Chapter Four #3
“Makes sense.” I looked around, counting the torches in our vicinity, and wishing there were more.
“Erlik said the winner or winners have to defeat the shade and present him with the kill, or else we’ll be running two hundred laps around the manor,” I said.
“I have zero interest in killing a creature that was abducted and dragged here against their will, but I’m not letting Dora run those laps to amuse that sadist either. ”
I straightened, nodding to myself. “We need a way to safely and painlessly capture the shade, show them to Erlik, endure his spittle-laced bellowing, and then free the shade outside the gates.”
“Wow,” Nik breathed, quickly flipping through his notebook. My brows furrowed as he scribbled something down. “You really are a mortal.”
“Uh, yes, I—”
Dora wandered off, whistling to herself, and leaving me to chase after her.
I gently guided her back to the huddle. “Let’s think, guys. How do we find a shadow in a library of shadows, and then how do we capture it when we do?”
Nik hummed, fluttering his delicate-looking eyelids as he thought.
Unlike the other demons who made a fashion out of tight, revealing, and scorched clothing, Nik was dressed in simple, loose garments that looked as if they were woven from swinging vines and fresh, rain-scented moss.
His vest, tunic, and pants had a mess of pockets, and he was pulling notepads from every one of them.
“Uhh, okay, the good news is that we won’t have to find the shade, because it’ll no doubt come straight to us so—”
“Wait, what?” I broke in. “Why will it come straight to us?”
“Because of you,” Nik replied as light and breezy as the wind. “I told you they like to drain a person of their soul and well...” He looked around. “You’re the only one around here with one of those.”
“At all hours of the day or night something or someone will be watching you, will be stalking you, and will be lying in wait for its chance to strike.”
I shivered. “I know it’s been said before, but hell is the worst.”
Nik chuckled. Whipping open his notebook, he scribbled in it—mumbling, “...funny...”
“What—”
“Is the shade coming for you, Yuma?” Worry laced Dora’s voice. “Oh no, what do we do?”
Nik peered around me. “You can do dark magic, can’t you, Dora?”
“No,” I blared, startling both Nik and Dora. “I don’t know that much about dark magic, but I know enough to know the price it extracts is too high. My sister isn’t going anywhere near it.”
“I understand,” Nik said easily, “but do you have another idea? Because even if we don’t find a way to win, we need a way to defend ourselves.” He gave me a look of sympathy I’d never seen on a demon’s face before. “You most of all.”
“I... I...” I tipped my head, eyes alighting on something.
A smile stretched my lips. “I have an idea.”
Ten minutes later, I pressed my back against the cool stone and slid down, getting comfortable and cross-legged on the floor. On either side of me, Dora and Nik put out the torches—plunging me deeper and deeper into darkness.
We were at the very back of the library, which actually took some doing because the place seemed like it was a mile wide. There were so many of us down here, searching around, but the voices of the other demons were just low, muffled murmurs floating through the stacks.
Dora put out the last torch. The air carried her voice to me because the gloom blocked out everything else. “Good luck, Alfreda.”
“Thanks, Dora.” Nerves settled in my bones. “You will remember what you have to do, right?”
“Of course, Temperance!”
That reply did not fill me with the reassurance she was going for.
Closing my eyes, I breathed in a steadying, calming breath—willing my heartbeat to slow.
After I told him the plan, Nik gushed that it was a good one. He said that when shades haunted the mortal world, they made their homes in ruins and graveyards—both places that were no strangers to trees, and therefore no strangers to dryads.
His dryad mothers had come across them before, and taught Nik about them—all of which he’d written down. Even though no one had tried what we were going to do that day, he said he didn’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work, so that had to be a good sign—
Freezing cold washed over me like a sudden and violent shove into icy waters.
I gasped—choking on the air rushing out of my lungs as unseen shadows clung to my skin, smothering me in its embrace.
It’s here already?! my mind screamed. So fast— Too fast! Dora and Nik aren’t ready— They... They...
Strength drained out of my limbs, bleeding from my body like ice cream melting on the floor.
Melting ice cream.
Was that what I appeared to be as I slowly slumped forward—my head dropping down, my shoulders falling, my spine forgetting which way was up.
“N... now...” I whispered.
Numbness spread through my flesh like chills. The shade drew me closer, welcoming my soul as though it was a mother greeting her child with a hug.
When I entered the library, I was struck by the heavy scent of damp, mold, and old parchment filling the air.
That was gone now.
I couldn’t smell anything. I couldn’t see for the darkness. I couldn’t feel anything, not even the cold as my forehead hit the floor.
“N... N—”
“Sleep,” whispered a soft, almost gentle voice. “Sleep.”
But... I can’t... There was something important... My eyes drifted shut. Something important I had to...
“Sleep.”
Closing my eyes, I let the calming, comfortable cold carry me a—
“Argh!”
Light and heat exploded behind my lids, ripping me awake. I shot up as Dora and Nik burst onto the scene—bellowing and coming at me with the torches like they planned to beat me with them. A sight that should’ve been alarming, but it had nothing on the impossible one before me.
My shadow moved.
The normal shape of me sitting and slumped it should’ve been, but as the flickering flames came closer, it freaked out.
Writhing, contracting, and racing wildly around my body—it tried to hide behind every part of me until giving up when it spotted its salvation.
Zipping for the archival storage box placed innocently before me, my shadow jumped inside just in time for me to leap forward and slam the lid down—trapping it within.
Chest heaving, I gaped at the box—eyes huge and sweat beading on my still-chilled skin as faint screams poured out of the box. “We... we did it?”
Nik nodded slowly, his thin ears and whiskers twitching with nerves. “I... think we did... do it...”
“So...” I looked between the two of them. “We won? Team Freak... won?”
“We won!” Dora cried, jumping up and down and scaring me half out of my wits. “We won! We won! Team Freak! Team Freak!”
Sharing a look, Nik and I raised our brows, then burst out laughing.
“Team Freak! Team Freak!” we chanted along with her—caught up in her infectious enthusiasm.
“Team—”
A stronger than expected force banged against the lid, screaming unintelligibly and scaring the rest of my wits out of me. “Okay, celebrate later,” I cried. “Get this guy out of here first.”
“Good idea,” Nik agreed.
Slowly, carefully, I stood up—holding the box out in front of me.
Nik and Dora were right by my side, holding the torches as close to the box as possible without setting it alight. Shades didn’t like light or heat, as much as it didn’t like being trapped in an archival box, so we were making sure outside of it was still the least appealing option.
Nik led the way to the door. As the one who spent much more time in this library than we ever have, he knew the twists and turns of this bookish maze better than we did.
Along the way, we crossed paths with other search parties who caught sight of the weirdos with their silly little box, and dismissed us completely. It didn’t occur to them for a second that we caught the shade.
We made it to the main area beside the double doors, and stumbled onto a sight that couldn’t be so easily ignored.
The Sins Gang—as I was now calling them in my head—had snapped away more than a few shelves, and conjured themselves a hangout.
Chaises, plush carpet, and armchairs took up the drab space, plunging the room in a new riot of red, gold, green, and pink décor.
Raven, Sauda, Ursula, Eris, Kama, and Ronin stretched, reclined, and all-round chilled out in the new library lounge as miserable-looking demons of all sizes and animal breeds trudged around, offering them drinks and food on a tray.
Offering it to all of them except for Ronin, who was passed out on a chaise—arms folded and still looking like a damn angel even in sleep.
Right then, I had no problem seeing this guy rising from prince to the king of sloth. I was fairly sure I’d never seen him do a flipping thing other than smirking at everything that moves, and lying around sleeping—
Oh, wait, no. I internally rolled my eyes. There were those times he summoned the energy to torment me and put my life in danger. Can’t forget that.
Annoyance burned in my chest as I gazed at him, and it was not because Kama was leaning over the head of his chaise, running her fingers through his hair and breathing him in like barbecue roast.
Nik held his two torches with one hand, and then rapped on the library door with the other. “Master Erlik?” he called. “Sir?”
“What the fuck do you want!” blared Erlik’s dulcet voice. “If you’re dying, do it quietly, you idiot!”
“Uhh, we’re not dying,” I called. “We caught the shade.”
“What!” Eris bolted up, nearly fumbling her phone.
“We won,” I said.
“Like hell you did!” Eris was up and coming at me so fast, there wasn’t a chance to back away.
Over her shoulder, Ronin cracked an eyelid open.
“You’re lying!” Eris was well-chosen as the princess of envy, because there was hella jealousy burning in her eyes. “There’s no way some mortal bitch, an empty-headed freak, and that worthless limp caught the shade before my girls!” She fell on the box, trying to rip it from my grasp.
“Hey!” I strained against her. “What the hell are you doing!”
“Give it up!” Eris roared.
She took a swing at me, popping my eyes out of my skull as I lurched back.