Chapter 25
Mirage
Jonah, a couple of the shadowbloods, and Sorsha lean over the city map they’ve spread on the table in the mostly empty trailer that’s become our operations room. The sites of our destruction-happy shadowkind’s mayhem stand out in stark orange against the blueish buildings and gray streets.
They don’t form any pattern to my eyes, only polka dots of chaos, but the others seem to be making more sense of it.
Riva swivels her finger around one neighborhood. “Viscera hasn’t hit too close to this area yet, even though there are a lot of the taller buildings like the other streets she’s rampaged through. I think she’d be even more tempted to take the bait here.”
Sorsha nods slowly. The phoenix shifter only arrived a couple of hours ago, but we’ve quickly brought her up to speed.
She smiles a lot and cracks jokes even when the subject is serious, which I can appreciate. But there’s a crackly, burn-y sense of heat around her even in her totally human-looking form that itches at my nerves.
Hail asked her if she couldn’t just incinerate the crocodile-tailed woman, and Sorsha gave him a wry grin and said she’d have to have Viscera in her sights first. That is the part that’s proven the hardest.
The rogue shadowkind is both pushy and slippery.
“How far away do you think the rest of us will need to stay from Peri for Viscera to feel comfortable showing herself?” Sorsha asks. “From what you’ve said, she’s been awfully cautious since that first encounter where you managed to throw her off a little.”
Jonah grimaces. “Unfortunately, I think we should keep at least half a mile back, spread out in different places and pretending we’re focused on other things. But that’s still close enough that we should be able to get there quickly when it’s time.”
Peri wanders around their cluster, peering between them at the map. Her voice shines as bright as ever. “This time we’ll have it set up so I can signal all of you as soon as I see her. Then I’ll keep her talking and calm her down as well as I can.”
A deeper discomfort crawls under my skin. Peri is the bait we’re hoping this maniac monster will take. We’re sending her out there like a minnow on a hook, hoping the crocodile will bite.
Our Rainbow is much more stubborn than the arcs of light that streak across the sky. She insisted that we don’t risk more devastation waiting to see if Rollick can track down another sorcerer whose powers might not help anyway.
I’m all for getting down to action, but what if Viscera decides she’d like to smash up shadowkind like she does windows and walls? What if she flattens Peri like she has all those cars before we can make it there?
Are we really putting our Rainbow at that much risk?
No one else seems to think there’s a problem with sending Peri straight into the line of fire.
Even Peri is taking it for granted that she should be dangled in front of this unhinged being.
The emotions that trickle through our connection are all determination and pride, as if she thinks this is the best help she can offer.
Maybe it is. Maybe stopping Viscera is more important than her shiny presence.
It’s not as if I can do enough to make it unnecessary to put her life on the line.
Restlessness twists through my chest all the way down to my gut. I pace in the back of the trailer as more details of the plan get tossed back and forth, but with each passing minute, my desire intensifies to tip over the table and shred the map into confetti that’ll rain down over us.
That’s definitely not going to bring a smile to anyone’s face, let alone solve all this solemnness.
I need to burn off some energy before it wriggles out of me in worse ways.
No one’s paying me any mind. It’s easy to slip into the shadows and dart off toward the city without a word spoken to question my departure.
I can’t sense anyone’s actual feelings except Peri’s, but an anxious vibe hangs over the city streets so thickly even I can taste it. The atmosphere quivers into me, setting my own nerves jittering faster.
Of course the humans are uneasy. A being they can hardly accept is real is popping out of thin air and playing wrecking ball with their city, and none of them have figured out how to stop her either. They have no idea where she’ll appear next, or what—or who—she might hurt.
It must be like stepping across a frozen lake hearing the ice creak beneath you, hoping it won’t crack. A game more precarious than any I’d like to play.
I watch various humans walk along the sidewalks—in a furtive rush, gazes flicking around them, eager to get back to relative safety behind solid walls.
Viscera’s been smashing through walls too. I don’t think they can feel secure even inside.
A familiar urge ripples through my essence.
I might not be able to help catch the rampaging rogue shadowkind, but I can distract the humans from their worries.
Provoke some laughter where before there were only clenched jaws.
Remind them they can find little amusements even when a situation seems dire.
That’s what every bit of my being craves. Why shouldn’t I carry out the work every particle of me craves?
I slink along the edges of the buildings with my ears pricked. Muffled sobs carry through the pane of a basement window.
Peeking inside, I spot a child—a girl—curled up on her bed with her blanket tucked tight around her skinny frame. She’s sniffling and staring at the window, but she can’t see me in the shadows.
She’s afraid of what might be prowling out here. The monsters human kids imagine in the dark have become much too real, even if the grown-ups in her life will be calling them terrorists and gangsters.
I’ll show her the beings that lurk in the shadows aren’t all cruel.
I wriggle past the pane and drop down into the patches of shadow on the floor.
What can I play with? My searching glance lands on a paper airplane, its nose a bit bent, sitting on a table in the middle of the room.
At a nudge of my powers, it lifts into the air as if with a sudden gust. The girl sucks in a startled breath.
I make the airplane dip and spin, whirl and bob, jitterbugging through the air. By the time it drifts all the way to the ground, the girl is muffling giggles rather than tears.
Pleased warmth flows through my being. Leaving her, I creep deeper into the apartment.
A woman in the kitchen has just poured herself a cup of tea. Steam wafts from the mug as well as from the spout of the kettle.
I impose a little of my will on the particles gusting into the air, shaping them into a vague figure that gives a jaunty bow. But the woman has already turned away from the counter, cupping the mug between her hands.
I switch my focus to the steam drifting from the steeping tea in the cup. The impression of a playful puppy emerges, bounding through the air and swinging its floppy ears—
The woman looks down and yelps. Her hands flinch around the cup. It slips from her fingers.
Scalding water sloshes across her legs and feet before the mug fractures on the tiled floor.
With a hiss of pain, she dashes to the bathroom. I gaze after her, my heart sinking.
I only wanted to cheer her up, but I ended up frightening her so much she hurt herself. How could what was so delightful to me be so terrifying to her?
No matter how much I play, I never know what effect I’ll have.
A sense of helplessness as tight as if I was still trapped in one of the experimenters’ cells closes in around me. I dive deep into the darkest shadow I can find, but the anguish follows me.
I only wanted to brighten these people’s lives, take them away from their worries. Instead, I gave them more.
That’s why I ended up at the academy in the first place, isn’t it? Because I didn’t know where to draw the line.
I thought I was being careful. I thought I could keep it low key enough.
Maybe I haven’t gotten better after all. Should Rollick have trusted me to be on this mission?
Shame and fear mingle with my guilt. I ball myself even smaller within the swath of darkness, as if I can shrink enough that the awful feelings will no longer fit inside me.
Then, through the despair I can’t contain, a thin glow seeps in. A faint sense of affection washes over me, smoothing the worst edges off my nerves.
I tense in confusion and then realize the feeling is reaching me through the spot on my chest that connects me to Peri.
She must have noticed my turmoil. She’s reaching out to me—sending out the softest emotions she can to surround me in a gentle embrace.
Another current of loving reassurance drapes around me like a cozy blanket. I can almost feel Peri’s arms encircling me the way I haven’t let her touch me in weeks.
Every part of me aches to lean into her body, to soak up the tenderness she can offer for real.
But this distant caress is good too. She’s with me even though I wandered off.
She caught my distress and is drawing me out of it without even needing to be in shouting range.
As the shame that gripped me melts away, a spark of excitement quivers to life at the center of me.
This—this bond that ties us together—it isn’t chaining or caging me, is it? The mark Peri placed on me isn’t anything like a shackle.
It’s a safety line, there for me to grasp hold of if I careen out into stormy seas, so she can guide me back to firmer ground. And she always will, just like I will for her if she needs it.
Why have I been so scared of this closeness when it’s the one thing guaranteed to ward off all my fears? How is it anything but delightful?
I laugh into the shadows and spring back toward the streets. Urgency resonates through my essence alongside the swell of relief.
Peri might need me for more than emotional comfort very soon. She’s about to put herself directly in front of the most brutal shadowkind I’ve ever met.
If the emotions I’m picking up from her are accurate… she’s setting off to position herself as bait right now.