Page 0,11
his hand and the can tilted in midair. A thick wave of red paint sloshed across the floor in front of the barstools. Kar Yee shouted incoherently as it sprayed across the bottom of her pants.
I acted on instinct. My hand reached for the winged caduceus I kept behind the bar—a full-size one, several feet long—but Reindeer flicked a hand in my direction and the carved staff flew out of my reach, sailing across the bar before crash-landing against an empty high-top table.
I’d never seen that kind of telekinetic range. Never!
“Now, idiot!” Reindeer Boy shouted to his gangly blond companion as he snapped on his own pair of goggles.
The elf-painted Earthbound shut his eyes. A disconcerting pop! crackled through the room. The TV went black, along with the nets of white lights and the Easter Island lamps at the booths.
He’d shorted out the electricity. All of it. The bar was pitch black, except for the soft unearthly glow of green and blue halos, and a patch of dull street light that filtered in through the stained glass window by the door.
Panicked shouts rang around the black room.
“Everyone stay where you are and you won’t get hurt,” a voice said. Reindeer Boy. His halo gave him away. Three red dots switched on around his googles—around his friend’s, too. Night vision goggles.
“You. Bartender.” Something slid across the bar top. I thought it was his backpack, but I wasn’t sure. “Open up the register and put everything inside that.”
A fierce rage caught fire inside my chest.
“They covered up the binding traps with the paint!” Kar Yee shouted.
Bold. And stupid. I didn’t need the damn binding traps anymore. Without electricity, they were no good to me anyway. I could just summon up the Moonchild power. But then I thought of my mom’s appearance at Merrimoth’s beach house . . . and hesitated. Only for a moment, but it must’ve been too long for Kar Yee, who didn’t know about my extracurricular talents. In her mind, my caduceus staff was across the room, and the binding triangles were compromised with paint.
A horrible, throat-closing fear hit my body, vibrating me like a struck gong. I heard myself whimper. Heard screams of the bar patrons bouncing off the carved tiki masks and kitschy tropical decor. But it wasn’t until I’d ducked behind the bar, retracting as if I were a frightened turtle, that I remembered the intensely piquant feeling of Kar Yee’s knack.
Kar Yee had the ability to cause everyone within a few yards to quake in their shoes: her knack was known simply as fear. Problem was, she had no control over it. All or nothing. She couldn’t direct it to a specific person.
I knew this. Knew exactly what was happening to me.
But I still couldn’t move.
Gods above, I’d never been so frightened. Terror clouded my thoughts and hijacked my body. My heart stuttered inside my chest and goose bumps spread over my arms. My gaze jumped around the darkened bar, searching.
A metallic rattling drew my attention to the low counter lining the back wall of the bar. The register shook like an airplane taking off from a runway. It rose into the air. The attached monitor slipped, then crashed onto the floor near my feet, cords dangling. I lurched sideways as the black, boxy metal till sailed through the air.
That piece of shit Reindeer.
I couldn’t see him, but I heard a crash and his pained grunt.
“Come on, come on!” The elfy one said, his voice squeaking with fear.
More grunting. Rubber-soled sneakers slapped against the floorboards, as coins jingled inside the till like sleigh bells. They were robbing us, and I was cowering behind the bar like a small child.
“Stop!” Kar Yee commanded, forceful as an army sergeant. On the heels of that shout came a sharp sound. The floor shook with the thump of flesh, crack of bone—too similar to the sound of Merrimoth being impaled. Kar Yee screamed and a wrenching, pained sound that stabbed through my heart. The fog of fear lifted immediately.
I leapt to my feet and zoomed around the bar. When I turned the corner, my feet slid in thick paint. I flew sideways, grabbing the corner of the bar top just in time to stop myself from landing on my ass.
The thieves were silhouetted inside the open door, red lights from their goggles making them look like dark aliens. “You’re both fucking dead!” I shouted in their direction.
I reached out for the Moonchild magick. Saw the Tambuku door slam shut