The Shadow City (The Demon-Born Trilogy Book 2)

by L. C. Hibbett

  Gabriel's sighed and rested his hand on my arm. “Just get this done so we can leave.”

  I closed my eyes and straightened my spine before taking a deep breath, steeling myself for the sweet, pungent odor of dead flesh. At first, I could sense nothing. An absence of life. Even the birds had deserted this place. I drew my eyebrows together and stepped forward onto the rough soil, trying to dig deeper and connect with the energy surrounding the Silent Home. Although the bodies had not yet begun decay, the stench of badness was overpowering.

  A sudden breeze whipped through the branches of the apple tree over my head. I jumped back in surprise and my foot connected with something soft. My fingers gingerly scooped the small object up and wiped off the layer of dirt. It was a toy. A small, stuffed teddy bear, worn and mended as if it had been somebody’s favorite. My chin dropped onto my chest, and I sank back against the rough bark of the tree trunk.

  The sound of footsteps approaching from either direction dragged me back into a standing position. Gabriel was closing in from my left and the Shadow Children from my right. I shoved the teddy bear into the waistband of my jeans and pulled my top down to conceal it.

  “Could you sense anything, Grace?” Gabriel's tone was strained.

  “Nothing.” I shot an apologetic glance in Sam's direction. “There's no life here.”

  Cain’s brow creased. “We didn’t find anything either. Can you find a gap in the concealment so that Gabriel can get us out of here?”

  I tipped my head and let my Seeking energy began to creep along the periphery of the magical barrier. Sam grabbed my hand. “Wait. We should check inside again. There could be somebody in there or something we missed. A hidden room. A basement…”

  Gabriel slid between myself and Sam, breaking our physical connection. He shot me a look that left no room for argument. “We are going. Grace, find us an exit.” He turned to Sam. “Samuel, I understand your frustration but—”

  “Don't patronize me, Gabriel—you don't understand a god damn thing. You don't have a clue what these people went through. They deserved to be rescued. They deserved the chance to live, but we were too late. We're always too late. And you don't even care enough to check if there's somebody still inside. Maybe if we hadn’t wasted so many months trying to decode that piece of crap book you were so convinced held all the solutions to our problems. Jonah’s History of the World. What a joke.” Sam's eyes were burning with intensity, and I winced inwardly for Gabriel, who still carried the disappointment of the book like a weight around his neck.

  The sound of a dry branch breaking split the air. Cain tossed the splintered wood onto the ground. “Enough. You two can beat each other senseless we get to a training room, but this argument ends now. I have given an order, and I will not have a repeat of Moscow, understood?” Sam's face paled, and he stared at his feet. I snuck an anxious peek in Megan's direction. She met my gaze and looked away. Cain drew in a deep breath. “Okay. Let's go. Grace, do your thing.”

  My hand subconsciously wandered to where I had hidden the little teddy bear. Do my thing. Yeah, I was absolutely amazing at that. Seeking people when it was too late to help them. I bit down on my self-loathing and forced myself to focus on the energy surrounding the house. Sucking the air into my lungs through gritted teeth, I desperately attempted to filter the taste of death from each breath. My senses flowed along the magical barrier searching for a means of escape, but it was sealed tight. I tensed my arms. “I can't find a gap. I'll have to search deeper.”

  I couldn't hide the reluctance in my voice. I didn't want to do this. I was frightened to open myself up to the pain and horror that echoed inside the concrete walls of this makeshift graveyard. Sam took a step closer to me, and I exhaled purposefully, ripping off the last layer of armor separating my heart from the energy around us. I clenched my teeth together and forced myself to ride over the waves of emotion that lingered around us—trapped inside this magical prison like fireflies inside a jar.

  My senses stilled. The energy was moving as if two currents were drawing it in opposite directions. I opened my eyes to find Sam’s stare fixed firmly on my face, and I felt a rush of warmth in my core, followed by a longing for a reunion that didn’t involve death and sadness. I tugged my hand through my hair. “It’s weird. The energy. It’s moving in different directions. I’ve never seen that before.”

  Cain’s brow creased. “I’m sorry, Grace, I don’t understand the way you sense Spirit energy.”

  I looked at Cain. “That’s how I find the cracks for Gabriel to slip us through— I look for the little bits of energy seeping out through tiny faults in a magical barrier. But this energy is moving fast, almost like there’s a hole in the barrier—”

  “Or something is draining it!” Gabriel whirled around to observe the garden from all angles. “I knew we should have left immediately. Blasted children.”

  Cain’s mouth settled into a thin line. “Forget the blame, Gabriel. What do we do now?”

  Gabriel stepped past Sam and twisted my body so he could look into my eyes. “Is the energy being drawn from one point? Or more than one?”

  I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the currents, pushing down the bubble of panic that had risen in my throat. “Two, I think.” I tightened my fists. “Yes. Two. One stream is moving toward the front of the building, the other is being pulled down there.” I tilted my head in the direction of the furthest corner of the garden where the trees and bushes were overgrown and tangled.

  “Can you sense what’s pulling them? Could we use the fractures to help us escape?” I took a step back from Gabriel and rolled my shoulders before focusing my attention on the currents again. The energy running toward the front of the house flowed on a light breeze. Fresh. Like the wind on the Irish coast in June. I inhaled deeply and thought of Eve reading in the sunlight.

  Shaking my head, I turned my attention to the back of the garden. This current was moving faster. It wasn’t flowing, but being drawn and sucked along with increasing intensity. I narrowed my vision and tried to sense the point of exit. The stench of death filled my nostrils, and I suppressed the urge to gag. The image of a thin, black maggot burrowed into my mind unbidden. The air solidified and lodged in my trachea. “The front. We need to go out the front.”

  I ran with my head down and my Spirit Blade burning, straight for the front door, following the energy that smelled like fresh air. The thoughts of black worms slithering after us from the back of the garden chased me, and I lengthened my stride, refusing to look back and give credence to my childish fears. The others sprinted beside me, without question, until we reached the front door. Lucas grabbed my arm. “Grace, where are you going? This is a Silent Home. The only thing outside the door is a 20-foot steel gate, reinforced by Council grade magic. We can’t get through it.”

  Six sets of eyes burned into my skull. I held my hands out, palms up. “Gabriel asked for a crack in the barrier. We can go out this front door, or we can go down the back of the garden, but I’d rather take my chances with reinforced steel gates than whatever putrid mess is sucking the energy into that pile of black maggots.”

  Cain reached for the door handle. “I’ll go first.”

  I chewed on the inside of my cheek and prayed that my senses weren’t giving me false information. The door slid open effortlessly, and a waft of fresh country air billowed into our faces. I tried to suppress a self-satisfied grin as I stepped over the threshold, but the smile died on my face as I stared at the solid metal gates barricading us inside the grounds.

  Lucas and Cain headed in opposite directions and started pacing the area, looking for anything that might be useful. Megan marched across the driveway and knocked on the steel gate. She ran her fingers through the air, her fore
head creasing as she failed in her attempt to slip. She tried again, and her lips thinned in frustration. “We need to get the hell out of here. The Guardians could come smashing through that gate any second if the Spirit Eaters, or the Brothers—or whoever they are—don’t get us first.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Mark running his fingers gently over the surface of the gate. He crouched down and pressed his face against the metal for a second before leaping to his feet. “Guys, I think I found something.”

  Gabriel and Cain jogged across the asphalt and stood next to the gate. Sam stood behind Megan and me, and we stared at Mark as he eased his fingers over the sun-warmed metal. Lucas finished his examination of the front wall and jogged to my side. I twisted the gold bangle on my wrist in a clockwise direction.

  With a grunt of satisfaction, Mark pressed his two palms flat against the bottom left corner of the gate and pushed with force. Megan yelped and lurched in his direction, but her brother was unharmed as a small section of the gate swung outwards, like an oversized cat-flap. A grin slid over his face, softening the dark shadows under his eyes.

  “It’s okay, Meg. Somebody cut the magical barrier as well as the physical one. Ozzie learned how to do it last year. I couldn’t sever the charms, I wasn’t strong enough, but I was able to find them. Deirdre said I was the…” Mark’s voice faded into silence, and he stared down at the pavement on the other side of the gate. I rubbed a hand over my eyes. The tutor who had betrayed the Shadow Children was on the list of things nobody mentioned anymore—Deirdre, Peter, Eve, Moscow. There seemed to be more taboo subjects every day.

  Gabriel stepped forward and squeezed Mark’s shoulder. “Thank you, Mark. You have done very well. You were a good student.”

  Mark crushed his lips together and nodded his head once, and I was struck by how closely he resembled Megan in that instant. Gabriel ran his finger around the sharp edge of the makeshift escape hatch and looked back at the rest of us. “Make a chain, I will go through, and we can slip directly to headquarters. Emmanuel will need to inform the Masters of what we have witnessed. Megan, you’re a gatekeeper, yes?”

  Megan slid past me and grasped Gabriel’s hand. Lucas took one of my arms, and Mark held the other. A cloud of disappointment that Sam hadn’t raced to grab my hand descended on me, but I batted it away like it was a mosquito. Gabriel was right. What kind of person cares about a boy holding their hand at a time like this?

  Gabriel bent down low and maneuvered his body through the small opening. He peered back in at us from the other side. His words filtered back as time and space began to bend to his will. His voice was grim. “Well, now we know somebody managed to escape.”

  I wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad.

  Chapter Three

  “What the hell are you doing? You’re practically sitting on my face, woman.” Brandon hoisted me over his shoulder and deposited me neatly on a rocking chair on the broad front porch. I slumped back against the smooth wood gratefully and groaned.

  “Sorry, Brandon. Unfortunate timing. You need to start watching for groups of people materializing out of thin air. Yet another perk of being one of the Shadow Children.” My friend snorted and watched the rest of the team disentangle themselves from the bushes outside Mathas and Lizzie’s North Carolina home. I grabbed Brandon’s hand and squeezed it as I caught sight of Jasmine and Lucas hugging each other. “Jasmine’s back! When did she get back?”

  “Only about half an hour ago. Emmanuel is inside with Lizzie, Jabol is making sure the medical rooms are up to scratch, and Cat’s helping the others get settled into their rooms. It’s weird seeing everyone back in one place again.” Not quite everyone. I dug my nails into my palm and forced myself not to think about anything but the present moment.

  Lucas was smothering Jasmine with half a year’s worth of affection. Brandon’s frown softened as he watched Lucas lift Jasmine in the air and spin her around. I nudged him in the ribs. “Luc’s happy to have Jas back. He’s even more beautiful when he’s happy—Angels catch all the breaks.”

  Brandon’s gaze hardened and he shrugged, twisting his body slightly so that Lucas was no longer in his line of vision. A few feet away, Megan sprang to her feet in a fluid motion. Her waist-length ponytail swished as she spun in a circle, craning her head until she spotted Gabriel standing at the front door. The raven-haired Demon was the only person who had landed on his feet. Megan bounded up the steps and onto the porch. “Nice flying, British Airways. You might want to work on that landing.”

  “The transportation was entirely adequate, Megan, but it seems whoever set the coordinates might need to work on their accuracy.” Gabriel’s eyebrow twitched as Megan scrabbled for a smart response.

  She threw her hands in the air. “Whatever, Prince of Darkness, we need to report to the Master.”

  Mark tried to slither past Megan and into the house, but she caught him by the wrist and pulled him to her side. “Mark! You can come with us and explain about that weird little trap door. Ozzie and Dawn will have to wait until later to hear you boasting about being on active duty.”

  I felt an unexpected wave of warmth toward the bossy blond. A year ago, I would have assumed Megan’s sharp tone and pinched lips were just proof that she was a bitch. Now, I saw fear and concern for brother in her sharp words and venomous glare. Mark sighed, but he followed her inside without arguing—clever kid. Gabriel hesitated on the threshold. He stared in Jasmine’s direction for a lingering moment before disappearing inside the house. The automatic glass door slid shut behind him.

  Sam and Cain were deep in hushed conversation beside the front steps, but the gentle hum of the door drew Cain’s attention. Sam stretched his arms over his head, and I noticed that his shirt had ripped, leaving his abdomen exposed through the gaping fabric. His tanned skin was pulled taut over his stomach muscles.

  I tugged at my hair to release it from its disheveled top knot and tried to run my fingers through it subtly. Brandon snickered, and I felt my cheeks flush. I shot him a filthy look as Cain and Sam drew level with us. Brandon grinned. “Nice to have you back, guys.”

  Cain reached over and shook Brandon’s hand. “Glad to have everyone back together, Brandon. Emmanuel tells me you’ve been working hard. You look well.”

  Brandon shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked on the balls of his feet. He did look good. Since our half of the cell had settled in North Carolina, Brandon had been the first one into the training room every morning and the last one to leave every night. The combination of hard work and some of Lizzie’s carefully crafted herbal supplements ensured he was now faster and stronger than most elite Human athletes. He lifted his right shoulder and let it fall again. “Yeah, not bad for a Human. Which is still pretty much useless, am I right?”

  Lucas and Jasmine stepped onto the porch just in time to catch the thinly veiled bitterness radiating from Brandon’s tone. Lucas flinched and headed for the door. “I’m going to report to Emmanuel. Cain, I can start debriefing if you want to find Cat and Dawn first?”

  “Thanks, Luc, but I should be there too. He’s going to want both of us. Gabriel too.” Cain scanned the porch.

  “He already went in. Megan and Mark went with him. Do you want me to come in with you too?” I started to drag myself off the rocking chair, but Cain gestured for me to sit back down.

  “No, you rest for a minute. Cat told me the Seeking has been wearing you out. Gather your strength. I’m sure Emmanuel is going to want to talk to you once he has the initial report from Lucas and me. I’ll go in. You kids catch up.” Cain smiled at us and followed Lucas inside.

  Sam lodged his boot in the door to stop it from closing and called after Cain. “Do you want me to report to Emmanuel now?” Cain’s response was too faint
for me to make out. Sam let the door slide shut and hooked his thumbs into his back pocket. An awkward silence settled over the porch. Sam cleared his throat. “You got here today, Jasmine? Is Jabol with you?”

  Jasmine nodded and picked at a piece of lint on her gray t-shirt. Sam’s eyes flickered in my direction and then back to the floor. He tapped his fingertips on the wall a couple of times and then darted inside the house, muttering under his breath so quickly that I couldn’t even decipher the words before the door closed behind him.

  I stared at the empty space where he had been standing a minute before and raised my eyebrows. Brandon patted my head. “Not the reunion you were hoping for, lover girl. Sorry.”

  My fingers snuck under my top and curled around the little teddy bear lodged inside my waistband. “Yeah. It hasn’t exactly been a romantic day.”

  “Don’t take it personally, Grace, I’m pretty certain he’s avoiding me, not you. He’s barely looked at me since Moscow. You know Sam. He’s compelled to make every crappy situation ten times crappier.” Jasmine’s voice was tight.

  I jumped up off the chair and threw my arms around Jasmine’s shoulder. “Jas, I’m so sorry. I haven’t even said hello, everything happened all at once there. Welcome back, we missed you. I missed you.” I pulled back and peered at Jasmine’s face. “You look tired.”

   My fingers reached out to stroke her face on instinct, the same way I would rub Dawn’s when she was sick, but I stopped myself halfway and squeezed Jasmine’s cheeks instead. Jasmine slapped my hands away from her face and laughed. Brandon tilted his head to one side and squinted at me. “You don’t see your friend for months, and your first reaction is to maul her face? Weird. I wonder, did your atypical upbringing have an effect on your social skills development? That would make a pretty cool study.”

  I stuck my tongue out at Brandon, and he bared his teeth at me. Jasmine grinned, and her face suddenly looked like her own, despite the lack of eyeliner and the ghostly pale skin. “Brandon, dude, I have wondered that so many times about Grace’s social skills. Is she still biting her thumb? I swear, I always knew what novels Grace had read in the library because there would be little bloody thumbprints on all the sad pages. Normal people cry—Grace gnaws her skin until it bleeds.”