Page 103 of In the Shadows

goal here was. If his father owed them money, surely it would have

been simpler to kidnap him days ago. If they wanted to scare him

into doing something for them, a threat made far more sense than

locking Thom in a burning building.

Until that had happened, Charles hadn’t been bothered —

indeed, he had been entertained and enjoyed Thom’s frantic

attentions focused elsewhere. Now he was quietly seething over

these people running around in his life, setting strange things in

motion, hurting people he cared about.

He was angry, and being angry made him tired. “You know,

you could simply tell me what’s going on. All of this cloak-and-

dagger nonsense wears a body out.”

The man stood straight, tugging on the coarse ends of his

black beard. “Ah, but where would be the fun in that? We need our

diversions, too. Your body may get worn out, but ours merely get

bored.” He leaned forward, a cold gleam in his eyes making

Charles scared for the first time. “Would you like to see a magic

trick?”

The door opened and Alden, his hair perfectly oiled, stepped

out. “Not now,” he said, not so much as looking in Charles’s direc-

tion. Charles was glad for that, because he knew his fear of Alden

was written all over his face. The point of being out here was to

look exposed, but with Alden so close Charles felt perilously, truly

exposed.

Shrugging his regrets, the bearded man winked at Charles and

followed Alden off the porch and onto the lane where they walked

toward town.

Charles shivered in spite of the afternoon heat. He had decided

that whatever this Ladon Vitae was planning, he really did not

want to find out how they worked. It was one thing to come to