The Shattered Dark

by Sandy Williams

  Sosch lets out a sound that’s a cross between a chirp and a squeak, then uses my outstretched arm as a springboard to my shoulders. He looks at me and does some weird, crinkly thing with his nose.

  “Are you hungry?” I ask. What the hell do kimkis eat?

  I spot the snack-sized bag of Goldfish on my dresser. That probably won’t hurt him. I open the bag and hold up a fish to Sosch’s mouth. He eats it, then his nose crinkles again.

  “Good?” I reach inside for a second tiny cracker, but this time, he turns his head away, and his mouselike ears twitch. He leaps off my shoulder and rushes out of my bedroom one second before there’s a knock on the door to the suite.

  “Housekeeping,” a maid calls. Shit. Humans can’t see the fae unless they want them to, but I’m pretty sure they can see a kimki that’s wandered into our world.

  “Sosch!” I try to grab him, but he’s much too quick.

  “No thanks!” I call out, hoping the maid will move on. She shouldn’t be knocking on our door at all. Shane and I leave the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging on the handle when we’re gone. I didn’t take it off when I was fissured here.

  Sosch lets out another chirp.

  “Shh,” I say. Then I see the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the inside of the door. Crap.

  “Sosch!” I yell, but it’s too late. The door is already opening. The kimki flushes silver with pleasure, then darts past the maid’s feet.

  “Sosch!” I call out again.

  The maid lets out a squeak very similar to the kimki’s, then hops back. Her head turns, following his progress down the hall.

  “What is that?” she asks.

  “It’s a…a…an Egyptian otter,” I stammer as I move past her. Sosch scurries under the housekeeping cart. I grab the handle to move it out of the way.

  “We don’t allow pets in this hotel,” the maid says.

  “I’m sorry,” I say again. “I’ll get him out of here.”

  Sosch looks over his shoulder, and I swear to God, he gives me the kimki equivalent of a grin before darting down the hallway. I’m going to kill him, and after I kill him, I’m killing Shane for leaving the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the wrong side of the door.

  “He doesn’t shed, does he?” The maid has a look of horror on her face as she stares into my suite.

  “I have no idea,” I mutter. I grab a pillowcase off the housekeeping cart and chase after the damn kimki. A chime rings and, just as I round the corner, I realize what the sound is.

  “No, not the—”

  Sosch scurries inside an elevator as a startled woman gets out. The doors slide shut right behind him. I sprint forward, try to hit the button to open the doors again, but it doesn’t work.

  What the hell am I supposed to do now? If animal control picks him up, they’ll figure out that he is definitely not an Egyptian otter. There’s no telling what they’ll do with him then.

  Grumbling under my breath, I punch the button for the second elevator. I should let Sosch fend for himself, but I can’t stand the thought of him ending up in the hands of biologists or scientists or anyone else who wants to figure out what he is or how his fur flushes between white and silver.

  I fist the pillowcase in my hand as I watch the numbers above Sosch’s elevator count down the floors. Of course, it doesn’t stop until he reaches the ground floor. The image of hotel guests screaming as bellboys throw themselves across the floor, trying to catch the kimki, leaps into my mind. This could be really bad.

  The second elevator pings. I step inside, punch the glowing number one, then jab the DOOR CLOSE button half a million times.

  Sosch had a nonstop trip all the way down. Me? I stop at two additional floors and pick up six hotel guests before the doors finally slide open on the ground floor. I slip past the others with an apology, then scan the lobby.

  It’s less chaotic than I feared. No women screaming or bellboys on the floor, but Sosch definitely passed through here. Everyone’s looking to the left, where a set of glass doors are propped open. Clenching my teeth, I stalk in that direction. You’d think the damn kimki was native to this world, he navigates it so well.

  Hot summer air envelops me as soon as I step outside. The Vegas Strip is about a hundred feet ahead. It’s packed with people. No way am I going to push my way through that crowd searching for Sosch. Never mind that I probably won’t be able to find him, I’m not wearing shoes, and once I get out of the shaded entrance, the concrete will toast my feet.

  A chirp-squeak comes from the decorative fountain a few paces to my left. Perched on the marble edge is the kimki. He happily nibbles at a cracker a young girl gives him. Fortunately, the girl’s parents aren’t paying any attention to her.

  I’ve changed my mind. The kimki isn’t adorably cute; he’s a hideous rodent who doesn’t belong in my world.

  I wait until the girl holds out a second cracker before I step out of the shade. The concrete is as bad as I thought it would be, but if I keep moving, my feet might not turn to ash. I sprint to the fountain and make my move, sweeping Sosch up with one arm while pulling the pillowcase over his head with my other hand.

  “Thanks for finding Sosch for me,” I tell the girl when her mouth falls open. She stares up at me, and I swear to God she’s about to break down into tears.

  “Really sorry,” I say, hopping from foot to foot as I back away. The apology doesn’t help. Her chin quivers.

  I spin around and take off before she can point me out to her parents. Just as I’m merging with the crowd on the Strip, sobs ring out behind me. I feel like crap for making the girl cry, but I didn’t have a choice. I have to get Sosch out of here.

  And I have to find some shade.

  I refrain from slinging the pillowcase over my shoulder. Instead, I hook my arm under Sosch’s belly and keep him pressed to my side, making sure the pillowcase stays open so he can breathe. I don’t know what I’m going to do with him. I can’t take him back inside the hotel.

  The concrete isn’t so bad in the middle of the crowd. So long as no one steps on my foot, I might be okay.

  At least, that’s what I think until my skin prickles. I look over my shoulder, searching for the chaos luster I think I saw leap across someone’s hand. There’s a group of girls wearing flashing crowns walking the other way. The battery-powered blue lights are bright even under the blazing sun. Maybe my brain interpreted those as a fae’s edarratae?

  Someone runs into my shoulder, wrenching it hard. I ball my hand into a fist as the guy turns toward me.

  “Sorry,” the human slurs, drunk even though it’s not even noon yet. His friends laugh as they guide him away.

  Yeah. I’m definitely paranoid.

  I try to force myself to relax as I continue on, but my skin is still crawling. It’s not a feeling I get often in my world, and it’s ridiculous to have it here, in the midst of all the flashing lights, the billboards, the humans with all their electronic devices. A fae’s edarratae would be going crazy. They’d be easy to see. And that’s why Shane and I are staying here, in a hotel on the Strip. Aside from the rebels dropping us off or picking us up, it should be fae-free.

  My feet freaking hurt, but I keep going, making my way toward the south end of the Strip. The only place I can think of to go is to the gate. It’s on a stretch of road that connects the city of Vegas to Lake Las Vegas. It’s relatively rural, and since kimkis are attracted to gates, there’s a chance Sosch might stay there for a while.

  I can get there by bus, but the stop I need is ten blocks east of Las Vegas Avenue. It’ll take twenty minutes to get there. As I turn down a side road, I readjust Sosch on my hip. I swear he’s fallen asleep, and somehow, he’s made himself weigh twice as much as usual.

  Only a handful of locals and a few tourists who’ve wandered away from the Strip share the sidewalk with me. With the smaller crowd, it’s easy to see that no one—no fae at least—is following me. After checking over my shoulder for the tenth time, my anxiety level finally lowers. Exactly one second
after that, I hear the shrrip of a fissure opening behind me. Before I’m able to turn, I’m yanked into an alley.

  I drop Sosch as I twist toward my attacker, swinging a fist at…

  “Lorn,” I grind out when I recognize the impeccably dressed fae plucking my fist from the air.

  “McKenzie,” Lorn returns with a smile. That smile disappears when an obviously pissed-off Sosch shoots out of the pillowcase, wraps himself around Lorn’s left leg, then bites him just above the knee.

  “Ahg. Off!” Lorn snaps in Fae, kicking out with his leg. Sosch thuds against a grimy door.

  “Hey!” I glare at Lorn as I scoop the kimki up in my arms. “What are you—”

  I stop because we’re not the only people in this alley. A human is leaning against the wall, smoking a cigarette.

  “What’s that?” he asks, eyeing Sosch, as the kimki climbs up onto my shoulders.

  “Otter,” I mutter.

  Lorn laughs. I clench my teeth together, adding Lorn’s name to the list of people I’m going to kill.

  EIGHT

  ONCE THE HUMAN is out of sight, Lorn breaks into a shop that’s either gone bankrupt and was shut down or it’s just been purchased and is being renovated. There are dozens of retail spaces in a similar stage of transition scattered all over the city. In this one, huge sheets of white plastic cover the glass windows, and the walls are missing Sheetrock. Empty clothing racks are tangled one on top of the other in the back corner, and the store’s checkout counter is crooked and covered in an even thicker layer of sawdust than what’s on the floor.

  I set Sosch down. He makes a beeline for a stack of collapsed cardboard boxes, leaving a trail of tiny footprints behind him.

  “What are you doing here?” I demand, when Lorn goes to the window. With one finger, he moves aside the plastic so he can peek out. I haven’t seen Lorn since he fissured me to Vegas just over two weeks ago. He set me up in the hotel room and hasn’t been back since.

  “I came to see you, of course,” he says, letting the plastic fall back into place.

  “You could see me at the suite.”

  “I did see you,” he says, scanning the shop. His lips pinch together as if the disorder and dinginess disgust him. Heaven forbid he get a smudge on his pristine white shirt. He’s wearing it under a brown vest, which I think is made from jaedric, though it’s not as thick as the jaedric in a fae’s armor. The scabbard holding his sword on his left hip is darker than the vest; so is the messenger-style satchel that’s slung over his shoulder. “I saw you right before the metal doors locked you inside the…the moving box.”

  “Elevator,” I say. He saw me get into the elevator. He must have fissured into the suite when I was in the hallway; I was just too distracted chasing after Sosch to notice. “What do you want, Lorn?”

  He manages to look offended. “What makes you think I want anything? Maybe I just want to visit with my favorite shadow-reader.”

  I meet his eyes, wait. Everything is a game to Lorn. The problem is, you never know if you’re competing with him or against him, especially now. He has—had—a life-bond with Kelia. Lena and Aren think that’s the only reason he provided them with supplies and information while they fought against the king, but I’m not so sure about that. I think Kelia was more of a convenient excuse for him to help them. He’s more involved with the rebels than he has to be. In fact, after Sethan was killed, he was the first person to speak up and suggest that making Lena queen wasn’t a bad idea.

  When he doesn’t give up the charade and tell me why he’s really here, I say, “Take Sosch back to the Realm. It’s not safe for him to be here.”

  I make my way back to the door to the alley. It has a window in it. I didn’t realize it before because it’s covered in such a thick layer of grime. I reach for the handle.

  “I need you to shadow-read, McKenzie,” Lorn finally says.

  I look over my shoulder. “You came to my world just to ask me that? You could have found me in the palace.”

  “I could have,” he agrees, clasping his hands behind his back as he walks to the checkout counter. “But Lena and I have had a…disagreement. I’m not welcome in the palace at the moment.”

  That doesn’t surprise me at all. Lorn hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with information since the rebels took over the capital.

  “What did you do?” I ask.

  “It’s insignificant,” he says with a dismissive wave of his hand. “How long will it take you to get to the gate?”

  “I haven’t agreed to help you yet,” I say, turning to face him fully. I shouldn’t even consider it. I already have too many responsibilities: a friend I need to find, a watch rotation I shouldn’t skip out on, and a job I need to finish applying for. I don’t have time to shadow-read for Lorn.

  “You will.” The corner of his mouth slants up into a smug smile that gets under my skin.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. “I can’t help you.”

  “Oh, I think you can.” He sounds so pleased with himself that I’m about to turn and leave just to spite him, but before I do, he adds, “Rumor has it a friend of yours is missing.”

  My blood runs cold. He knows about Paige? How? I only learned she was missing yesterday.

  “You know where she is,” I say.

  His smile widens. “I’ll give you her location after you shadow-read for me.”

  I should have contacted him as soon as I learned Paige was missing. He has resources—spies, if I want to be accurate—everywhere. He probably knows more about what’s going on in the Realm than Lena does, but still, I’m not sure if making a deal with him is the wisest thing to do, not without consulting Aren first.

  “Must I remind you that you owe me?” A bolt of blue lightning slashes across his face, drawing attention to the circles under his eyes. They’re not dark—I didn’t notice them before the chaos luster—but they don’t belong there. He’s tired, and even though there isn’t any active tech in this room, I’m sure it’s not the most comfortable place for a fae. He probably has one hell of a headache.

  “I’m aware of that,” I say, staring at the plastic-covered window. Lorn saved my life in a tavern in Belecha, and he paid for the Vegas suite until Shane took over the bill a few days ago. The high nobles haven’t allowed Lena access to the palace’s treasury, and Shane has an extremely large rainy-day fund because he demanded a ridiculous amount of money from the king for his services. I hate being in anyone’s debt, so the opportunity to make things even with Lorn is tempting. Plus, to some degree, I trust him. He acts like he’s concerned only about information and profit, but he cared about Kelia. Her death and the loss of the life-bond have affected him more than he lets on.

  I study Lorn. No one’s been forthcoming with the details of that bond. As far as I know, Kelia and Lorn never loved each other. They bonded because they were a good match, and the connection made their magic stronger. Now that she’s dead…?

  I want to help Lorn. It’ll probably push my meeting with Jenkins to tomorrow, since I’m on the watch rotation at the palace later, but he won’t leave the office until 5 P.M. I’ll have all day to get there.

  And I need to find Paige. If Lorn knows where she is, I have to help him.

  “Who do you want me to track?” I ask, hoping this isn’t a mistake.

  He smiles. “Her name is Aylen. She’s an associate of an associate.”

  “What do you want with her?”

  “Just to talk,” he says smoothly. “I’ll meet you at the gate, shadow-reader.”

  “Wait,” I say, as he opens a fissure. “We only have an agreement if you take Sosch with you.”

  “Sosch?” He stares at the kimki, who’s sniffing at an exposed pipe in the wall.

  “I can’t keep carrying him through the city.”

  “He’s not my kimki.”

  “He’s not mine, either.”

  Lorn raises an eyebrow. “Really? Then why did you chase after him?”

  I scowl back. “Just take h
im with you, Lorn.”

  “He’s free to use my fissure if he wants to leave,” he says, opening a slash of light between him and Sosch.

  Sosch glances at Lorn, then returns to sniffing the pipe. I roll my eyes as I walk to the kimki. His fur turns silver when I pick him up, but by the time I place him in Lorn’s arms, he’s stark white again. I don’t think he’s too pleased with this arrangement, either.

  “Take him with you,” I say again, ignoring Lorn’s overly dramatic sigh.

  It takes more than an hour to get to the gate. That’s mainly because I took a detour to buy a pair of socks and sneakers from Payless. I put them on after scrubbing my feet in the restroom sink, but they’re still sore and a little black from walking on the hot concrete.

  The bus driver questions me when I ask him to stop. He’s the third driver this week I’ve had to convince to drop me off here, a good distance off the bus’s actual route. We’re twenty minutes outside the city, and there’s not a building in sight. That works for me, though. I hate trying to fissure when humans are around.

  After the bus leaves, I step off the road. The ground is all dirt and dead grass. It crunches under my feet, but a few dozen yards away, the landscape turns green along the banks of a stream. Lorn is there, sitting with his eyes closed and his back against a tree. He looks like he has all the time in the world to take a nap. So does Sosch. The kimki’s sunbathing in the blurred atmosphere that marks the gate’s location.

  “The idea was for you to take Sosch back to the Realm.”

  Lorn cracks open an eye. “Took your time getting here, didn’t you?”

  “I don’t want Sosch with us when I shadow-read.”

  “He’s perfectly happy where he is,” Lorn says. That’s true. The kimki hasn’t so much as budged since I got off the bus.