The Shattered Dark

by Sandy Williams

  “So, the gate,” Paige says. “How are we going to use it without a fae?”

  “Someone will be waiting for us there.” I hope someone will be waiting. This was Aren’s plan. If we’re separated, he’ll bring an army to the gate to make sure I’m fissured out of this city unharmed.

  If he has time to summon that army. If he wasn’t killed back at the club.

  Fear surges through me, making my throat close up. It’s exhausting, worrying about him so much, and even though I’m still upset about his connection to Thrain—or, more precisely, about him not telling me up front about the connection—I can’t make myself not care.

  “Who’s ‘someone’?” Paige asks. Then she slams on the brake. The car fishtails on the wet pavement, but she maintains control, which is lucky for the humans standing no more than two feet away from the front bumper.

  “Crap, people!” Paige yells. “You have to look before you cross the street!”

  A patrol car pulls up beside us. The officer opens the door.

  “Not yet,” Paige says, her tone hard, determined. She pounds on the horn, shifts into first, then drives straight at the people. They scurry out of the way before she hits them.

  Lee watches the officer as we speed away.

  “You done this before?” he asks Paige.

  “Star in my own police chase?” She shakes her head. “Nope.”

  The cops fall into pursuit behind us again. We’re screwed if the rebels aren’t at the gate. We’ll be arrested. I’ll most likely be charged with murder, maybe with grand theft auto, too, which is completely unfair. Every car I’ve climbed into in the last month might have been stolen, but they were all stolen by someone other than me.

  Lee holds on to the oh-shit handle above his door as Paige veers around a fountain, which for some illogical reason, is placed in the middle of the road. “Where did you learn to drive like this?”

  She shifts, then, very deliberately, she meets Lee’s eyes, and says, “I dated a guy who street races.”

  Lee’s mouth tightens as if this is some kind of verbal jab. My gaze shifts back and forth between the two of them. Do they have a history together? I’d swear the last guy she dated was named Ryan. Or maybe Roger. I’m pretty sure it started with an “R.” Anyway, if there is or was something between her and Lee, she has plenty of exes to throw in his face.

  “Have you guys known each other for long?” I ask.

  “No,” they say in unison. Then Lee turns his glare on me as if my question offended him. “Where’s the gate?”

  Or maybe that look is because I’m asking questions that really aren’t important right now, not with half the British police force on our bumper. And not with a roomful of slaughtered humans discarded in an apartment and one innocent girl stabbed to death in a club.

  “We’re getting close.” I sink back into my seat, and the edge my adrenaline’s been giving me fades. I don’t think those deaths are the only ones that occurred tonight. The club was packed. Everyone was panicked. My gut tells me not everyone made it out of there okay. Shane might not have made it out okay.

  I stare out the window. Lights from the patrol cars tailing us flash in my peripheral vision, but I block them out and focus on the buildings we’re driving past. They’re all big, blocky warehouses. London’s gate was near the city airport. We’re curving south. If we curve back to the north once we pass the warehouse ahead, I think we might be there.

  “You’re sure a fae will be waiting?” Lee asks.

  “Yes,” I say, praying I’m not lying.

  We pass the warehouse. I think this is the right location, but a thin line of trees separates the road from the bank of the river. At the speed we’re driving, I won’t be able to see the blur in the atmosphere. Too bad Sosch isn’t here now. He’d beeline straight for the gate and—

  “There’s Aren,” I say, and my heart finally starts to beat easily again. He’s alive and he doesn’t look hurt, thank God. He’s standing on the bank of the river with two other fae. It’s not quite an army, but it might as well be. Kyol is here.

  Paige slams on the brake.

  Unbuckling my seat belt, I say, “We have to make a run for it. Fast.”

  I don’t have to tell them twice. They open their doors the same instant I do, and we’re running, sprinting for the riverbank. I can hear the cops behind us, climbing out of their cars and yelling at us to stop.

  I’m certain I can keep ahead of them—I have a little too much experience running for my life—but Paige doesn’t. She loses too much time looking over her shoulder. A particularly quick cop grabs a handful of the back of her shirt.

  Ten years ago, I left her at Bedfont House, and she took the blame for our escape attempt. I won’t do the same again.

  I stop so quickly the officer on my tail barrels into me. I have the foresight to drop to a crouch, causing him to flip over me. He lands spread-eagle on the ground, and I’m up again, sprinting toward Paige. I ram my shoulder into the cop holding her. Paige is fighting back. She’s able to get loose. I grab her arm and pull her toward the gate.

  But we’re surrounded.

  “Hands where we can see them,” a female officer yells. All the cops have their batons out.

  Light flashes in my peripheral vision. I turn that way, see Aren and Kyol step out of two fissures just outside the cops’ circle. No one looks their direction. They’re invisible to normal humans.

  “This way,” Aren says.

  I start to tell Paige to run, but she’s apparently already decided to make a move. She leaps toward the small gap between two of the officers. The officers close in, one raising his baton.

  Aren bats the baton away when the human swings, causing it to narrowly miss Paige. The second officer’s baton comes close to hitting me, but I duck. Then Paige and I are outside the circle, catching up with Lee, who’s doubled back to help us.

  “Go!” I yell at him, but he waits for Paige, steadies her when she trips. Then they’re both running for Trev, who’s waiting at the riverbank.

  I’m right on their heels, but an officer is nearly on top of me. I don’t slow down or look back, but there’s a thump when he hits the ground just behind me.

  “Faster, McKenzie,” Aren says. There’s no doubt the fae can keep the humans off us. Keeping them off us without them noticing that their efforts are being sabotaged by an invisible force is another question.

  But we’re lucky. We make it almost all the way to the bank without another problem from the cops. In fact, we’d probably make it to the gate and disappear from this world without another hiccup if Kyol didn’t appear in front of Paige. She grabs Lee’s arm and skids to a stop.

  “They’re rebels!” she says, eyes going wide.

  Shit. She knows more than I thought she did if she recognizes the jaedra tree etched into Kyol’s armor.

  “I’m with them,” I hiss, shoving her forward.

  “What?”

  No time for explanations. The river is a good five feet below the bank we’re standing on. “Jump!”

  But she’s still backpedaling. Aren grabs her, yells at Trev to open a gated-fissure, then he throws her over the edge. Her scream is cut off by a splash.

  Either Lee doesn’t care whose side I’m on, or he’ll go wherever Paige does because he jumps into the river after her without protest.

  Trev goes in next. I make a move to follow them, but I’m tackled to the ground, and not just by one person. There have to be at least three cops on top of me.

  I slam my elbow back, try to raise my knee to one of their guts, but an officer punches me. Another one slams a baton into my ribs.

  My breath whooshes out of my lungs. I manage to keep fighting, to get my arms between my chest and the man pressing his full weight against me. I shove with all my might.

  And he flies off me.

  I’d love to take credit for that, but Aren is there, knocking off a second cop. The third one still has me, though. I twist, throw my hip into him, and mana
ge to get about half an inch away.

  Flopping to my back, I bring my right knee up, prepared to ram my heel into his chin, but fae arms close around me. I’m wrestled away from the human. We roll toward the bank of the river, stop at the edge just long enough for the fae to press an anchor-stone into my palm.

  I close my hand around it.

  Meet the fae’s eyes.

  “Hold on,” Kyol tells me.

  I wrap my arms around his waist and tighten my grip on the stone as he rolls us one last time.

  We go over the edge. I catch a brief glimpse of Paige splashing in the Thames beside the gated-fissure before Kyol and I fall into the slash of light. The In-Between steals my breath away, but the shock of the cold, empty nothingness is muted beneath another shock.

  The British officers never once saw the fae because they’re invisible to normal humans. They’re invisible to normal humans, but Paige knew they were rebels.

  Paige saw the emblem carved into Kyol’s jaedric armor.

  Paige saw them.

  Paige has the Sight.

  SEVENTEEN

  KYOL AND I roll into the Realm. Into Corrist. I hear a shout go up from the wall, an alarm being raised, but the fact that we’re both still breathing tells me we’ve fissured into a safe zone. Even if we hadn’t, Kyol is on top of me. His arms are braced on either side of my body, caging me beneath him. They’d have to kill him before having a chance of harming me.

  Kyol doesn’t move immediately. Neither do I, mostly because the right side of my rib cage is killing me, but also because I can’t with him positioned above me. He stares down, and his silver eyes look bright framed by his dark hair. He’s looking into my eyes, which is totally understandable considering my face is right under his, but then—just for the briefest second—his gaze dips to my mouth.

  Suddenly, I’m completely aware of our position, of the way the length of his body presses against mine. My right arm is around his waist. My left grips the tight muscles in his forearm and it’s as if my thoughts trigger my edarratae. Lightning licks its way into my palm, up my arm and shoulder, and I feel my face blush with heat. I break contact immediately, but Kyol still doesn’t move. He focuses on my eyes again, and doubt surges through me. Not doubt about Aren or the way I feel about him, but doubt about the way Kyol feels about me. I don’t know if he told me the truth when he said he was okay with our breakup.

  A throat clears to my left. “I can take her now.”

  Aren’s voice breaks through whatever’s holding Kyol frozen. He rises off me, acknowledges Aren with a nod, and steps back.

  Aren crouches beside me. A frown creases his forehead as I slowly sit up. At first, I think he’s searching for a reaction, trying to pick up my feelings toward Kyol. I know it still bothers Aren, my ten-year pseudo-relationship with him. I haven’t been able to convince Aren that I would have left Kyol even if I didn’t have Aren. I left Kyol because I wasn’t myself when I was with him. I was careful with my thoughts, my words, and my actions. I tried to become someone I wasn’t all because I wanted to be worthy of him.

  I don’t feel that way with Aren. If we work out, it will be because we work, not because we’re changing ourselves to meet the other’s expectations.

  Aren doesn’t say anything about Kyol, though. Instead, he glances toward the silver wall, then asks, “Can you make it to the palace? I shouldn’t heal you out here.”

  “Do I look that bad?” I ask as I look down at myself. “Oh.”

  I’m still covered in the human girl’s blood. I don’t think any of the red stains on my clothing are mine. I have a few bumps and scrapes, bruises from being trampled at the club, and my cheek hurts from the remnant kneeing my face, but my worst injury is my ribs. One or two might be cracked. The officer landed a good blow with his baton there at the end.

  “I’ve had worse injuries,” I tell Aren as I stuff the anchor-stone I’m still holding into my pocket. His gaze moves to the scar on the right side of my throat. That’s not what I was referring to—I don’t remember the cut hurting at all, actually—but it throbs now, and it’s difficult not to reach up to touch the raised skin. Aren put a sword to my neck three weeks ago. We were in Lyechaban, and I think that day might have been the last day we were enemies. He should have killed me then. The rebels were so close to losing the war, and Lena ordered him to cut my throat if I didn’t read Kyol’s shadows. Kyol had just captured Naito, and I was still stubbornly defending the king, but Aren couldn’t do it. He couldn’t slide his sword across my neck.

  He swallows, and his silver eyes seem to darken with regret. They do that every time he looks at the scar. I’ve never actually told him that I forgive him for what he did. Maybe some part of me still holds it against him.

  He offers his hand. As he’s helping me to my feet, a flash of something white in my peripheral vision catches my attention. It’s a chaos luster on Lee’s skin. He’s standing a few feet away. Water pools around his feet as he stares up at the wall of silver stretching into the sky. I can tell he’s never seen it before. His eyes are wide. He’s slightly off-balance. I’ve been in and out of the Realm enough to adjust quickly to the difference in the atmosphere. It has a lighter touch here, almost a buoyancy that can affect your equilibrium. It’s clear Lee isn’t accustomed to it. Has he been to the Realm at all before?

  Has Paige? I have no idea where the remnants might have kept them and…

  I look around. “Where’s Paige?”

  A fissure rips through the air in answer. Trev rolls out of it with my friend, my friend who is not supposed to be able to see the fae. She’s soaking wet and pissed. Kyol and I fell through Trev’s fissure before we hit the water. I don’t envy Paige or Lee, going through the In-Between like that.

  Trev tries to keep a hold on her, but she throws back an elbow, getting a lucky hit on his chin. She almost slips free then, but Trev grabs her ankle, keeping her from scrambling away. This time, he locks his arms around her like a straitjacket.

  “Having trouble controlling your human?” Aren asks, grinning.

  Trev glares back. “I was told this human didn’t have the Sight.”

  Aren’s grin fades. He looks at Paige, who’s still struggling to get free. It’s obvious she can see the fae holding her. It’s obvious she sees Aren and the rebel swordsmen closing in on both sides of us.

  Some humans with the Sight make it through their entire lives without knowing they have it. Fae rarely stay in the human world for an extended period of time, and when they do, they tend to keep to rural areas, away from tech and, therefore, away from humans. But Paige has met Kyol before. She’s met Aren. They’ve both let her see them on occasion, and she acted like they were normal humans, like she couldn’t see their chaos lusters. There’s no way in hell she wouldn’t have noticed the lightning.

  “Paige,” Lee says, moving toward her with his hand outstretched as if to say “calm down.”

  “They’re rebels, Lee,” Paige hisses.

  “I know,” he says, almost to her side. “It’s okay.”

  “You know? It’s okay?” she practically snarls.

  “Paige.” I walk toward her, too. I don’t know how she can see the fae, but I don’t believe she’s lied to me all these years. “I tried to tell you before. They haven’t been holding me captive.” Not this whole time, at least. “I’m on their side. I’m helping them. The fae lied to—”

  Lee kicks out without warning, landing his heel squarely on Trev’s chin. Trev’s head whips back hard enough to make me wince, and Paige wiggles free.

  Lee grabs her arm and pulls her to her feet. Then he spins, putting himself between her and the fae swordsmen who’ve just arrived. His knees are slightly bent, and he’s tense, as if he thinks he might really be able to take on the three armed fae facing him.

  “Karate?” she says, crossing her arms. “How stereotypical of you.”

  “It’s jujitsu, Paige, and you’re welcome.”

  This guy might be connected to the vigi
lantes, but he’s standing up for Paige. If he doesn’t turn out to be a complete jerk, I might like him.

  “They’re not going to hurt you,” I say, moving toward them. “Let’s just calm down for a second.”

  “Could we calm down on the other side of the wall?” Aren asks with a pointed look at the row of buildings to my left. Anyone could be inside of them, and it’s not just the remnants we have to worry about. Three humans in one place might freak out the more paranoid fae who are worried about the Realm’s magic.

  “You won’t touch her,” Lee says. “And I want to see my brother.”

  “Your brother?” Aren cocks his head to the side. He’s speaking to Lee, but he hasn’t taken his eyes off Paige. He knows she didn’t have the Sight when he first met her. He’s just as curious as I am to learn how she got it.

  “Naito,” I tell Aren. “He’s Naito’s brother.” I turn back to Lee. “He’s in the palace, and if you don’t touch the fae, they won’t touch you.”

  “You can guarantee that?” Lee asks.

  Technically, I have no authority over the fae and what they do, but Aren and Kyol…

  Kyol’s gone. I have no idea when he left, but he wouldn’t contradict me on this. So far, none of the rebels have gone against anything I’ve said. That might just be because they haven’t had a reason to yet, but Lee doesn’t need to know that.

  “Yes. I’ll kick their asses if they do.”

  Paige lifts an eyebrow my direction. As far as she knows, I wouldn’t hurt a fly. Whenever I’m around her and her friends, I never step into their debates, never argue or contradict anyone else. She thinks it’s because I’m extremely easygoing. Mostly, it’s because I’m always distracted and thinking of something or someone else.

  Lee shrugs. I take that as a sign of agreement and motion them to the right. Paige looks wary of the fae, but she starts walking.