Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
That night I dreamed I was floating on my back in the sea, arms and legs stretched like a starfish.
My eyes were closed, and the waves rocked me gently.
A hand slid across my bare stomach and came to rest. I opened my eyes to see Vale floating beside me, on his side, as though we were in bed instead of water.
He eyed me with a lazy grin. “You’re not an island, August. No matter how far offshore you swim, I can reach you.”
“You’re not the son of Poseidon. You can’t bend the sea to your will.”
His hand dipped lower. “I could bend you to my will, if you’d let me.”
We gazed at each other, chests rising and falling with unspoken desire. Well, his was spoken. Mine was fluttering just beneath the surface, a butterfly trapped in amber. Even in a dream, I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge my feelings.
His fingers met no resistance as they slipped beneath the waistband of my swimsuit. His lazy grin turned feral.
“You want this as much as I do. Admit it,” he said.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I want for nothing.”
“And yet I still want to give you everything.”
A giant wave took us by surprise, crashing over us.
Vale disappeared from view. Without the warmth of his hand, I felt cold and alone.
My head bobbed above the surface, like a distant, undiscovered island.
I spun in the water, searching in all directions, but saw only a flat horizon where the water became indistinguishable from the sky.
I felt a sharp tug on my hair. “Ouch!”
My head snapped to the side to locate the offender, but I was no longer in the sea. Jinx sat between the top of my head and the headboard, one claw tangled in my hair.
I carefully disengaged from her sharp nails. “What the hell, Jinx? Were you trying to make biscuits on my head?”
The cat meowed.
Beams of sunlight streamed through the bedroom.
“What time is it?” I reached for my phone and glanced at the screen.
It was later than I would’ve liked. Then again, I didn’t make it home until three in the morning.
Vale had offered me a guest bedroom for the night, but I didn’t want to be away from Evermore overnight.
I also didn’t trust myself to stay, for reasons my dream adequately demonstrated.
I shouldn’t have gone to the mainland, although if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have discovered the arrival of the Coranians. Everywhere I turned was a crisis: ancient fae, troublesome oni, a shadow killer, and now a crushing desire for someone I couldn’t have.
The simpler I tried to make my life, the more complicated it seemed to become.
As I showered and dressed, I made a plan for the day.
I had to start tackling these problems one at a time or they’d only get worse.
The shadow was my best bet. It was on the island, and I had a general idea of its location.
I just needed to conduct a methodical search of the building, which required a plausible reason for entering and searching these homes that wouldn’t alarm the occupants.
I ruled out the first floor based on the magical residue I’d seen previously and started with the second floor. I knocked on the first door, mentally preparing my story.
The door opened and a frail dwarf peered up at me from behind a pair of thick glasses.
“Pest control,” I announced.
The dwarf adjusted her glasses. “Don’t you work in security?”
“Pest control is understaffed. I offered to help out today.”
“First the handyman, then security, now pest control. The HOA really needs to deal with all these staffing issues. What do my fees even pay for?”
“I couldn’t agree more. Would you mind if I come in? It will only take five minutes, tops.”
The dwarf stepped aside and waved me in. “What kind of pests are we talking about? I have a terrible phobia about palmetto bugs.”
The moment I crossed the threshold, I spotted the dwarf’s shadow on the wall. “Do you live alone?”
“Yes, why?”
“You’re good.” I backed up toward the door.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean there’s no need for pest control. I can see your condo is fine. Bye now.” I slipped outside before she could ask questions. I didn’t have time to offer convoluted explanations to every Neighbor I encountered.
It took me thirty minutes to finish the second floor.
All shadows were present and accounted for, with the added bonus of being invited to a threesome with an elderly couple dressed in BDSM attire.
I politely declined and excused myself from their condo.
My retinas, however, would take time to recover from the image burned into them.
I trudged up the steps to the third floor. Only half the Neighbors were home. As inconvenient as it was for me, good for them. I was glad they were out and about, living their best lives.
The fourth floor was more of a success. I checked three-quarters of the units. All shadows were attached to their owners. Nobody seemed twitchy.
I tried not to feel deflated. After all, I left the building with the number of units to revisit at a later time, a list now significantly shorter than the one I had when I arrived.
I’d nearly reached my golf cart when I noticed a man ambling toward the building. I figured I might as well cross another one off my list and intercepted him.
“Good morning, sir. I’m Maya August, acting director of security. Do you live here?”
“I do,” he said. “Unit 303. I’m just coming back from badminton.”
I checked the notes on my phone. Stephen Clarke. Wizard. “You’re Mr. Clarke?”
“Yes.” His gaze darted to the building then back to me. “Shifty eyes,” my father would’ve called them. “Is there a problem, Director August?”
“Pest control,” I said, distracted. I was too busy observing him from multiple angles to elaborate.
It appeared that Stephen Clarke had no shadow.
There were shadowless people in the world—Gage was one of them—but Stephen was a wizard. He should have a shadow, and I should be able to see it right now.
“One more question, Stephen, if you don’t mind.”
“Ask away.”
“Where’s your shadow?”
His whole body stiffened. “My shadow?”
“Yes. Are you aware it’s missing?”
Stephen opened his mouth as if to answer, then turned around and bolted.
I groaned loudly. “Are you serious?” He wouldn’t get far, especially with that gait. He ran like a sidewinder. I worried he’d trip over his own feet and hurt himself. “Stephen, stop!”
The wizard kept going, leaving me no choice but to run after him. A light jog bridged the gap between us within seconds. I grabbed him by the back of the collar and pulled him to the ground as gently as I could. Stephen was older than dirt; it would be easy to break him if I wasn’t careful.
“Be gentle with me. I have the hollow bones of a bird,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to know about your shadow. Where is it now?”
“In my condo,” Stephen said, as I helped him to his feet. “I warded the closet to keep him inside.”
“Why?”
“He’s been a bit of a troublemaker. I had to do something to contain him.”
“Why is he a separate entity? Why isn’t he attached to you, copying your movements like a regular shadow?”
Stephen lowered his gaze. “I’m a wizard. I like to experiment.”
“Let me guess: this one went horribly wrong.”
We entered the building and climbed the staircase to the third floor. “What do you know about shadows, Maya?”
“I take it you don’t mean scientifically.”
“No, although as a wizard, I’m naturally a big fan of science.”
“Naturally.” As a mage, my father was too. And he’d demonstrated endless patience for my litany of childlike questions. Pushback and curiosity were positive and healthy qualities. It was when I grew older and stopped asking questions that my moral compass went askew.
“The ancient Egyptians referred to a shadow as a Khaibit. They considered it an essential part of the soul.” Stephen dug into the front pocket of his trousers and produced a key. “They believed that if you lost your shadow, you lost part of your spiritual essence.”
“And you wanted to test that theory?”
“Among others.” Stephen unlocked the front door, and we stepped inside the condo. At a glance, it was the neatest interior I’d encountered in the Neighborhood. Not a dust bunny in sight, nor a knickknack out of place.
“Do you have a cleaning service?” I asked.
He beamed. “No, I use a cleaning spell…” He faltered. “I’m not supposed to do that, am I?”
“You’re not supposed to perform unauthorized magic, no.”
“This is why I didn’t tell anyone about my experiment. I know how Neighbors talk. Someone would’ve ratted me out.”
“If they had, maybe Darlene Garvey would still be alive.”
He lowered his gaze to the floor. “You don’t know it was him.”
“She said a man-shaped shadow assaulted her.”
He gave a casual shrug. “It could’ve been an actual man.”
“You said yourself that your shadow is troublesome, which is why you locked him up. Maybe he’s acting out because he’s frightened.
He doesn’t know how to behave without your actions to guide him.
Some African tribes believe the shadow is a reflection of a person’s vulnerability. That it’s sacred and needs protection.”
“Mine certainly doesn’t,” he murmured. He entered a bedroom on the right. “He’s in here.” Stephen opened the closet door with a flourish.
I peered inside. “I don’t see anything.”
“That’s because it’s dark. Without light, there can be no shadows.” He flipped the switch.
“Still nothing,” I said.
Stephen examined the interior. “Oh dear. Not again. How strange. I warded the closet.”
“Did you ward the rest of the condo too?”
“No, only the closet. I was sure it was secure this time.”
“This time? How many times have you lost him?”
“Only once. Now twice, I guess. I left him loose until Darlene died, only out of an abundance of caution,” he added pointedly. “Then he got out the day before yesterday when I opened the closet door to get my golf shoes, but I managed to find him and contain him that night.”
“And now he’s gone again.”