He rolled his eyes. “Overkill.”
The woman took a step in the direction of the stairs. Probably the word “kill” in any context made her nervous.
“Let Red play,” Adeline insisted, a cruel little smile on her mouth. Maybe it was because she’d been embarrassed, her zipper half down her back. Maybe it was the flip side of cheerful sociopathy, but when she was like this, she wouldn’t back down. “Come on. It’ll be funny.”
“Use your own shadow then,” Remy told her. “Or better yet, let’s just go upstairs.”
This was the second quickened shadow to which she’d been tethered. The first one withered away, the graft failing. The second one took, but she seldom practiced with it. He thought it made her uncomfortable, but she didn’t like admitting it.
Adeline gave him a look. “We’re not going anywhere.”
What is it I am supposed to do? He heard the question in his mind, felt his shadow’s annoyance and wasn’t sure if it was his as well.
Puppet her, Remy thought back. Make her go upstairs or say something stupid. Scare her. Don’t hurt her.
You don’t want me to make her drown herself? He was almost sure Red was joking.
There was a time that he would have had to maintain a bifurcated consciousness, but not anymore. Red just did things. Ideally, what you told him, but occasionally something else entirely. Remy could probably stop him if he tried. Probably.
The woman gave a shudder and a gasp as Remy’s shadow shifted to overlap hers.
Adeline clapped her hands in delight.
The woman’s mouth moved, grating out words. “I’m not getting paid enough for this shit. Go ahead. Use the pool, assholes.”
Remy laughed. He found it a little disturbing how much Red would have to know about people to come up with something so entirely realistic, but it was still funny.
Adeline gave a sigh of annoyance. “No, make her say something embarrassing.”
The woman’s body moved jerkily, her eyes wild with panic. “Stop ordering me around, Adeline,” she said. “I don’t like it.”
Adeline turned to Remy, astonished and offended. “Did you—”
“Oh, come on,” Remy said. “He’s just having a laugh.”
Then the woman gasped, hand going to her mouth as Red let her go. She looked at them both, tears starting in her eyes, then ran up the stairs.
Adeline turned to Remy, eyes blazing. She was furious. Remy didn’t think she’d have been so angry if he’d said that, but she thought of Red as a toy, and toys weren’t supposed to answer back. Especially not in public.
Before she could lecture Remy on controlling his shadow, Madison, Topher, and Brooks thundered down the stairs. Topher had gone to the same prep school as Remy, and he and Adeline knew the others from running in the same circles.
“My man,” Brooks said, going in for the one-armed guy hug. “Heard there was a pool. Should have known you would get here first.”
Maddy had swiped a bottle of Don Julio 1942 from the mirrored bar. “Oh, I should have gotten glasses,” she said.
“I can pour a shot straight into your mouth,” offered Remy, relaxing in their company.
The five of them skinny-dipped in the pool together, drinking tequila and laughing. Adeline seemed to forget about what had happened, and everything was normal again. Then they put back on their clothes, got hold of Jefferson, his girlfriend, and someone else’s cousin and went out to The Box, where acrobats were flying through the air, along with a single shadow. At various points, it held them suspended above the crowd, making them appear to be hanging on to absolutely nothing.
Topher wanted to roll bliss, and Adeline showed off her gloaming ability by sending him off. When she was done with him, he was in such a state that he could only loll in a corner of their private booth, murmuring to himself and twitching. Remy hoped that she’d given him the promised good time. She’d sent people off into weeklong bouts of terror before, and by then it was clear her foul mood had returned.
Brooks and Jefferson, impressed, asked her a lot of questions in a way that made it clear they were interested in more than the answers.
Maddy and the cousin had begun making out, both their skirts pushed up so high that it was clear only one of them was wearing underwear.
Remy tried to avoid Adeline’s wrath by talking to the girls at the next booth, who recruited him to play a drinking game. You were supposed to all stare at one other person, and if you locked eyes, shout “Medusa!” before the other did.