The bandages wrapped around my arms and legs, binding them tightly. Glitter pushed me over, but softened my fall with his leg.
“Why?” I managed to say in between breaths, his control beginning to fade. The world no longer smelled like dessert.
Dessert. That’s what he’d called me. I thought he was scared. That he needed me. Needed a friend. I tried to care for him. To look out for him.
I hated him.
“We all have our role to play,” he said, his voice now strong and in full control.
“I saved you!” my voice sounded as raw as my emotions.
“No,” he said. “I was never a part of the Chengzu Guild.” He bent down, so he would be closer to me. I struggled to stand up, but the bonds held me tight. “I just needed to get your Guild to come play.”
His eyes narrowed. His dark, non-glowing eyes. These eyes were filled with purpose. Cold, calculated purpose.
I missed Glitter. I missed the glowing green eyes. I missed my weird little friend.
“Do you ever wonder if it’s all necessary?” he whispered, as though speaking to himself. “Do you wonder if we really need the guilds?”
“It’s how we live in peace with humans,” I said.
“Is it?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. The bandages around his face were also slipping away. I could see skin beneath them, though I couldn’t make out a color. All that I knew for sure was that he was Traded. “How come the ones who came before us got to just slip in as part of the population?”
“What?” I asked, trying to buy time as I worked on the bonds behind my back. I dislocated a thumb when he looked away for a split second, hoping he didn’t see the pain flash across my face. That was one trick that didn’t get easier.
“There’s a reason these guilds were formed, and I doubt keeping us in line is even the main one.”
Even with the thumb completely out, I couldn’t work my hands free. The bandages wrapped too tightly up my arms, too. Frustrated tears sprang to my eyes.
“What do you want with me?”
“With you?” He asked, surprised. “Well, this,” he showed me the container.
“But… you took the old woman who could also fold shadows.”
“Yes,” he said, nodding. “But that’s a feature, not the main selling point. The fact that she didn’t come twenty years ago, well, now that I’m interested in.”
I moaned slowly. He didn’t want me. I’d just been the path to the canister. He wanted Ian. A gift. I struggled more against my bonds, but everything hurt, and they didn’t even shift under my efforts.
“Listen,” the man who I could no longer call Glitter said as he stood up, perfectly straight. “I don’t mean you harm, but others do. They will come. The Guild of Shadows has accumulated too many secrets already. They will not be able to contain them.”
He hid the canister back in his hoody. “No more than this canister can contain what’s needed next.”
“Why do you need it?” I asked, feeling him slip away from me. I needed answers. I needed to know what he intended to do with it. With Ian, still unconscious beside me, tongue lolling out of his doggie mouth.
“For the next steps, Tira,” he picked up Ian, cradling the dog in his hands.
“Let him go!” I screamed, thrashing against the bonds, pulling my hand through, but too slowly. The bonds seemed to be releasing, just like his control over my mind had evaporated.
“Don’t follow us,” the man said, and he vanished.
I pulled my hand free. “Ian!” I screamed, but the corridor stood empty, and not even my echo bothered answering me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I sat in my room in the new-to-me Guild of Shadows. The transport here had been a blur. I hurt. They’d patched me up, but the bandages had cut deep, and the burns had begun to peel.
My heart hurt most of all. I didn’t know what to do with the grief. Ian had been right there. Right. There. And I couldn’t save him.
I told him we’d be friends forever. But forever counted on both of us being alive.
What are they doing to you, Ian?
A knock came at my door. I swallowed hard, and before I could fully compose myself and open it, Sonsil stepped in.
I started to stand, but he indicated to me to remain seated. He took the chair opposite me, his elbows on his knees. He looked tired.
Old, even. Like the battle and loss of so many operatives had sapped him of strength.
“We can’t find any trace of Ian,” he said softly. “We looked everywhere. I’ve had every remaining operative seek him out, but no luck.”
He sounded genuinely grief-stricken. Why had Ian not trusted him?
“I should have been able to keep him safe,” I muttered, not looking at him. I couldn’t bear to see the weight of loss crush his proud shoulders.
“Ian would have done anything to protect you,” he said. “I’ve never known him to have a friend. It distracted him.”
“That’s why you wanted to separate us,” I practically spat out. “Get me killed in action so he’d be back to his full potential again?”
He gave a low chuckle, taking me by surprise. “Of course not,” he said. “I’d have posted you to the backwoods somewhere, if it would have helped keep him safe. Less distracted.”
“If we stopped separating each other, if we stopped breaking allegiances instead of tightening them, we’d be stronger for it,” I rebutted, remembering the guilds just falling apart after one attack.
“Like with Glitter?”
“No. He was a traitor. But not everyone is like that. I refuse to believe that. Just like Rachel isn’t. Nor is Clay. Besides,” I softened my voice, “you cared for Ian. It didn’t weaken you. It made you stronger. Made you try harder to protect him.”
He looked at the ground, seconds trickling by in silence, the grief that washed off of him smothering the air out of the room.
“It doesn’t matter, now,” he eventually said. His back straightened, his face no longer betraying his emotions. He had assumed his role as leader again. “What’s done is done.”
“We have to get him back,” I said softly, not yet having shuttered my grief away. I didn’t know how. And I didn’t want to learn.
“No,” he said, but his voice softened. “I can’t. I have to worry about the Guild of Shadows. We need to figure out what exactly is at the heart of this conspiracy. And who killed so many Traded. We must focus to maintain the balance.”
“Ian is at its heart, Sonsil,” I gritted my teeth. “We have to save him!”
“No, he’s just a small part of it,” regret coated every word. He took a deep breath, refocused on me. “I cannot follow him.” He looked at me pointedly. “Nor should we be aware of anyone else doing so. If anyone would try, we would have to declare them rogue. That would surely mean their death at the hands of the Watch.”
“What’s the Watch?” I stood alert now. The air, crushed by grief just moments ago, now felt electrified.
“Some of the oldest Traded, come over centuries ago, formed the Watch. To keep everyone in line. They established the guilds to keep the new Traded in check. They will not hesitate to kill to maintain a semblance of order.”
That sounded dangerous. “I understand,” I said. All the anxiety I’d felt over losing Ian vanished into this simple statement. Sonsil couldn’t go after Ian. But I could.
And I would go after Ian, no matter what.
Sonsil stood, as did I. He placed a hand on my shoulder and locked eyes with mine, squeezing my shoulder.
“Be safe,” he said so softly I strained to hear.
“You, too,” I whispered back, for good measure.
His hand was gone, the vulnerability vanished from his eyes, and he became all business again. He walked out of my room without another word or glance back.
I wondered if I’d ever get to know him better. Or see Ian again.
I would. I had to. I had to find
Ian and bring him home.
This world felt too empty without him in it.
Epilogue
I entered the Mission Room, unchallenged by anyone, simply receiving a few nods. My tail swished slightly behind me, but I didn’t pay it any mind. My focus lay elsewhere, as I sat at a briefing station.
I’d been right. The operatives’ mission rooms were much cooler. Black walls cocooned us in, screens all around for surveillance. Several guilds were on the monitor now, including a fight Clay was currently owning. I grinned at it, seeing his joy.
He’d hate knowing how much of an eye we kept on his league. On his friends.
On all of the Traded.
I placed my hand on my desk’s scanner. A screen flickered to life. I tapped on the area maps, monitoring any strange activity reported by humans. It was normal operative behavior, or so my two days as one had taught me.
But I was looking for specific errant Traded behavior. Someone doing things like in a dream, even though they might not want to. Trying to track down Not-Glitter, which would lead me to Ian.
I’d looked deep into the records, too, and for the past twenty years you could track him, here and there. All over the world. He’d been here a while. And up to something since the portals had opened up.
Rachel’s crew had been targeted because they’d carried the container to the initial guild. I don’t think she’d even known. I’d tell her, eventually. Probably.
If it became necessary.
Right now, all that mattered was tracking Not-Glitter. And the canister.
And Ian.
All trails would lead to him.
If one good thing came out of me becoming an operative, it was the power to access the full information network of the Guild of Shadows.
And then, I’d find Glitter.
And give him hell.
-The End-
To be continued in The Guild of Shadows 3, coming soon!
Hell Bent Page 14
