Steelheart (The Reckoners #1)(111)

ashlight shone mostly UV light through its lter, but it did glow a faint, quiet blue.

“Nightwielder sank into the stands,” Tia whispered to me. “I lost track of him. I think he did it to hide from cameras.”

So we’re not the only ones with that trick, I thought, heart thumping in my chest. He’d come for me. He had a vendetta—he knew I’d been the one to figure out his weakness.

I shined the ashlight about

anxiously. Nightwielder would be on me in a second, but he would know that I was armed with UV

light. Hopefully that would keep him wary. I unholstered my father’s pistol, wielding the ashlight in one hand and the gun in the other, my new ri e slung over my shoulder.

I have to keep moving, I thought. If I can stay ahead of him, I can lose him. We had tunnels in and out of places like the restrooms, the o ces, the locker rooms, and the concession stands.

The UV ashlight gave o very little visible illumination, but I was an understreeter. It was enough. It did have the odd e ect of making things that were white glow with a phantom light, and I worried that would give me away. Should I turn off the flashlight and go by touch?

No. It was also my only weapon

against Nightwielder. I wasn’t about to go around blind when facing an Epic who could strangle me with shadows. I crept down the tomblike hallway. I needed to— I froze. What had that been in the shadows ahead? I turned my ashlight back toward it. The light shone across discarded bits of trash that had fused to the ground in the Great Transfersion, some formerly retractable stanchions for line control, a few posters frozen on the wall. Some more recent trash, glowing white and ghostly.

What had I …

My light fell on a woman

standing quietly in front of me.

Beautiful hair I knew would be golden if I were seeing it under normal light. A face that seemed too perfect, tinged blue in the UV

beam, as if sculpted from ice by a master artist. Curves and full lips, large eyes. Eyes I knew.

Megan.





37

BEFORE I had a chance to do more than gape, the shadows

around me started to writhe. I dodged to the side as several of them speared through the air where I’d been standing. Though it seemed as if Nightwielder could animate shadows, really he exuded a black mist that pooled in darkness. That was what he could manipulate.

He could have very ne control over a few tendrils of it, but usually he opted for large numbers of them, probably because it was more intimidating. Controlling so many was more di cult, and he could basically just grab, constrict, or stab. Every patch of darkness around me started forming spears that sought my blood.

I dodged between them,

eventually having to roll to the ground to get under a group of attacks. Doing a dodging roll on a steel oor is not a comfortable experience. When I came up, my hip was smarting.

I leaped over several of the steel crowd control stanchions, sweating and shining my ashlight at any suspicious shadows. I couldn’t turn it all directions at once, though, and I had to keep spinning to avoid the ones at my back. I paid vague attention to the chatter from the other Reckoners in my ear, though I was too busy trying to not be killed to digest much of it. It seemed that things were in chaos.

Prof had revealed himself to hold Steelheart’s attention; Abraham had been located because of his shot to save me. Both he and Cody were on the run,

ghting

Enforcement soldiers.

A blast rocked the stadium, the sound traveling down the hallway and washing over me like stale cola through a straw. I threw myself over the last of the steel stanchions and found myself

shining the light frantically about me to stop spear after spear of blackness.

Megan was no longer where

she’d been standing. I could almost believe she’d been a trick of my mind. Almost.

I can’t keep this up, I thought as a black spear struck my jacket and was rebu ed by the shielding. I could feel the hit through my sleeve, and the diodes on the jacket were beginning to flash. This jacket seemed a lot weaker than the one I’d worn before. Maybe it was a prototype.

Sure enough, the next spear that caught me ripped through the jacket and sliced my skin. I cursed, shining the light on another patch of

inky,

oily

blackness.

Nightwielder was going to have me soon if I didn’t change tactics.

I had to

ght smarter.

Nightwielder has to be able to see me to use his spears on me, I thought.

So he was nearby—yet the hallway seemed empty.

I stumbled, which saved me from

a spear that nearly took o my hea d. Idiot, I thought. He could move through walls. He wouldn’t just stand in the open; he’d barely be peeking out. All I needed to do was …

There! I thought, catching a glimpse of a forehead and eyes peering out from the far wall. He looked pretty stupid, actually, like a kid in the deep end of a pool thinking he was invisible because he was mostly submerged.

I shined the light on him and tried to get a shot o at the same time. Unfortunately I’d switched hands so I could have the ashlight in my right hand—which meant I was ring with my left. Have I mentioned my thoughts on pistols and their accuracy?

The shot went wild. Like, way wild. Like I came closer to hitting a bird ying above the stadium

outside than I did Nightwielder. But the ashlight worked. I wasn’t sure what would happen if his powers vanished while he was phasing through an object. Unfortunately it looked like it didn’t kill him—his face was jerked back through the wall as he became corporeal again.