Page 56 of Strange Lights

“Twenty.”

“Sheesh,” he says, looking surprised.

I feel like I’ve given the wrong answer somehow, although I’m not sure what he expected, if he thought I was older or younger than that.

“How old are you?” I ask.

“Twenty-six,” he answers, and I nod as if that was exactly what I expected.

“You’ve never left this building?” he asks. The pity in his eyes sparks a bolt of anger coursing through my chest.

“I’ve been outside,” I snap, “just not into a town or city.”

“Guess I’m not the only one in a cage.”

24

Whys & Wherefores

“What do you want from the werewolves?” I ask when I find Adele in her office, near the top of the base, pacing in front of the glass wall.

“Leave,” she barks at the guards stationed by the door, waiting for them to exit before answering me. “You understand the most basic principles of magic? Everything comes from that great void where energy is stored? And everything returns there?”

I understand more than she does about the most basic principles of magic, but I bite back a retort and merely nod.

“Then you know that werewolves have a permanent doorway to that dark place. Think of the uses if we could control and direct that power. If we could access that natural conduit without having to tether, if we could use them as a bridge, a means to let what has been lost to the void back into this realm.”

Adele keeps it well hidden, but she has trouble controlling magic. I suspect it isn’t that she doesn’t want to tether; it’s that she cannot. Any tether with Adele is uneven, one of us clinging to her, a one-sided labor. Zara isn’t the only one whose magic I’d call messy and unrefined. Though Adele has considerably more practice throwing around raw magic than Zara does.

“Why don’t you turn yourself into a werewolf, then, if you want power without tethering?” I ask. It’s a bold statement, calling her out like that. Even more so, suggesting she become a creature when she seems to view them as lesser.

“Because that’s not the point,” she says, exasperated. “That’s not what I need to accomplish.”

“What are you trying to do? If you told me, maybe I could get better results in my research.”

For a long second, she stares at me, as if sizing me up. As usual, she finds me lacking. “Maybe I will when you figure out a way to access the gate that exists inside his mind,” she says. “I don’t care what it takes, but get moving. Time is running out. This human body of mine is failing faster than I expected.” This last part, she mutters to herself. I’m not sure what she means or if she even knows she said it.

“Access the gate for . . . ?” I push my luck.

“That part is none of your business,” Adele says curtly. “You’re better off not knowing.”

As if she cared about what’s best for me. I decide to make it my business to find out. While I know better than to trust anyone at the agency⁠—they all work for Adele when it comes down to it⁠—I’m not entirely without allies. A few careful questions in the right places and I hear about an unusual shipment arriving in a few days. Maybe I’m off base, but I decide it’s worth my time in case it pertains to the werewolf project. With a little patience and careful spying, maybe I’ll discover what Adele is really up to.

I bring Luca a set of clothes the next day, a standard set of navy-blue scrubs from the general lab supply. And a plain white pair of socks.

I turn my back while he changes, and ask, “What happened to your shoes?”

“Dunno, must have lost them somewhere along the way when they picked me up. I think they slipped me something. I don’t remember much, only that I stopped for a beer after work and next thing I know, I’m waking up here.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m an astronaut.”

“Really? Have you actually been to space?”

Luca gives me a strange look. “Just joking. I’m a mechanic.”

“Like cars?”