decided to land while she still knew she could do so without being
spotted. She started to trot toward the ferry, looking and listening
as she went. As she passed India Street, she heard the slaps and
thuds of what sounded like a massive hand-to-hand fight. Her feet
pounded against the pavement as she ran up the middle of the
road toward the sounds, already knowing where she was going,
where the Fates would have arranged this. The Nantucket
Atheneum.
Helen rounded a corner and saw that a dark pall erased the entire
end of the street. Even in a dark room it?s possible to sense
other things around you, but Creon?s shadows were so complete
they robbed Helen of more than just her vision; they uprooted her,
tilting all of her other senses off balance as well. Looking at the
thing he created, Helen understood why Creon was called a Shadow
Master. He did more than simply take away the light; he made
that same thing that lurks under the basement stairs or at the back
of the closet?that full darkness that your brain believes is stuffed
with serial killers and monsters. Helen had to swallow down a
scream just looking at it.
Somewhere inside that terrifying
black hole, she could hear
Creon and Hector hammering away at each other in a blind rage.
Helen was at a loss. She was so scared of the disorienting nothingness
that Creon had created she couldn?t force her feet to run into
it. She screamed Hector?s name and scrunched her fists up in frustration,
and as she did so her hands began to glow with the stark
blue-white glow of electricity. Then something occurred to her.
376/395
When she was fighting for her life against Creon in her foyer, her
spark had thrown back the gloom so she could see him. Even