Chapter 32
One year later
Periwinkle
When I push past the coffee-shop door, a bugle sounds over my head. I glance up in surprise, but there’s no sign of any actual instrument mounted on the frame.
“Sorry, sorry!” the barista calls over. “It’s been doing that for the last couple of weeks. At least it gives you a dramatic entrance?”
It did. I laugh and go over to the table I’ve spotted Sorsha sitting at.
The phoenix shifter gets up with a swish of her scarlet hair, grinning wryly and holding a steaming cup in one hand. “The city’s still a little wacky, huh? On my way in, I passed a streetlamp doing a strobe effect and a tree that looked like it was growing fully formed loaves of bread.”
“Yup. I’m not sure it’ll ever get totally back to normal.
” The rift’s strange flood has left its mark on the city—we did welcome it to join us here, after all.
“At least it’s hardly ever anything dangerous.
The people who still live here and the new residents who moved in seem to see it as a plus.
You never know what new special thing you’ll encounter. ”
Sorsha chuckles. “It’s like the Everymobile times a million. If I can manage to live in that bizarro RV, I can see making a home in a place like this. Why don’t you show me what you’ve been up to?”
I buy a cup of hot chocolate to carry with me and lead Sorsha out into the street to more bugling.
Every month or so since we finished our clean-up efforts at all the warped rifts, one of the more established shadowkind has been stopping by to check on me in my role as the official ambassador to the shadow realm for Jackson City.
I’ve been on TV enough now, as well as speaking at conferences and rallies, that half of the pedestrians we pass wave to me or call out greetings. I really have become a sort of celebrity, although I haven’t established any retail brands yet.
I’ve had lots of other responsibilities to keep me busy.
I picked this coffee shop because it’s close to the things I want to show Sorsha—well, and also because the hot chocolate is the best blend of creamy and bitter darkness I’ve ever tasted. I sip it with a pleased hum and motion to the big wooden building with its vibrant paint up ahead.
“Mirage’s theater has gotten very popular. He’s doing two shows most days now, afternoon and evening. People are coming from all the way across the ocean just to see his illusionary performances.”
Sorsha peers at the posters on the walls outside that promise vivid imagery and mind-tickling amusement. “Wow. I’ll have to catch a show while I’m here. Maybe I can convince the guys to come along too—Snap will definitely want to check it out.”
I beam at her. “I’ll come with you. It’s always fun to watch Mirage in his element.”
I’ve never seen the fox shifter happier than he is now, getting to delight and startle crowds of people every day—and being applauded for his efforts.
A skinny weasel-like creature slips out of the shadows ahead of us, darts across the street, and pounces on a floating candy wrapper. Sorsha watches it go. “The creatures that came out of the weird rift haven’t been causing any new problems, I take it?”
I shake my head. “It seems like whatever healing effect my glow had on them has been permanent too. They haven’t been getting aggressive—at least, not any more than the occasional regular being does—and no one’s disintegrating. Wins all around!”
And since things on the shadow-realm side of the rifts settled back into business as usual once I shrank them down, no new overly aggressive creatures have been forming and tumbling out.
I just wish we could have saved the beings—both warped and regular—who got caught up in that chaos before we found the solution.
“How have people been reacting to the few beings that do lash out?” Sorsha asks.
More wins there. “We’ve held some informational seminars and put out public service announcements letting people know how to safely get away if they run into trouble.
And our shadowkind police force that Raze is leading is always patrolling and ready to respond if there’s a call for help.
It seems like they usually catch the troublesome creatures before they do any major damage. ”
Vim and Sorrel were particularly proud of an elephantine beast they managed to apprehend together on the edge of the city a few days ago.
Sorsha arches an eyebrow. “I could see humans getting pretty pissed off about even minor damage.”
I shrug. “I guess the kind of people who decide to live here are okay with taking the chance. Like explorers in the old days. It’s a thrill for them.”
A delicious kind of excitement laces the air everywhere I go, making sure I’m never the slightest bit hungry.
“I suppose that makes sense.” Sorsha cocks her head at the sight of the park we’re just coming up on. “This is new, isn’t it?”
“Yes!” I motion to the elaborate water fountains that weave across the grassy lawn next to the playground. “My friend Fen helped set it up. She found an underground spring here that keeps the fountains going without any expense to the city.”
We turn the corner at the park and continue along a few more blocks before a construction site comes into view up ahead. Beyond the plywood barrier, an elegant limestone face is partway through construction.
I sweep my arm toward it. “And here’s the new halfway house that’s going up!”
Sorsha perks up. “That’s the one Quinn’s helping design?”
I smile at her enthusiasm. “Yes! Hail’s really liked getting to work with a real architect and making something that won’t melt without magic.”
Quinn, Rollick’s partner from whom his academy got its name, did most of her work from afar in sketches and diagrams. But the couple of times she visited the city to see the site and talk with the people here, she was nothing but delightful.
I’m guessing we can thank her for any softness the demon ever shows.
“When it’s done,” I go on, “it’ll be a temporary residence for students who’ve graduated from the academies or are doing long-term practicums, where they can get some extra support while they’re getting used to really living among humans.
We’ve already got a bunch of beings volunteering to act as mentors. ”
“And speaking of academies…” Sorsha tips her head toward the sprawling brick complex the next block over.
With the existence of shadowkind now public knowledge, more and more beings have emerged from hiding—a lot of them seeking help from those of us who’ve established ourselves.
Rollick founded a sister school right here in the city where voluntary students who present little danger to humans and each other can learn, while his more isolated original facility will focus on the involuntary students and those with dangerous talents.
Nobody was more surprised than me when he announced the new building was going to be called the Periwinkle Academy.
I’d have pointed out that the name wasn’t really fitting, since technically I was both an involuntary student and uncomfortably dangerous when I was first dragged in, but I’ve decided it’s the spirit of the thing that matters.
And the spirit of this thing is very sweet.
As we approach the school, Sorsha’s gaze sweeps over the streets. “Have you had any more trouble from the hunter groups lately?”
There’ve been a few incursions from shadowkind hunters insisting all of us “monsters” need to be taken down, the most recent one a couple of months ago. My smile tightens a bit at the memory.
“Thankfully, there are a lot fewer of them than there are people who are okay with us here in the city. I think the send-off they got last time made them afraid to make another attempt.”
It was more human residents than shadowkind who ran them out of town. Since then, all I’ve seen is clips on the news of them ranting about the “monster invasion,” but the more time passes without any further supernatural catastrophes, the more ridiculous they look.
I know I’m spreading all the joy I can. If some humans don’t want to welcome it, that’s on them.
We ease past the academy’s doors into the broad front hall. Jonah glances over from where he’s chatting with a couple of students in the front office. He finishes up with them, giving one a friendly clap on the shoulder, and comes out for our planned meeting.
“Hey,” he says to both of us, and winces a little when Sorsha ruffles his hair with the oddly maternal air I only see when she’s next to him.
She only does it briefly so as not to jeopardize his air of authority and then nudges him in the arm. “How’s the new headmaster gig going?”
“Co-headmaster,” Jonah corrects automatically.
Gnash moved to the city from the old academy to help run things here.
I can’t say the growly tiger shifter is my favorite being ever, but his fierce temper and Jonah’s strict practicality seem to balance each other out well.
Lilah, Jonah’s temporary sorcerer colleague, has taken over his old wrangling duties for the original academy.
Sorsha rolls her eyes playfully. “Almost the same thing. You’re not working too hard, I hope.”
He grins back at her. “It can’t be too hard when it’s work I enjoy this much. Some of the new students… It’s pretty incredible what they can do. Once they get a firm handle on their powers, I think the human world will be excited to have them join in.”
Gracie pokes her head out of a room down the hall and hustles over. “Peri! Giving a bit of a tour?”
“Something like that. I hope we’re not interrupting?”
She waves her hand dismissively. “Nah, I was just finishing some paperwork.”
After the new academy opened, Gracie left her old job to come work here. I’m not sure what her exact title is, but she does a mix of guidance for the shadowkind students from a human perspective and outreach to the human community to encourage more acceptance.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing across the board, after all.
While the humans who live in the city see the supernatural elements as a bonus, there are still plenty around the world who are scared of the shadowkind.
At least once a week, I stumble across a fear-mongering news story that makes me cringe.
But a year ago, I saw several of those a day. Things are definitely getting calmer as people have adjusted—and seen just how much shadowkind powers can make their lives easier when floods of darkness aren’t suffocating their cities.
Some parts of the human world are more dangerous for us than others… but any time hunters or sorcerers have tried to make trouble here in Jackson City, they’ve been arrested before they got very far.
It helps that Colonel Hueber and Major Yin both got discharged from the army after the bombing mission was a flop—Hueber ending up in prison after he disputed the affront rather violently, and Yin taking a position consulting with federal law enforcement.
The former major has helped nudge policies in a friendlier direction for shadowkind.
Partly, I think, because he wants to recruit some beings to help with all that enforcing of laws.
“It’s been too long since we really hung out,” I say to Gracie. “We should do another girls’ dinner sometime soon.” Fen, Brine, Vim, and Sorrel usually join us for those.
Gracie gives me a thumbs up. “Pick the time, and I’m there.”
I leave Sorsha to talk with Jonah for longer and head to another meeting I have scheduled to discuss a new project matching up human and shadowkind artists for collaborations. My days are a lot busier than they used to be—girl-bossing it for the win!
By the time the artistic planning is finished, I’m buoyed by satisfaction with the sense of a job if not well done yet then well on the way. With a spring in my step, I head back to the trim two-story house my mates and I call our own.
Mirage is already there, dancing around the kitchen tossing this and that into pots and pans. He’s discovered a love of cooking and often comes up with intriguing combinations of flavors. Somehow they almost always work.
Tonight’s dinner smells amazing. I take a deep breath of the scent—and giggle when Mirage pauses his slicing and stirring to spin me around in his embrace.
“Good day?” he asks, nuzzling my cheek before going in for a kiss.
I kiss him back with a caress of his foxy ears. “Very good.”
Falkor comes bounding downstairs and squirms around my ankles in greeting. I grab his treats out of the cupboard—which emits a breeze most times of day as one of the city’s lingering aftereffects, but I find it refreshing—and toss him a few.
Raze arrives next, humming with a cheerfulness that’s new but increasingly normal over the past few months. He scoops me up and squeezes me close.
Hail arrives on the basilisk shifter’s heels with a disapproving tsk of his tongue that we all know is teasing. “Hoarding her all for yourself like usual, you lug.”
I kiss Raze soundly and hop down to wrap the winter fae in an equally fond embrace. His mood softens as he strokes his fingers over my hair.
Jonah makes it just as Mirage is dishing out dinner. He inhales the wafting scent and smiles at all of us. “I can’t wait to see what you’ve whipped up this time.”
I tug him over to the table. “Did you have a good talk with Sorsha?”
He hooks his arm around mine and leans in to kiss the top of my head. “Yeah, she and the guys are going to stop by next week to do some workshops with the students. My third and fourth levels are already excited.”
We settle in around the table like any family on TV—well, maybe composed slightly differently than the average family, but just as cozy. As I beam around at my men, an urge I can’t totally explain brings my hand to my glass. “We should do a toast.”
“To a year of collaboration?” Jonah asks.
“To that too.” I lift my glass in the air. “But mostly to finding our way home, to making a place where we all belong, together.”
“I’ll drink to that!” Hail says.
We all clink glasses, gulp our drinks, and dig into our dinner. And all the while, the contentment radiating off all of my mates is the most satisfying meal I could ever have asked for.