Chapter 16
Jonah
Avolley of shouts brings me running to the trailer door. The group of shadowkind I was discussing strategy with hustle over behind me.
Outside, people are running through the paths between the trailers and tents—away from the city. My heart is already lurching as I scramble down the steps and whirl to get a better view.
A thick black torrent of shadow is spewing from the vast rift high above the buildings. It mingles with the gray haze below like a stream branching into trickles as it gushes down a mountainside.
It’s happening again? This mess is getting even worse?
As my legs lock in my first jolt of shock, someone swears behind me. Shadowkind flit into the darkness. Hollered voices with a military-precise edge reach my ears from farther afield.
Riva and Zian jog up beside me, skirting the panicked refugees who are hurrying farther away. Riva’s expression is tight, Zian’s eyes wide.
“What the fuck is happening?” the big guy demands.
I shake my head, needing a moment to locate my words. “I—I don’t know. I guess the same thing as before?”
Riva lets out a disbelieving sputter. “Like it wasn’t bad enough already. We’d better get over there and see what we can do.”
Yes. Right. Because we’re the ones who are supposed to have a handle on the problem. The experts in this situation.
Someone needs to convince my brain of that before it spirals into total panic.
The shadowbloods race off toward the city. I spur myself into similar action, tuning out the frantic thrum of my pulse as well as I can. With each hurried footstep, I gulp deep breaths to offset the lightheadedness that’s creeping over me.
There’s got to be something I can do. That’s why I’m here.
I’m sure as hell not going to help anyone if I fall apart again. I’m not a little kid anymore. This isn’t that old catastrophe.
Nope. It’s one much more immense.
As I pick up my pace, dodging the frantic humans, Peri and Mirage pop out of the shadows alongside me. Peri stares at the new deluge of shadow with a twist of her lips. “Why would it happen now? Did the soldiers do something? Or the hunters?”
“Not that I noticed,” I say. “But I wasn’t even outside when it started, so I wouldn’t have seen. I guess that’s possible.”
Of course, the soldiers and the hunters were nowhere around the first few times the strange rift started spewing. It seems a little unfair to blame them for the current bout, as many other complaints as we could raise.
A trace of a blush colors Peri’s cheeks. She glances at Mirage, and a twinge of emotion that’s both guilt and pleasure passes through our bond. “You don’t think— It happened right after—”
Mirage laughs, though the sound is more halting than his usual buoyant humor. “The rift didn’t mind when we all took care of you before. How could just the two of us having fun set it off?”
Having fun? Oh, they were— I did pick up on some wafts of desire and delight not that long ago, but they were distant enough that I could ignore them.
Despite the awfulness of the situation, the corner of my mouth kicks upward. I tease my fingers through Peri’s hair. “I’m sure getting it on didn’t set the rift off.”
She rubs her forehead. “I guess maybe nothing did. As far as we know, it was totally random all the other times, wasn’t it?”
“As far as we know.” I don’t like to consider how much we don’t know.
Given Rollick’s inability to find any specific culprit, it seems likely that my previous worries were only panic-driven paranoia. Peri’s theory about the borders between the realms thinning makes more sense than anything else. But we’re not much closer to figuring out how to fix that problem.
We jar to a stop at the edge of the evacuee camp, where the temporary shelters give way to the last short span of scruffy grass before the first factory buildings rise from the earth.
A few dozen soldiers have already marched into some kind of formation nearby, but they’re gaping at the scene looking just as dazed as I feel.
The thicker darkness pouring from the rift isn’t just streaming down now. It’s… churning, swirling into the lighter murk as if someone’s stirring it with a giant spoon.
All the things Peri’s suggested about how part of the shadow realm might be trying to merge with the mortal world come back to me.
I glance over at her. “Are you picking up any emotions from the creatures in the city? Does this feel different from before?”
She frowns, an uneasy orange glow flickering through her hair. “A little… Bits and pieces… Restlessness. Impatience. They’re tired of waiting.”
The churning of the haze seems to echo those emotions. I can almost taste the tension in its spiraling movement myself, winding tighter into the atmosphere, seeking something it’s not finding.
A shiver runs over my skin.
Mirage’s posture stiffens. “Here they come.”
A few incongruous creatures are shuffling into view out of the murk. They weave back and forth with no clear sign of direction, scratching at the earth and bumping against the nearby buildings, but agitation shows in every twitch that wracks their warped bodies.
One of the soldiers shouts, and they all level their guns. I open my mouth instinctively, the sorcerous syllables that’ve become an innate part of my being flowing off my tongue.
Go back. Go home.
I toss out the command as firmly as I can, but only one of the creatures even sways in its steps. It veers to the side before straightening out its path again.
The soldiers open fire.
As their bullets tear holes through the creature’s body that send even more dark smoke into the air, Raze and Hail appear behind us.
“What fresh hell is this?” the winter fae mutters.
“I don’t know.” Peri pushes forward with an air of determination. “But we need to get closer. See if we can settle things down, keep the creatures from barging out before they get into range of those guns.”
An image passes through my head of a whole horde of the creatures charging toward us. My legs lock for a few seconds before I can force them to follow her.
We rush past the nearest factory building and slow as we come up on the edge of the deluge. Here, I can’t make out the darker current whirling into it from above, but the haze trembles with minor eddies.
More creatures are prowling back and forth on the streets within. One’s quills rattle with its shudder, while another makes a high-pitched keening sound that quavers through my nerves.
A scaled form looms high on two legs, its other stubby, clawed appendages grasping at the air. My mind flashes back to the coiled form of the leviathan as he glowered down at my three-year-old self with serrated teeth flashing.
My breath hitches. A flood of cold sweeps through me alongside the stuttering of my heart.
Peri’s hand squeezes around mine. The warmth of her touch alongside the concerned affection coursing from her into me brings me back to earth, back to the present.
She peers at me, worry shining in her bright blue eyes. “Where did you go?”
Before I can find the words to tell her, more voices ring out from farther along the murky area. Voices speaking in sounds that belong to no human language but that I recognize down to my soul.
Sorcerers. And not just Lilah, if she’s even among them—there must be several chanting together.
My companions tense up. They’ve all been held in the grips of sorcery before for cruel ends.
“You try to help things here,” I blurt out. “I’ll go see what’s happening.”
I lope off around a shed and along a fence. A cluster of people comes into view beyond the next factory, maybe ten of them facing the shadowy haze and calling out their sorcerous syllables.
At least a few hunters lurk beyond them, whips and nets at the ready—I suppose in case the sorcery doesn’t work. Or maybe to subdue the creatures if the sorcerers decide to draw them out rather than urging them back in?
The meaning of the magical chanting seeps into my awareness. They’re telling the shadowkind to stay away from humans—and to lash out at each other.
My throat constricts. Are they hoping they can get the beasts to destroy each other?
I guess that is one way of dealing with the threat, even if the idea sends a lurch of nausea through my gut.
Whatever their plan, it doesn’t appear to be working all that well, even with their numbers. More creatures have swarmed into the streets here too, but they’re prowling toward us without any sign of hostility toward each other.
The sorcerers’ faces are going taut with frustration. One of them breaks off the chant with a curse under his breath. “Why aren’t they fucking listening?”
I clear my throat, and more of the voices falter. Sorcerers and hunters alike jerk their gazes toward me.
I stride over, willing down the apprehension pricking at my skin. “Sorcery doesn’t take hold on the creatures from these warped rifts, at least not very well.”
The man who complained scowls at me. “You would know, wouldn’t you? You’re one of us, but you’ve been slumming it with the monsters as if they’re your friends. I saw you on the news.”
The good news is Peri’s efforts are obviously making the rounds on screens everywhere. The bad news is apparently those efforts also drew these pricks here.
I size the group up as they do me. It isn’t surprising, really, that sorcerers would show up to offer their “services” in controlling the shadowkind just like the hunters did. They’d want the ego boost of being able to put their power on full display.
Would they ever reveal to the rest of humanity how they developed those powers? The stories Quinn told me float up through my head: the training center she visited where the acolytes slaughtered shadowkind creatures to drink in their essence.
It’s only by mixing a little of what shadowkind are made of into our own bodies that we can gain power over them. The talent can be passed on genetically, but mine wasn’t all that strong until my shadowkind guardians voluntarily donated bits of their essence to support my training.