by Elle Cross
I snapped the windows of my mind shut against those thoughts. Thoughts were like gravity, and I didn’t want to attract attention.
I blew all those thoughts away, like a dragon sweeping the stars from the heavens. A night with no stars.
“Are you meditating, Lady Brightling?”
I chafed under the label, though I was sort of comforted that they addressed me formally. Brightling was sometimes a name for those who lived outside the Fold. Not common, though, not unusual. Brightling was also my lesser title at the Nightmare Court, one that any could use to address me and still be a sign of respect.
My first title.
It was a step up from the other names given to me outside of my mother’s hearing.
My given name is Karina Kori Thana, which meant Karina daughter of Thana. Or, as most of my mother’s court knew me, little Karina, daughter of Thana, the Queen of Nightmares and Death, sovereign over her Nightmare Court as well as over all of the Fold.
Without a power of my own to claim, I had yet to earn a title aside from the one bestowed upon me from my mother’s native gifts at my first Blessed Moon revel.
As the Queen of Nightmares and Death, my mother had blessed me with a limited mastery over death and night, which helped when I wanted to be in the company of ghosts. Not so much when I wanted to avoid duels from other courtiers who saw me as little more than a court jester for all the entertainment I’d given them over the years.
Just the implication—that I was a handmaiden of death—incited challenges. After all, wouldn’t it be such a hoot to kill someone who was supposed to be a Death Hand? Someone who could control death?
The fact that my mother was pleased by the challenges worked my nerves. To her, they proved that I was more powerful than I had appeared, and so would always have a secret advantage over would-be enemies.
To me, I had been happy to survive them.
“Just felt the need to find my focus again, thank you.” It was best to handle those who had access to Source Energy with a bit of respect. “I thought you said that it would be imperative to not have any more contact. Ever.” I clearly heavily implied that what we were doing now was exactly what the Oracle didn’t want me to do. Ever.
“We know what we have told you, Lady Brightling. And there is a risk.” At my sharp inhale, they rushed to continue before I could rant. “However, the risk is a nominal blip compared to the gravity of what we have divined.”
Gee, what a nice way to say that life threatening challenges to me were no big deal.
“The girl was killed by an unknown assailant. You will find out how.”
Wait what? Why do I need to solve a murder? Weren’t there detectives for that? I said as much out loud.
“What are detectives?”
There was no such thing as “murder” in the Fold, as there was no higher court to judge guilt or innocence. If you decided to take a life, you needed to be prepared to answer the blood price that came with it. Blood will out, and all that. If the blood demanded vengeance, their house would act upon it.
Many courts in the Fold had generations-worth of vengeful justice enacted against one house or the other. The families treated this dance of death as an art form.
I had found it, and all the gossip surrounding it, tiresome.
“This is not the work for Shades, Lady Brightling. They cannot see what is clearly in front of their eyes on an ordinary day. This needs to be found out by you. A Brightling in the Shadow Realm can move among Shades where we cannot.”
“Well, isn’t it just your luck that I conveniently died so I could be here for you.”
The Oracles didn’t take my salty bait.
“It was not luck, Lady Brightling. We believe that the force behind this murder is not of the Shades. Power flows, thick and heavy around her. It ripples into our temple.”
“Wait, you are saying you didn’t foresee this happening?”
Silence. That was answer enough.
“It was a lightning strike, Lady Brightling. Something that rippled against us.”
“Why against you? Did it hurt you? Are you all right?” And why had they been unable to see what was to come? That was their whole purpose for being.
“No it did not hurt us. But we are not all right. None of us are for much longer. And that’s why you are there. You need to find out who killed that poor girl. Because whatever did it ripped power away from us.”
Something that could take Source Energy? That’s crazy. That was like saying that something was able to take away gravity, or the turning leaves of fall. It was something that was so natural and intrinsic. “Why did the death of a girl impact you or source energy?”
“Do you not guess, Lady Brightling? The girl was no mere Shade. She was an Oracle, perhaps descended from the line of Delphi.”
Oracles in the Shadow Realm? Well shit. A frisson of energy prickled over my skin. “Does my mother know?”
“Yes.”
And with that I knew something that could not be undone had happened. “Gods above and below, did my mother send a hunting party after me?”
“She only wants you safe. She had kept away because she believed that you would be safe as you were. But now…the thought of going after a killer alone didn’t sit well with her.”
“Safe? They why the fuck did she send Hounds? Or Banshees?”
They cocked their head in unison. “She sends no Hounds, Lady Brightling. In fact she hasn’t been informed of your predicament as of yet. Plus, Banshees and Hounds do not acknowledge your mother as sovereign over the Fold. They have their own allegiances.”
I blinked in confusion until I remembered who I was talking to. Damned Oracles who see everything in the present without a clear timeline.
“So, you’re telling me that as of now, my now, my mother has yet to be informed of my location.” Then she hadn’t sent those hunters for me. Plus they had just confirmed what I thought about the alliances that had to be at play at the train station. Something was bringing more cooperation between usually solitary creatures. If I had fallen into their trap, what would have happened to me?
“She has not known, until this moment.”
As if on cue, I felt the hackles of fear and trembling break out over my body. Even across the veils, the echo of my mother’s power could still affect me. I rolled my eyes with a groan. “You mean because her spies were listening to this conversation and so now she knows.”
“Yes.”
A cawing in the background and I knew it was the spy already. “Tell her I’m fine, and I can take care of myself. Do not bother sending anyone because I’m already on the move.”
The Oracles tilted their head already. “I do not think she cares, Lady Brightling.”
Dammit.
“Have a care, Lady Brightling. This thing has the power to hunt down an Oracle. Even as a child, she should have been well-protected. Sniff him out. Kill him. Destroy him. He moves again.” Their voice petered out into lilting sing-song.
My heart beat like a trapped bird in a cage. Again? Like another child was taken as we spoke?
Damn their language of riddles.
A swirling wind whipped up the rising volume of a murder of crows. “Go now, Lady Brightling. Start your search. Unless you would like to be audience to your mother, the queen? She flies here on a crow’s wing as we speak.”
I took the coward’s way out, and cut the connection with a swipe of my finger.
A glow of energy at my side bloomed as soon as the Oracles winked out. I slowly put the tools away, sealing them back in the box.
“I supposed you heard all of that, huh?”
She nodded, the weight of ancients in the wisp of a ghost child.
I wanted to reach out and comfort her, but it would be no use. “I want to make sure this is all right with you since it concerned you. Do you want me to find your attacker?” I didn’t think ‘murderer’ would have been an appropriate thing to ask a child that had died.
Sometimes, th
e only thing that anchored a ghost to this veil was unfinished business, like not knowing how they had died. I wouldn’t take that choice away from her.
She gripped my finger. In a moment, my minor cuts were healed while she faded a bit.
“Hey, thank you. You don’t need to do that, though. You need your strength.”
She flipped a bunch of images into my head. There was an advantage to having watched some television earlier after all. More pictures and images for her to relay to me. The montage said: The stronger you are, the stronger I will be.
Then she faded away.
A shiver thrilled through me. What she said felt kind of like an omen.
“Hey! Una! Where did you go?” I scrambled from my position, taking a moment to hide the box before walking through the house trying to feel her out. It didn’t feel like she faded.
Was she hiding? Either way, she disappeared along with any information that she could tell me.
Karina
THE ORACLES WANTED ME to find this girl's killer before it was too late, huh? Well, little did they know about the powers that were accessible to me here in the Shadow Realm. I carefully tucked the ancient box away and headed back upstairs.
I might be a Brightling, but I knew how to get what I needed from the Internet.
Knowledge was power in and of itself. My mother wielded it well and I intended to do the same in my own way.
I had the old books that the Oracles left me, and of course, magic. But magic was traceable, and it was only really potent when blood was involved.
And my blood was very traceable.
My random search on my laptop yielded no results. Not even headlines, which I thought extremely unusual. The way normal Shades cared for and cherished their children was something that I could agree with.
I inserted my virtual private network device into my computer then. Maybe I would be able to get better results through the Crimes database.
More results yielded, but they came from disparate places. I continued clicking until my eyes were full of murder and depravity and I had to stop before my dormant powers awakened and answered the call of blood.
I massaged my throbbing temples, and realized that I had piled up a lot of empty mugs and plates full of crumbs while I'd been researching. How many hours had passed? I checked my watch, and it was well into the day, nearly sunset.
I wasn't afraid of the dark necessarily, but I knew there were things that hid there, that grew more powerful at night. Things that I may be too numb to feel.
I swung my backpack on then grabbed my keys.
Despite the pile of used dishes on my desk, my stomach felt empty. Hollow. I grabbed a protein bar and inhaled the thing with the texture of cardboard and twigs so I would not have to taste it.
Maybe that’s what Una meant about being stronger? Maybe I was not keeping up my strength because I was always hungry, and it was affecting her?
More things that I needed to think about.
“Una. If you can hear me, stay here, okay? I do not need you losing any more energy, all right? I’ll be back.”
I locked the door and double locked it with my own sigils just in case.
I told myself that I wasn't superstitiously avoiding the subway when I hailed a cab.
I got to the precinct in less than ten minutes.
I figured if no one could see me then I'd be able to get in, get the files and notes that I needed, and go back home. No problems. Most of the time, the Shades barely remembered who I was. They would look at me like trying to remember where they'd seen me before even though we'd been working together for the past three years.
I was offended at first before realizing that I needed to get over myself. I didn't need to be remembered, just needed to pass the time and do whatever good I could in this second life of mine.
So what If I got lonely from time to time. That was my penance, was it not?
I just had to avoid the squad leader, who always seemed to remember who I was and saw me when I didn't want to be seen.
I rode the multiple elevators to get to the floor I needed. There was a disturbance out in the booking area at this level. It looked like the man was having issues, acting wild and crazed. I thought to lend a hand to their fray, but my squad leader and other officers were on him. A great distraction.
I skirted along the edges of the hallway hoping not to be seen. I grabbed the files I needed. I saw another file, the red corner of the folder catching my eye at the desk of one of the detectives. As soon as I touched it, there was that familiar punch in the gut. The dormant powers I’d been blessed with reacting to it. A foretelling.
Or, what my squad leader would call bad juju.
I was too busy being sneaky, that I bumped right into an officer.
“Whoa, there. You can’t be here.”
I made my voice as bland as possible. “Officer McNab. It’s me. Bright. IT. Analyst.” I waved my little badge at him, too.
He blinked and it was like the shadows lifted from his eyes for a moment. Shaking his head, he chuckled, his facing blazing red. “Oh duh! I knew that! I must have gotten knocked a bit harder than I thought. We’re grabbing drinks later, wanna come?”
His lopsided grin was endearing. He always tried to flirt with me whenever he remembered who I was, but he did nothing for me.
“Sure, I’ll see you there.”
“Cool.” He skipped to his desk whistling an off key tune. He wouldn’t remember me after another minute, but it was nice to be invited.
I worked my way backwards out of the precinct. It was fully dark out.
Night fell quickly this time of year.
My car service was a little late, and I wasn't surprised given the traffic from rush hour. When it finally arrived, I dashed into it. It wasn't until it moved away that I realized that I had picked up another Hunter.
Karina
IT TOOK LESS THAN ten minutes for me to get back to my neighborhood.
Too soon, though, we were in front of my house, and I had dread pooling in the pit of my stomach.
"Miss? You okay?" the driver asked.
He looked at me like if he had yet to decide whether I was lost or crazy. I could almost hear his thoughts now, doubting perhaps that I was a law enforcement person, and perhaps I was actually someone who was supposed to be locked up rather than out in the wild with people.
I shook my head, and decided to let him feel my fear. "Sorry, I thought there was someone out there.” I scrambled for something plausible. “My ex could be a little intense.”
Concern furrowed his brow now. "Here, let me walk you to your door."
He unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled the latch on the door.
Shadows flickered and moved again, a little in my periphery. I saw it this time. Unmistakable. And not a trick of the light.
It was nearing my townhouse, across the street, flitting from shadow to shadow.
My heart lurched. I couldn't let this man go out there. Whatever was waiting wouldn't care if he died.
I reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him from getting out. "No worries. Thank you, for trying to help me."
As the car drove away from me, I became suddenly aware of how truly quiet this neighborhood was. So quiet, I could hear the faint snick-snack of scissoring claws drawing nearer.
The beating of my heart thundered like war drums readying for battle. The swell of magic and power called to me, twin notes rising in a deadly aria of a siren's song.
I didn't know what waited for me in that darkness, but I knew a few things: There was more than one of them out there.
They were powerful.
And, I was alone.
Shadows curled away from the townhouse across the street from mine. I took off in a dead run toward the end of the street, leading them away from my house. I didn’t want them to overrun my safe haven, no matter the wards I put up. Shrieks of frustration rose and another answered. Two of them.
The chill that bore down on me w
as unmistakably from a hunter. A Shrike. I opened my senses. At this point, what good was keeping my powers under wraps when I might be torn apart?
I saw the insect-like legs moving the shadows around me. But where there was one, there was another. They hunted as a mated pair, two-by-two, impaling their prey on sharp branches or small trees so they would slowly die. A fate I would rather avoid.
I'd been running on fumes all day. The only thing I had left in me to do was shield and shield hard. But I needed to concentrate enough to write out the glyphs. I ducked into an alley that the neighbors converted into a community garden with little time to spare. I tried digging into the earth, but the glyphs wouldn't hold together.
It was Una. She stood between planter boxes of tomatoes nearly ripe for picking.
I flipped through the key chains in my hand and drew out the pocket knife from the Swiss Army key chain, puncturing my arm to get blood fast. "You're a child, and you're barely powerful enough to maintain form, let alone be my shield."
The Shrike pair clattered to a stop at the edge of the alley at the smell of my blood.
"Una, get back!" I scrawled the glyphs in my blood, as quickly as I could while still forming the words of power with my intention.
Una, though, ignored me and merely glowed, becoming a glaring light. I squinted to keep from being blinded until I could finish my glyph.
The Shrike pair split and circled out of sight.
There were more of them in the alley now. At least three pairs. Every now and again their swooping call signaled another pass, testing the edges of my wards. I didn't know how much longer I could keep this up. The blood trickling down my arm slowed. My glyphs dimmed.
I was on my hands and knees, straining to keep the buzzing sound from overtaking my mind. Their shrieks were like a siren song tempting me out of my ring of safety.
My vision narrowed into pinpoints of light.
I dug my hands into the earth. It sustained me, kept me from going dark. I kept my focus on the ground, the sweat breaking over my skin, the blood coating my arm.
