Green eyes drove into Grey's. Adante kept his hands on Blaise despite Grey's efforts to retreat.
The Chemist's quiet voice somehow filled the room. “Haimon, you assured me this would not happen.”
From behind Adante's tall form, Haimon spoke. “You broke the treaty long before you turned Olan Haward to stone. The stripings. Luring people to Mercury with the promise of a better life only to enslave them. Did you think his forbearance would last forever? Did you think his death wouldn't be avenged?”
“How was I to know he was that close?” Adante spat out.
“The Chemist reign is over. I knew when Grey came running out of the night that Olan had sent her for Blaise. This is your mess, Adante.”
“Then it's up to me to clean it up, starting with the traitors in this room.” He tugged on Blaise's inert frame.
Grey refused to relinquish her burden. “I won't let you take him. I will take my father's place. Not Blaise.”
A strange smile quirked the green-tinted face. “Do I have your word?”
“No, Grey!” Haimon yelled.
Grey tilted her chin, energy and strength coursing through her. “I'll pay for the crime I committed, and I'll pay for any crimes you've accused my father of.”
A fever light flickered in Adante's eyes. He reached for Blaise again. “Don't worry. I won't hurt him.” Bending, he put his shoulder into Blaise's chest, guiding his weight from Grey's arms into his.
“Haimon, help me,” Adante said.
Grey pocketed the key in her hand and followed their movements as Adante and Haimon lifted Blaise onto the long display case. She opened her mouth to object. He'd probably rather be on the floor than stretched out on another glass cabinet. Movement in the opposite corner caught her eye.
“Whit!”
He leaned on a cabinet across the room. His face was pale, his cheeks hollow. But he managed a half smile. “Grey, been taking shortcuts through curio cases?”
Tears stung her eyes. She ached to hug him despite Adante's presence. It didn't matter anymore. She didn't operate by the rules of Mercury City, or the belief system of Curio for that matter. She straightened her shoulders and started across the room, but Adante halted her steps. With monocle raised the Chemist moved in front of her, all the force of his mind intrusion hitting her in a venomous wave.
Whether it was her Defender blood or the traces of Blaise's Chemia flicking through her veins, Grey's hybrid strength somehow blocked the attack. He recoiled but didn't back down. Instead tendrils of exploration darted at her from all sides like fingers of smoke.
“So you've come into your Defender state.” Adante's face twisted into a disgusted expression. He jerked his chin toward Blaise's still form. “No doubt he filled your head with valor and ancient codes of sacrifice.”
Grey struggled to pull her thoughts together. She knew little of the Defender lore other than snippets from school history, Blaise's hints, and her own overwhelming drive to protect.
Adante must've picked up on her confusion. “Do you even know how this works?” He gestured between them. “You're so willing to accept Steinar's sentence, you haven't even bothered to ask what it is.”
“All I need to know is that he's still alive.”
The Chemist dipped his head once.
“Then I'll take his place in battle as he meant to take mine.
I
gave my ration to Whit that night, not my father. And I didn't sell it to him, by the way. I
gave
it to him, which is not ration dealing.”
Adante swooped closer. “One ration a day for each registered citizen.
That
is the law. You broke it and your father broke it.”
Grey pushed her face into his. “Your laws need amending.”
He chuckled. “And one family of Defenders, or should I say one Defender and his cocky daughter, are going to change that?”
Grey's eyes darted to Blaise.
“Oh, he's not going to be any help. The minute this is over, I'll hide him away again. No more deals with Defenders. No more trusting worthless guardians.” The poison-green eyes slid to Haimon.
Grey brought her chin up. “And if I win?”
The Chemist lifted one black brow, contempt stamped on his features.
“If. I. Win.”
“You and your father are free to return to a life of civil obedience.”
Grey crossed her arms. “I want Blaise.”
“You can't have my worthless cousin, little girl.”
Grey's thoughts reeled, but her Defender state kept her expression stony. Blaise was Adante's cousin, half Chemist and half Defender. Was that why he'd been hidden away all these years? What threat did he pose to the Council's rule? She narrowed her eyes at Adante.
“He stays with me or I reveal his identity and his existence to everyone.”
“Including the Chemist Council,” Haimon added. “Either way, things are going to change. You can be sure Jorn Amintore will hear our demands if we harbor his grandson.”
Adante didn't take his eyes from Grey's face. “Haimon, I am going to kill you.”
“Go ahead,” came the reply. “You don't need me to go into Curio anymore. You can't imagine how tired I am of being bound by my own blood to a cabinet meant to hold knickknacks.”
Grey faced down the Chemist. “If I win, you return my father, Blaise stays with me, andâ”
“Grey,” Whit interrupted. “My friends are in the tower.”
“And you release Whit's friends.”
Adante spread his hands. “And if I win?”
Grey pressed her lips together. What was he asking of her?
He flickered before her eyes then stood an inch away from her, his breath gliding over her forehead. “If I win, I carry out Steinar's sentence on you, which in this case is death by striping. Do you know how many stripes it takes to kill a Defender?”
She willed her lip not to tremble.
He continued. “It depends on how close they are to ossification. Which in the case of a sixteen-year-old who's just come into her Defender state, is not close at all.”
Grey swallowed and stepped back. “I accept your terms.”
“No weapons,” Adante said.
Grey lifted her hands. “I'm unarmed.”
He zeroed in on her porcelain hand. “What's this?”
“I lost my hand inside Curio. This is the replacement Blaise designed for me. It doesn't have a clotter hidden in the pinky, in case you're wondering.”
He nodded to the tips of the folded wings visible above her shoulders. “And that?”
Grey yanked the straps loose and shucked out of the steam pack harness. When she was free, she stepped out into the open section of her grandfather's store.
“Now what?”
Adante flickered out of his position and appeared before her. “Now this.”
Energy slammed into her with the force of a boulder. Grey stumbled backward and toppled into the wreckage of the store. She was up before Adante could move.
Her mark clenched, sending a river of granite flooding through her body. Adante's hands curled at his torso as if he held a large ball, but Grey was ready. She ducked sideways into an aisle. The blast hit the shelf on the far wall, sending books and objects flying.
Grey bent her knees, pulling her body low and backing down the row of merchandise. She ran her hand over the shelf on her right but kept her eyes fixed on the space where she expected Adante to appear at any moment. Her fingers closed around an object, something heavy. Adante stepped around the corner and Grey sent the marble bookend flying
at his head. She turned and ran. A crash and a light thud told her she'd missed her mark.
She dropped to her knees and crept toward the front of the store. Green light exploded above her and an empty potion bottle clattered to the floor. She covered her head as heat bore down from above, sending pain sizzling over the skin of her human hand. Grey yelped and jerked her hands down. The heat gathered in her porcelain fingers but didn't burn.
Adante's voice interrupted her discovery. “This is not the way Defenders fight, Grey Haward. Show yourself.”
Grey crawled to a huge bookcase and shuffled to the other side before inching up the wall into a stand.
“I won't give you a second chance,” Adante called. “Show yourself.”
Whit's startled cry cut the air. His voice gave out and a heavy crash echoed to Grey's position. She flung herself toward the door, stepping out into the main aisle.
Adante lurked in the back corner where Whit had stood moments before. His eyes flicked to the floor behind the counter then back to Grey's face.
“What did you do to Whit?” Grey lurched forward.
“I told you, no hiding.”
“Whit?” Grey screamed.
Haimon darted from beside Blaise, sliding to a stop before he reached Adante. “He's breathing, Grey. Adante, the Codes state a punishment battle takes place between a Chemist and a Defender. Bystanders are not to be harmed.”
The tall Chemist flickered in place. One moment his hand was at his potion belt. The next it stretched toward Haimon, who crumpled to the floor.
Grey's shriek stuck in her throat.
“That's better, isn't it?” Adante moved so fast she only saw his hands after he'd loosed the ball of energy.
The orb slammed into Grey's gut, glowing green on impact. She buckled. Pain radiated from her stomach outward, and for a moment she was frozen. Creaking footsteps brought sweat to her forehead.
Just in time, Grey regained movement and rolled into an aisle as another potion bottle skittered across the floor where she'd lain a second before.
“No hiding,” Adante ground out.
But Grey scuttled to the end of the aisle and ducked out of sight. On the floor, she huddled, breathing hard from the direct hit. Her mark glowed blue through her clothing. Grey put her hand over the symbol, the link to her Defender blood, and Blaise's blood. She pushed to her feet, concentrating on the stone beneath her skin. Adante's blasts might steal her breath and light her nerves on fire, but it'd take much more to crack her Defender strength.
She whipped around the corner into the aisle, hands at the ready. She visualized a shield before her body, and to her surprise the hard shell beneath her skin seemed to expand before her.
But Adante was nowhere to be seen. Grey checked each corner. A tall shelf and several barrels formed a barrier in the front corner. Grey held her shield before her and eased toward the blind spot.
“I thought Defenders and Chemists didn't hide from each other, Adante.” Grey's taunt rang out in the silence.
No reply came.
She moved toward the center aisle, eyes scanning the far corner and its jumble of tables, shelves, and equipment.
The flash of green irises above a hawkish nose appeared from out of nowhere. Grey couldn't see the rest of him. She
tried to lift her hands and extend her shield, but her hands stayed poised before her torso. They wouldn't budge. She couldn't turn her head. She couldn't move at all.
She scanned the room before her. A surface reflected her widened blue eyes. A mirror. Adante stepped around her, brushing her immobile arm as he passed. A hard shudder wracked her body, but not one finger twitched.
Her breathing sped. Was she stone? No, Blaise had said it took many years, many battles, for a Defender to ossify.
Adante whirled to face her, the sweep of his dark hair bringing Blaise to mind. A tingle of electricity shot through her core, but she remained locked in stillness.
“I'd call this battle over, wouldn't you?” He tilted toward her. “Unless you know how to break out of my clotting spell. No?”
Grey closed her eyes on the sharp face and concentrated on her Defender state, but the brush of air across her face brought her lids flying up.
The Chemist studied her from inches away. “What
are
you doing?” He chuckled. “It takes years of training to become a real Defender. That one over there”âhe pointed to Blaiseâ“was whispering in my head and repelling my spells at ten. Fierce as an entire Apache raiding party. He made my life hell till I locked the half-breed up. Doesn't look like it did him any good.”
A wall of energy pushed on Grey, or was it her shoving against Adante's spell? She threw all her strength at the barrier holding her immobile. Nothing. Not even a flex in her toes.
“I told you, stop trying to resist. You can't.”
Pain exploded inside Grey, following the path her Defender strength took, eating away at the armor. A whimper escaped her clenched teeth.
“I remember the Cleanse, Grey Haward. The Chemists overpowered the Defenders with barely a finger lifted. Why should you be any different? The old system is dead and there will be no reviving it.”
Grey's muscles begged for collapse. Instinct told her to crumple into a fetal position, but Adante held her erect as wave after wave of his evil magic tore through her. Where was the strength Blaise promised would come when she needed it? She needed it
now
.
Little by little her shell cracked and withered, leaving her body completely vulnerable to Adante's attacks. All that remained was a trace of something warm just behind her navel, a current of buzzing power. Grey focused on the little spark. It felt like flying and kissing Blaise in the stacks and his hand holding hers. Heat bloomed in her porcelain fingertips.
Adante shifted back ever so slightly, his gaze whisking to Blaise. “Haimon's right. I have a mess to clean up, and a family disgrace to hide. But with the blood in this room, I'll build an invulnerable fortress. None of you will see outside these walls again.”
Grey's porcelain palm tingled. With Adante's focus on Blaise, she angled her gaze down to the left. Was her pale hand brighter somehow?
Adante turned back and the pressure driving against every inch of her skin increased. Grey kept her eyes steady on Adante's, but shifted her concentration to her porcie hand. Her fingers moved.