But this is a different situation. And I don’t have to win, just distract her for long enough for Tapestry to get Golden Joab free.
Malcolm summoned the wind, swirling it around himself and waiting for Rose to make her move. The theater was still sparsely illuminated outside of the stage, and she summoned her shadow tendrils from several different directions.
Malcolm managed to dodge the first one, using the wind to throw himself forward into a dive roll. He came up within striking range of Rose. His gaze met hers, and instead of attacking… he hesitated.
He realized that he had no interest in hurting her. She was on the other side, but she wasn’t his enemy. Rose seemed to be having a similar dilemma, pulling back one of her shadow tendrils just as it came with inches of him.
A gunshot rang out. Malcolm glanced over at the others. Fantasy had her gun pointed at Tapestry, and Tapestry was holding her shoulder with one hand, still managing to keep her own weapon trained on the spryte.
“Stay back!” shouted Fantasy.
Rose seemed to come to a decision. She threw herself forward, tackling Malcolm off the stage. Malcolm reflexively cushioned their fall with the wind. He dodged a shadow tendril as they landed in the space in front of the first row of seats, rolling and trying to pin Rose underneath him.
“She’s not going to join up with you!” he hissed, keeping his voice low. “Not if it requires you to take a hostage to get her to cooperate.”
“It wasn’t exactly my idea!” replied Rose. “But don’t think for a second that I’m going to let you and your blonde girlfriend kill a spryte, just for existing.”
Malcolm managed to pin one of her arms. A shadow tendril cuffed him across the shoulder as he struggled to get a hold on the other. He pushed Rose flat against the ground with the wind. She wrapped her legs around him, the two of them coming into even closer contact as they writhed for supremacy. Rose let out a high-pitched groan, and Malcolm grunted as he tried to physically dominate her.
Uh-oh. This… could get weird.
Rose kissed him. It caught Malcolm so off guard that he did the only thing that seemed logical, and kissed her back. They were out of view of Fantasy and Tapestry on stage, and for a couple of heated, passionate seconds, their struggle turned sexual.
Malcolm felt Rose bite his lip as he pulled back. He had hold of both of her wrists now, and gave them a small squeeze. Rose glared at him, wrapping a shadow tendril around his neck, but making no move to tighten it and suffocate him.
“You’re an idiot, Malcolm,” whispered Rose. “The only reason you’re siding with the champions is because they found you first. You’re a stubborn idiot.”
“And you’re following the orders of a killer,” said Malcolm. “Does he just send you to recruit for him, Rose? Or did he finally break down your resolve and get you to be one of his leg spreading sycophants?”
He was surprised by his own sudden anger and jealousy. Rain Dancer had been obvious with his leering and flirtation toward Rose back when Malcolm had been imprisoned in their underground base. But she’d rebuffed him. Of course, that was before he’d left.
“You’re an idiot,” said Rose. “You really think that little of me, that I’d just… hop into bed with anyone?”
She twisted, managing to get her hand free and elbow him in the side of the face. Malcolm tried to get her pinned again, but she slid out from under him, pushing him back with her shadows.
“Rose…” said Malcolm, taking a step toward her.
“Malcolm…” said Rose. “You’re making a choice right now. You’re choosing to be my enemy.”
“Right back at you.” He smiled, though on the inside, his heart was hurting. “It doesn’t have to be this way, you know…”
“Malcolm!” shouted Tapestry. “Get up here! Now!”
“Yeah,” said Rose. “It does.”
She shot her shadow tendrils out at him. Malcolm moved fast, jumping into the air and using his wind manipulation to maneuver up and around them. He landed back on stage in time to see Jade Portal rushing toward Fantasy and Golden Joab.
Fantasy aimed her pistol at Jade, but didn’t fire. Jade slammed her shoulder into Fantasy and her hostage, knocking them loose. She closed her eyes for an instant and created a portal, which she immediately started pulling Golden Joab toward.
“No!” shouted Tapestry. Malcolm fell into step alongside her, using the wind to push both of them in a mad dash toward Jade and Golden Joab.
Tapestry tackled Golden Joab. Malcolm slammed into Jade. All four of them went through the new portal she’d created.
CHAPTER 25
Malcolm landed on top of Jade in the shadow of a massive sand dune. She tried to slap him, but he caught her hand. In the instant that he held it, he felt a tingle, and knew that he’d just absorbed her power.
The portal was still open. Golden Joab had broken loose from Tapestry and was backing toward it. Several shadow tendrils slipped out through the portal, like weighted fishing lines slipping underwater. Malcolm gave a wordless shout, but not in time to stop Golden Joab from being pulled back through by Rose.
“Damn it!” he shouted. Tapestry was slowly pulling herself to her feet. Malcolm looked around, seeing nothing but sun heated dunes and desert in all directions.
If the sun is out here, we must be on the other side of the world. Seriously?
He stood up, pulling himself off Jade. Immediately, he realized his mistake. She created another portal and rolled through it faster than Malcolm could grab her. The portal disappeared behind her, and the first one was gone, too.
“What… just happened?” asked Tapestry.
Malcolm sat down in the sand. He let his hand rest on it for a second, pulling it back almost instantly. The sand was ridiculously hot, as was the air, hot enough to make the air shimmer in the distance.
“I think we lost that round,” said Malcolm. Tapestry scowled and made a frustrated noise.
“How the heck are we going to get out of here?” she asked.
Malcolm wiped sweat from his forehead. He took off his heavy suit coat, still feeling ridiculously hot even with it off.
“We can get back,” he said. “I absorbed Jade Portal’s power. I just need to figure out how to use it.”
“Can you please hurry?” Tapestry let out a groan. “I can’t take this heat.”
“I’ll try,” he said.
It was harder than Jade Portal had made it look. Malcolm spent a couple of minutes trying to feel for the new power, but it just wasn’t there. It reminded him of when he’d copied Savior’s power, the mechanism of how to make it work hidden from his own awareness.
“Malcolm…” Tapestry was suffering in the heat. There was nothing around them other than dunes, and it only took a couple of minutes for both of them to realize that they would die within a few hours if they didn’t get out of there.
“I’m trying,” he said. “I don’t understand it. I know I absorbed her power, but I just… can’t feel it in me.”
“I can’t take this heat,” said Tapestry. “That’s it. I’m taking my dress off.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Malcolm glanced up at the sun. “The only thing worse than being hot in this kind of weather is getting a sunburn.”
“Are you trying to convince me to keep my clothes on, for once?”
She makes a good point…
Malcolm watched as she slipped out of her dress, keeping her high heels on and looking a little silly in just them and her underwear. She walked over to him, spread it out on the sand, and sat on top of it, her body glistening with sweat.
“Focus, Malcolm,” she said.
“Sorry.” He took a deep breath, and tried again to conjure a portal into existence. Nothing happened.
“We’ll be lucky if we even survive, at this point,” muttered Tapestry. “Jade Portal and Golden Joab will be long gone by the time we get back.”