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TWENTY

Sorsha

A spurt of flame leapt up from the ball hurtling toward me—and at the same time, a crackling heat washed over my hand. As I dodged out of the way of the now fiery projectile, I clapped my fingers against my shirt and restrained a wince at the stinging.

“You’re not keeping your focus,” Omen said from where he’d leaned against the wall of the batting cage a few feet away. “You can’t expect to maintain control if you’re not even paying attention.”

“Sorry for having a few other things on my mind the day after I discovered I’m some kind of never-before-heard-of human-shadowkind fusion,” I shot back, and waved my hand in the air to dispel any lingering heat.

“If you’re not up to continuing, we can leave things here.”

“I didn’t say that .” Imagine the party he’d throw if I ever admitted I couldn’t meet one of his challenges. Oh, no, this gal was in it to win it. Even if I wasn’t totally sure what “winning it” would look like. Not frying myself at random, presumably.

The batting cage training session had actually gone pretty well at first. As Omen had set up the ball launcher to, well, launch balls in the approximate direction of my face, the other shadowkind had come out to watch. With Antic’s eager cheers, Ruse’s sly praise, and Thorn’s and Snap’s quieter but powerful support, I’d been able to put what I’d learned about my history and Ellen’s refusal from my mind.

But now the daylight was dwindling. The time was creeping closer to the Fund meeting Omen was grudgingly agreeing to let me attend, and it was getting harder to tune out the niggling uncertainties.

And look what that got me. Scalded fingers—nice work, Sorsha.

I squared my shoulders and readied myself for the next ball. The machine chucked it at me with all the intensity of a nuclear missile launch.

My eyes narrowed, and the leather surface burst into flames. The ball streaked through the air like a meteorite, dissolving into ash just before it reached me. As the charred remains pattered to the ground with a whiff of smoke, I braced myself for a matching singe across my skin, but none came. Thank buttery boom sticks. For once, my trainer couldn’t complain.

“Better,” Omen said. “You can pull it off—now you just have to keep doing that.”

“Thanks for the excellent coaching, boss. Where would I be without your sage wisdom?”

The corner of his mouth curved slightly upward. “Searing yourself to a crisp, I’ve gathered.”

Before I could come up with an acceptable retort, Thorn emerged from the shadows, back from a quick patrol of the area. We must have been safe from marauding hunters and actual missile launchers, because his expression was… if not happy , because Thorn rarely managed to look anything other than serious, then at least semi-relaxed.

“Maybe our mortal has put in enough work for the day,” he suggested mildly. “No one can focus well once they’re worn out.”

I dragged in a breath and found my muscles were starting to get a bit trembly from the effort I’d been exerting for the last few hours. “You have a point. I want to be sharp for this meeting, too.” I glanced at Omen with a quirk of my eyebrow. “Unless you have any objections, dog breath?”

The shifter smiled thinly at me, but his gaze wasn’t anywhere near as icy as it’d been when he’d first attempted to train me weeks ago. It might even have been a tiny bit warm. “Have a break then, Disaster. But don’t expect me to cut the human side of you any slack.”

He stalked back to the Everymobile. I rolled my shoulders, walking in a circuit of the arena to stretch my legs at the same time. When I came around to my original spot, Thorn had lingered there, waiting for me.

“These recent events—they’re weighing on you,” he said.

The gentle concern that came through his low voice sent a flutter through my chest. There was nothing quite like the reminder that one of my greatest marvels had been melting this warrior’s stern demeanor.

“It’s a lot,” I said. “Especially when all I’ve got now is more questions. If it’d turned out my parents had a shadowkind work magic on me or whatever, that would have been a little easier to wrap my head around. And everything with the Fund…” I rubbed my arms and let out a little laugh. “I guess I really did burn those bridges right to the ground. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m making tonight’s appeal to people who barely know me.”

Thorn let out a rumbling sound. “I don’t think your behavior necessarily dictated how your former colleagues responded to your request for help, m’lady.”

“No? They sure acted like it had.”

“I’ve observed—there’s a way all beings tend toward—” He paused, glancing around. The other shadowkind had left as far as I could tell, but either someone had stuck around in the shadows or Thorn felt we were too close to our home base for comfort. He motioned for me to follow him.

We meandered around the rusting fence surrounding the rundown facility and on toward the river, much farther down than we’d been parked before. I scooped up a pebble from the sidewalk and tossed it at the water, accomplishing a whole one skip before it sank with a ring of ripples.

Thorn gazed solemnly toward the opposite bank with its concrete barrier. “I saw it often during the wars,” he said. His expression and his tone told me he had to be talking about the vicious battles fought several centuries ago, in which the wingéd had divided to support opposing factions of humans and battled each other. “We were always trying to stir up other shadowkind to our cause, as I suppose our brethren who opposed us must have as well, but rarely did they join in even if they voiced agreement.”

“To be fair, there were quite a bit more people dying in that conflict than have in our ‘war’ against the Company so far,” I had to point out.

“Perhaps. But one truth I have seen across my time is that beings will almost always retreat from a fight unless they are dragged into it by a motivation much deeper than a plea to their generosity. I fought because I couldn’t turn away from my brethren when they called on me, because at least for some time I thought that if I fought well enough, fewer of us would die…”

When he lapsed into silence, I tucked my hand around his powerful arm. I’d heard the warrior voice regrets that he hadn’t been there for his comrades enough, but never with the hint of doubt that had come into his tone now.

“Are you thinking you might have been wrong about that?” I asked.

Thorn’s jaw worked. “The things I’ve seen and learned over the past few weeks have made me question many things, including my own judgments of the past. I’m starting to wonder if perhaps we would all have been better off if we hadn’t been so quick to leap to each other’s aid at arms but instead had stopped to discuss just how necessary the warring was to begin with.”

I leaned into him, pressing a quick peck to his shoulder. “You’re turning into a pacifist on me. I’m shocked.”

“I wouldn’t go quite that far.” He eased his arm right around me and traced a line of heat up and down my side with the stroke of his fingers. “I will defend you and the rest of our companions by whatever means necessary as long as breath remains in this body. But do you know… I never was even certain of what we were fighting for , or why our brothers who rose up against us were so convinced they needed to strike out at us. How many of us leapt into the fray so ignorantly? What if most of those deaths could have been avoided?” He shook himself. “But we’re getting away from your concerns of the present.”

“That’s okay. I get to be concerned about you too. And it sounds like it’s a good thing you’re questioning the past. Better now than never. I still think the Fund doesn’t have anywhere near as much an excuse for staying out of our battles. Their whole purpose is supposed to be helping the shadowkind—and they’ve heard plenty about why we’re fighting the Company.”

“Well, there are other, less honorable reasons one might avoid conflict too.” Thorn’s hand stilled against me. “When I first heard that the Company’s presence extends into Europe, I must confess that something in me balked. To return to the lands where I fought before, or at least close to them—But it isn’t as if much remains of that time anyway. It’s only in my mind that the uneasiness dwells. The few of us remaining wingéd scattered far and wide after the slaughter. We’re closer now to one of my former companions than I might ever be across the ocean.”

I raised my head. “There’s another wingéd around here? Where’ve you been hiding them away?”

Thorn chuckled grimly. “With so few of us remaining, we’re attuned to each other’s presence. I couldn’t tell you how many exist in the entire world, but a few hours before arriving in this city, I could tell there was another of my kind some distance to the west. Perhaps even in San Francisco.”

I was about to point out how that could potentially come in handy when Ruse hollered from the direction of the distant RV. “Oh, Sorsha! You’ve got a gentleman caller.”

Thorn frowned. I gave his arm a tug. “Come on, let’s see what he’s going on about.”

It didn’t take long to figure out. When we reached the Everymobile, the rest of our group was standing on the pavement outside it, in a loose ring around a lanky figure with floppy black hair and pointed ears. Gloam the elf had come to visit.

If it hadn’t been for the hair and the ears, I might not have recognized him. The evening was settling in around us, but Gloam was glancing around with far more pep than I would have imagined he could exude. His hair no longer drooped but swished with the movement of his head. He rubbed his hands together and shot a wide grin my way.

Maybe I was hallucinating? But Omen, Ruse, and the others were all staring at the elf with equal amounts of bemusement.

“I’ve come to join your quest,” Gloam said with a playful bow. “You mentioned that you were looking for more shadowkind to help you tackle these enemies of all of us. How can I hide away when adventure calls?”

I just barely held myself back from gaping at him. Antic bounded around him, jerking at his clothes and poking him here and there, her mouth twisting at a puzzled angle.

“What’s the big deal?” she demanded. “You got two beings in the same body or something?”

“Just the one.” He smiled at her too as if oblivious to her prodding.

She turned to the rest of us and jabbed her thumb at him. “No way is this the same guy we met in the sewers. Maybe toxic waste mutated a twin!”

“Oh!” Gloam said with a lilting laugh. “I see the confusion. I apologize for how downcast you must have found me yesterday. You see, I’m a night elf. When the stars and moon are out, I’m rejuvenated. During the daylight hours, I haven’t much energy to put on a good face.”

Understatement of the year. But having now met the perky version of Gloam, I could believe Luna had been best buds with him.

“I don’t suppose you bring any special combat skills or potent magic to the table?” Omen asked.

Gloam shrugged with the same buoyant grin. “I can cast my own darkness.”

“In more ways than one,” Ruse remarked, smirking.

“We’re glad to have you on board,” I said, half afraid the others’ skepticism would send him back into his previously depressed state. “You made it just in time. We’re going to be heading out any minute now.”

Antic was still eyeing the elf suspiciously, but she snapped her fingers and darted toward the RV. “Come on. I’ll show you where you can make a spot for yourself. Just remember, any pranks or tricks, I call the shots.”

Omen caught my eye as the rest of us moved to follow them. His voice came out cool, but he couldn’t totally flatten the amusement in it. “How is it that you manage to conscript the most useless beings to our cause, Disaster?”

I held up my hands, matching his tone. “Don’t blame this on me, boss man. You’re the one who mentioned our grand crusade to him.”

Omen’s expression twitched as he must have realized I was right. “I didn’t invite him,” he said. “But I suppose I can’t blame you if he invited himself. Other than your optimism might have influenced me into mentioning it at all.”

I swatted him. “Sure, I’ll take the blame, as long as I also get the credit when he ends up foiling the Company on our behalf.”

“Rather than waiting on the chance of that, you’d better keep practicing that self-control. A little of me has to rub off on you eventually.”

“Hey, my amazing abilities are thanks to me alone.”

“And aren’t we all grateful for that,” Omen muttered, climbing the steps, but I thought I caught a flicker of a smile.

He hadn’t needed to practice with me today. He hadn’t needed to dedicate himself to helping me control my powers at all. I wouldn’t have expected it to necessarily matter to him if one human—well, half-human—burnt herself up as long as I burned down the baddies in the process. But apparently he did, and that softened any snappy retorts I might have tossed at him.

However much he’d come to value my contributions, it didn’t stop Omen from tossing out a little more snark when Ruse parked down the street from the gaming store. “Make your plea and be back here in ten, or maybe we’ll leave you with these bozos.”

“You’d better leave me Darlene, then, since you won’t be needing her without my mortal ass around,” I informed him on my way out.

I’d texted Monica to give her a heads up that I’d be stopping by. Apparently the Austin branch of the Fund was particularly cautious about people infiltrating their secret lair: the password had already changed, to “Yoshitaka.” I gave it to the same dude behind the counter and strolled on in to the evening meeting.

A couple more people had shown up for this one: a slight, middle-aged woman with a Tinkerbell pixie cut and a young man whose not-entirely-successful attempt at growing a moustache looked like tufts of grass poking up from a desert plain. Klaus was standing at the foot of the table, waving his arms emphatically as he made some point about, “…might be the only real chance we get.”

Everyone looked over when I came in, and a smile leapt to Klaus’s face. “I think we’re all decided,” he said before turning back to the others. “Are we?”

Monica nodded slowly, the Man in Black and the scraggly moustache dude more emphatically. Klaus beamed, the rosiness in his rounded cheeks making him look even more like Saint Nick.

“That’s great,” I said. “Er… What are you decided about?”

“You made it clear there’s a menace lurking that’s a threat to both the shadowkind and those of us trying to help them. We can’t look the other way. Let us know where you need us and what we can do, and we’ll pitch in however we can.”

I’d expected to have a debate on my hands, but apparently it’d already happened without me, spearheaded by Father Christmas himself. And it wasn’t anywhere near December 25 th . I’d still take this gift, thank you very much.

I grinned back at him. “Okay, I take back my ‘great’ and raise it to ‘awesome.’ We’re definitely going to need all the help we can get. I can’t stay very long because we’re about to head out, but we’ll be regrouping in San Francisco. If any of you are willing to make the trip and help us on the ground, maybe even just coordinating with the Fund branch there, that’d be huge. But even doing some information gathering or similar from afar would be useful.”

Klaus rubbed his hands together. “I haven’t been out to the west coast in years. A vacation and a campaign of righteousness in one—sounds good to me. I’ll just have to check the flights.” He glanced around at his companions. “Who’s with me? You’ve got to figure out your own way there, but I can cover an AirBNB big enough for all of us.”

“I’ve got the time off already,” the Man in Black said. “Count me in.”

The pixie woman raised her hand. “I think I can make it work. I’ll just have to make a couple of calls.”

“Same here,” Monica said, and inclined her head to me. “Keep me in the loop with what’s going on and what else you discover. If you could email me a full run-down of how you’ve tackled these people so far so we can start our own strategizing, that would be great.”

I wasn’t sure I really wanted them knowing that our strategy so far had involved a lot of torn-off heads, disemboweled torsos, and charbroiled corpses. As the memories darted through my head, a wavering heat shot over my arms—and a flame shot up over the knuckles of my right hand.

It was barely a flash of light, there and then gone as I jerked my hand against my side. I bit my tongue at the stinging sensation but held in my yelp. Still, spontaneously catching on fire is the sort of thing it’s difficult to keep on the down-low. When I looked up, several of the eyes watching me had widened.

Time to divert and refocus! “Of course,” I said quickly, clasping my hands in front of me as if nothing at all unusual had sparked from them. “It’ll be a bit of a novel, but I can give you the gist with all the important stuff.”

“Excellent.” Monica smiled, which I hoped meant everything was still a-okay. I had the feeling apologizing for my near-combustion would only make things worse.

“I’ll get started on that then. And reach out once we’re in San Francisco so we can meet up. Don’t you lose my number.” I wagged a finger at the group at large and hightailed it out of there before my prickling nerves could let loose any further supernatural special effects.