Page 65

ONE

Sorsha

I wouldn’t have thought my journey toward ending the world would involve a glamoured RV plastered with copious amounts of glitter, but hey, we couldn’t always choose our fates.

At least the glitter was all on the inside—as far as I knew, anyway. At this point, I’d only seen the outside in its various glamoured states. With a push of the button on the dashboard, the luxurious ride could appear to be anything from a school bus to a military submarine.

We hadn’t tried out the latter of those just yet, more’s the pity.

Right now, the RV was in its tour bus guise—an excellent multipurpose facade that could fit in just about anywhere. Like, for example, the parking lot outside a state park’s nature center. The building with all its displays about local flora and fauna was closed for the night, but we weren’t here to brush up on our environmental acumen anyway. About half a mile off one of the forest trails lay a rift that connected this mortal world to the shadow realm.

The seven beings who stood around me—or in the case of my little dragon, Pickle, on me, in his favorite perch on my shoulder—all belonged to that other realm. Only three of them were returning to it this evening, though.

Gisele adjusted her stance next to her partner, Bow, who had his arm around her torso to help her keep her balance. A few days ago, the unicorn shifter had been nearly mortally wounded in a battle with the Company of Light, a secret organization we’d discovered that was dedicated to ridding all worlds of the shadowkind by whatever means necessary. Gisele, Bow, and their friend Cori were heading back to their natural home so she could hurry along her recovery.

She gave the RV one last mournful glance. “You take good care of the Everymobile, all right?” The three of them were kindly lending us their vehicle, glitter and all, to continue our quest to take down the Company. As a thank you slash apology, we’d fixed up the broken windows and other bits that’d been battered in that recent skirmish.

Ruse shot the unicorn shifter one of his typical smirks, making his gorgeous face even more roguish, and patted the RV’s side. “We’ll treat her like a member of the family—the best of everything.”

I jumped in before Omen, the leader of our little group, could bring up the fact that I’d supposedly gotten two of our previous vehicles destroyed—as if it were somehow my fault the Company’s mercenaries had decided to target our means of transportation.

“You’ve been healing so fast,” I said. “I bet you’ll be back to collect her in no time.”

“Back to rejoin you in crushing those assholes,” Gisele muttered, her voice managing to keep its sparkle even when she was grumbling. “There are consequences to messing with a unicorn.”

Omen tipped his head with its tawny, slicked-back hair to her—just slightly, but a major show of respect from the hellhound shifter, who was the most powerful shadowkind I’d ever met. An air of menacing authority radiated off him, as consistent as his breath. “We’ll continue paying out those consequences until you return. We’ve got plenty of bones to pick with the Company.”

“I’m looking forward to clobbering many more of them,” Bow announced. He’d done a good deal of clobbering already with the massive haunches and hooves of his full shadowkind form. After seeing him as a centaur, I couldn’t quite accept the standard human appearance he took on to blend in with mortals. Like all the shadowkind who traveled here, he did keep one of his monstrous features no matter how human he tried to pass as: in his case, a glorious mohawk mane of chestnut hair.

Thorn, the third of my current companions, straightened his considerable height even taller with a flex of his bulging biceps. The moonlight glinted off the one shadowkind feature he couldn’t hide: his crystalline knuckles, also highly useful for bashing our enemies. His deep, gravelly voice came out as somber as always. “The villains have much to answer for.”

They did. Just remembering Gisele’s crumpled form after the ambush, smoke billowing off her like blood would have poured from a mortal, sent a prickle of angry heat through my chest. The sensation flared hotter at the thought of what the murderous Company pricks might be doing to the fourth member of my monstrous quartet now.

Snap had been the sweetest, gentlest being I’d ever met, humans included—even if, yes, he was also capable of inflicting inexpressible pain by devouring mortal souls. He’d been so ashamed of using that power to save me that he’d taken off on his own and been captured by the Company. Their scientists ran torturous experiments on the shadowkind they imprisoned. Imagining the devourer on one of their steel lab tables brought the searing heat to the base of my throat.

In the last week, I’d discovered a supernatural power inside myself, one no mortal should contain. So maybe I wasn’t all mortal, even if neither I nor the shadowkind with me had been aware that was possible. I didn’t know what I was, but I did know I’d happily send anyone who laid a hand on Snap up in flames. I didn’t think it’d even be difficult to summon the fire inside me now. The Company had messed with the wrong gal.

As if sensing my mood, Pickle squirmed from one shoulder to the other and pressed his scaly neck against my cheek. As we waved our good-byes to the equines and their friend, I reached up to scratch the dragon’s belly. He let out a pleased snort.

Maybe I should have been sending him back home along with the others. He wasn’t equipped to fight in what had become a full-out war. But there was a reason I’d kept him after rescuing him from one of the collectors of the supernatural whose menageries of beasties I’d enjoyed freeing. His jailor had gotten Pickle’s wings clipped so he could barely fly. I suspected that on the other side of the divide, he’d quickly become prey to other sorts of predators.

Could I even call the shadow realm his “home” now that he’d spent the past two years living here with me?

Gisele glanced back at us one final time and blew us a kiss I’d swear twinkled in the deepening dusk. Then she and her companions vanished into the shadows between the trees. The late-summer breeze twined around us, cool enough now to raise goosebumps on my arms. We turned back toward our ride.

Omen folded his arms over his chest and gave the RV a rare approving look. “We’ve got a long road ahead of us, Darlene.”

I bit my lip and exchanged a glance with Ruse, barely holding in a snicker. Omen liked to name his vehicles, from his now-demolished station wagon—R.I.P., Betsy—to the motorcycle he called Charlotte that was currently mounted on the Everymobile’s back end. Of course, this time there was one small issue that I couldn’t help raising.

“You know, I don’t think you should really be naming things that don’t belong to you.”

Omen let out a huff. “She does for the time being. All right, folks. Let’s get on this thing and point her toward Chicago.”

A shadowkind who knew his way around computers had been able to determine from the Company’s files that Snap had been sent to the Windy City. Before we tackled the head of the murderous organization, who as far as he’d been able to determine operated out of San Francisco, we were getting our devourer back.

Of course, that was easier said than done.

As Ruse took the driver’s seat with a twirl of the silver spangle dangling from the rear-view mirror, I sank onto the white leather sofa that curved around a sleek dining table. Omen propped himself against the kitchen’s marble counter. The hellhound shifter seemed to be most comfortable on his feet.

“How hard do you think it’ll be for us to find the facility where they’re holding Snap once we get to the city?” I asked. In my hometown, I’d relied on the connections I’d spent over a decade developing, and Omen had been able to call in a favor from a local shadowkind gang that had owed him. I didn’t know anyone in Chicago.

There was probably a branch of the Shadowkind Defense Fund there, but I couldn’t expect the people back home to provide introductions. I’d burned through a lot of bridges—metaphorically speaking, but we wouldn’t get into what I’d literally burned—in the last few days.

“It’s easy enough to sniff out the beings with the most influence if you know what to look for,” Omen said with his usual aloof confidence. “If they haven’t picked up on any hint of the malevolent organization rounding up their own, then they barely deserve to be called shadowkind.”

Thorn had come to stand beside the sofa. He squeezed my shoulder with one of his large hands. “We’ll rescue the devourer, m’lady—and make the miscreants regret ever ensnaring him. No matter what it takes.”

Yes, we would. We’d managed to take on a local head of the Company operations and raze his home to the ground—and that after freeing all my city’s imprisoned shadowkind and uploading a virus that would decimate their computer systems as well. But my stomach stayed knotted.

It was possible that Snap’s capture was a teensy bit my fault. We’d gotten… close over the weeks since he and his companions had shown up in my apartment unannounced. In every meaning of that word. He’d become as devoted to me as he was to sampling every edible item he could get his hands on. I didn’t know exactly why he’d left, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had at least a little to do with the fact that when I’d first seen him in full devourer form, I’d been horrified. And I probably hadn’t hidden my reaction all that well.

My momentary horror hadn’t changed how much I trusted and cared about Snap. I’d tried to show him that, but in the chaos afterward, he’d slipped away before I’d gotten much chance. If he’d had any idea how much I missed his divinely golden beauty, the possessive tenderness with which he’d doted on me, his awe at every new discovery he made in the mortal realm…

My throat constricted. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d miss him either. I wasn’t in the habit of getting all that emotionally attached to my lovers since years ago, when a long-time boyfriend had ghosted me out of the blue, leaving nothing but a note and our apartment half-empty. Snap’s earnest affection had been like a balm on the wounds that had never quite healed in my heart.

But we’d be on the road all night before we made it to Chicago and could even start our search for him. There were other people I cared about that I might be able to help right now. As I sank deeper into the cozy leather cushions, Pickle cuddling against my thigh, I dug my phone out of my purse.

“I’d better touch base with Vivi—let her know what’s happened.”

Omen made a derisive sound at the mention of my mortal best friend and turned away to consult his own phone.

“I’ll keep watch over the road behind us,” Thorn said, and stepped into the shadows to give me a little privacy.

Vivi answered on the first ring. I guessed she didn’t have a whole lot to keep her energetic mind occupied on the houseboat we’d turned into a sort of safe house for her after some Company goons had attacked her.

“Sorsha!” she said. “I’ve been going crazy here wondering what’s going on. What’s happened? Did you crush the bad guys?”

The corner of my mouth twitched upward, but the knots in my stomach tightened at the same time. Vivi was an enthusiastic supporter of our cause, but we’d had a bit of a falling out over her treating the conflict like an adventure rather than a potentially lethal clash.

“We got all the shadowkind out,” I said. “And we destroyed as much of the Company property as we could. But… it turns out their organization stretches way beyond the city. They’ve got other bases of operations all across the country.”

“Shit.” I could practically see my bestie’s grimace over the phone. “They’re like some kind of cockroach hydra, more creepy hairy legs springing up every time you think you’ve cut one off.”

Vivi had a way with metaphors. I couldn’t say that one wasn’t accurate.

“Yeah.” I made an answering grimace at the cupboards across from me—which probably still contained the equines’ treasured stash of grass, hay, clover, and… the other kind of “grass.” “So, that means it might be safe for you to go back to life as usual, but I don’t know for sure. Maybe they’ll focus on ramping up their security everywhere else, or maybe the other ‘legs’ will send more people your way looking to strike back any way they can.”

As usual, Vivi didn’t sound particularly fazed. “I’m keeping in touch with the Fund people. If no one comes sniffing around—or worse—in the next couple days, I’ll risk showing my face again. I’ve got enough food here to last that long, but I can’t hide away forever.” She paused. “Ellen got out of the hospital, by the way. They say she’s recovering quickly.”

A rush of relief swept through me. “That’s really good to hear.” The co-leader of our branch of the Fund had nearly been another casualty of my involvement in this war. The Company had beat her up to send a warning my way—and turned the rest of the Fund members against me in the process.

“What are our next steps?” Vivi said, breaking into my uncomfortable reverie. “How are we taking down these assholes?”

The “we” made me wince. What had happened to Ellen—and nearly happened to Vivi—was exactly why I had to give her an answer I knew she wouldn’t like.

“I’m already on the road with my shadowkind friends to see about that. You just focus on staying safe. If there’s anything you can do to pitch in from there, I’ll let you know.”

“What, you took off on me? Sorsha…” Vivi couldn’t disguise the disappointment in her voice.

“I couldn’t ask you to uproot your whole life when this feud has already sent you into hiding twice,” I said quickly. “You’ve got a job; you’ve got family—and we don’t know what else these psychos are going to throw at us.”

“Hey, if you can stand up to them, there’s no reason why my mortal self can’t too.”

Other than that I wasn’t sure exactly how mortal—or not—I was. But I hadn’t told Vivi about my newly unearthed powers. Either she’d get all excited like they were a cool new app I’d downloaded into my personal operating system, or… or something would shift in her tone the way it did when she talked about the shadowkind. Because she’d see me as something not-quite-human too.

I kept my tone breezy. “No reason except for the ones I just gave you. Trust me, the best thing you can do for the cause right now is keep out of trouble and be ready for when a good opportunity for you to step in does come up.”

“All right, all right. But I expect regular updates. No holding out on me, Sorsh.”

“Of course,” I said with a pinch of guilt.

When we’d said our good-byes, I tucked my knees against my chest and gazed gloomily out the window at the darkening sky. I didn’t like this weight of worry pressing down on me. I was the Robin Hood of monster emancipation—I laughed in the face of danger.

It was just a heck of a lot easier to do that when the danger was only coming at you and not everyone else you cared about too.

I pushed my posture straighter and gathered my resolve. Auntie Luna, the fae woman who’d raised me—and who’d died evading the Company’s hunters—had given me a lot of things, not least of which was a thorough indoctrination in the joy of all things ‘80s. There was nothing for honoring her contributions to my life and pumping up my spirits like mangling an excellent song lyric or two.

“Never gonna give it up, never gonna fret and frown,” I sang into the quiet of the RV, ignoring the face Omen pulled in my direction. “Now we’re gonna run you down and see hurt through!”

I pictured Snap standing beside me while another building burned down in front of us. One more Company facility destroyed; one more set of baddies slaughtered. The villains had it coming to them.

Without even trying, a surge of heat seared through me. My fingers curled around the edge of the seat. I closed my eyes, the swell of sensation inside me so intense that I lost my breath.

Burn it. Burn it all down like they deserve.

In that moment, I felt as if I could have leveled the entire city of Chicago with one blast of the rage inside me. My pulse hiccupped. The flames were rising higher, slipping between my ribs and out through my skin, faster and more furious than I could control?—

A sharp sting shot across my fingers. I jerked my arms toward me, biting back a yelp. My gaze dropped to my hands, and a chill settled over me that doused that inner fire.

Holy mother of magma. My fingertips shone red, still stinging with the brush of the air. As if I’d set myself on fire.