Shadow

by Christina Garner

  But for how long?

  She had too much explaining to do at Christmas: the money, her coursework. She would be in Romania soon, but what then? When they’d set out, she thought all she needed was for the mark to be gone, and once it was, her life would return to normal.

  Whatever normal means at this point.

  But if she did that, she would only be putting those she loved in danger. Again. Even without the mark, Agamon’s acolytes would find her.

  She couldn’t go home—not to Coventry House or her parents’.

  Not until Agamon is dead.

  It was at that moment, the weight of her predicament fully hit her.

  In order to get her life back, she would have to kill a god.

  Chapter 38

  It had been two days since Sarah’s fight with Kai in the diner, and the two still hadn’t spoken. Kai had texted, but Sarah’s response had been to tell her she should go find someone boring to be with. Kai had written back asking what she was talking about, but Sarah hadn’t replied.

  She’s the one who brought up her boring ex.

  Sarah’s world was collapsing in on itself, and the circle of people she could trust got smaller by the day. Earlier, she’d caught Paige looking at her—judging her—and taken her head off. Paige had professed innocence, but Sarah knew better.

  People pretend they’re your friend right until they stab you in the back.

  Sarah’s mood grew darker by the hour, but how could it not? She faced disloyalty from all sides—even from Eden, who had betrayed their friendship by leaving. She hadn’t given up on finding her, but the longer Eden stayed gone, the deeper the betrayal cut. She could have at least sent a message. Let them know she was all right.

  Sarah strode into the common room. The holiday was over, and the room was overrun with sisters.

  She stopped at a trio and addressed Courtney. “Have you seen Alex?”

  “No, sorry. I just got back a few minutes ago.” Courtney stood and looked her up and down. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  Now Courtney wanted to fight?

  “Nothing, you just seem a little…tense. Like maybe you haven’t been sleeping?” Courtney’s eyes searched Sarah’s.

  “I’m sleeping fine, thanks.”

  Sarah’s lack of sleep was none of Courtney’s business.

  “What about you?” Sarah grabbed Skyler’s arm as she walked by. “Have you seen Alex?”

  Skyler yanked her arm away and rubbed it. Sarah might have been a little rougher than she’d realized.

  “She’s in her office.”

  The look Skyler flashed was the same one Paige had given her—like Sarah was the crazy one.

  As if any of them have a clue what’s really going on.

  Sarah stalked off down the hall. Alex had provided no update for the Council’s arrival, and had seemed affronted when Sarah asked—even more so when Sarah questioned the progress they’d made in finding Eden. Surely they knew something by now.

  This time, Sarah wasn’t leaving until she got an answer.

  When she arrived at the door to Alex’s study, it was ajar. Sarah was about to knock when she heard Alex’s voice.

  “Of course, Davida, I completely understand why you’re checking in.”

  Davida was on the phone? This was perfect. Alex couldn’t claim not to have heard anything now.

  “Yes, like I said, the surge in magic your people felt was just practice that got out of hand. No one got hurt. Nothing to be concerned about. We’re back to business as usual.”

  Sarah froze. What was Alex talking about?

  “Eden is fine. She’s extended her Thanksgiving weekend by a few days, but we’ve been in touch, and she’s doing well.” After a brief pause, Alex continued. “Yes, of course, I’ll keep you posted on her progress.”

  The call ended, and for a moment, Sarah stood there, stunned.

  But then she knew what she had to do.

  Chapter 39

  The bus rolled to a stop. Eden had lost track of the hours and which country she was in. She was grateful when the announcement over the loudspeaker made it clear they’d stopped in Frankfurt.

  It shouldn’t have mattered—everything was running together: time, distance. But knowing where she was gave her an anchor. Something to be sure of.

  I’m in Frankfurt.

  It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.

  She rose to her feet and let out a frightened squeak when someone grabbed her arm.

  She turned to find Ash sliding into the seat beside her and pulling her back down.

  “I thought we’d stay on the bus at this stop,” he said.

  “Why?” Eden’s eyes darted about the bus, looking for signs of danger.

  “I thought it might be safer.” He tried and failed at casual.

  “You don’t mean safer for me, do you? You mean safer for Olivia.”

  “You’ve proven yourself unreasonable on the topic,” he had the gall to say.

  Eden nearly choked. “I’ve proven unreasonable? Are you kidding me?”

  Ash cleared his throat. “I’m not trying to start a fight.” He glanced down. “I’m trying to prevent one.”

  “You’re worried your lover will try to off me in the ladies’ bathroom, is that it?” Eden tilted her head, hoping she was adequately conveying her anger.

  “I’m not ruling it out,” he said. When he looked up at her, his gaze had softened. “I know you’re scared…”

  “I’m not—”

  “You have reason to be.” He laid a hand on her arm. “I don’t know everything you’ve been through, but I can tell it’s a lot. Olivia has been too.” Eden opened her mouth to speak, but Ash continued. “I’m not excusing what she’s done. I’m just asking you—I’m begging you—to wait. Wait until we get to Transylvania. You’ll be safe there. We have wards against ghosts.”

  “And then what—I’m supposed to stay in your village forever?” Eden made no attempt to hide how ludicrous she found the suggestion.

  “No, just long enough for me to figure out what’s happened. What’s making Olivia do this? We’ll be there in a little more than a day. That’s all I’m asking for. A day.” His eyes held an edge of desperation. “Please.”

  His plea tugged at her heart. She’d known Quinn and Sarah all of three months, but if the roles were reversed, and she would ask for at least as much. Ash had said he’d known Olivia his whole life. How he must still love her.

  Finally, she answered. “On one condition.”

  Ash exhaled, tension sliding from his shoulders. “Which is?”

  “Go into that lavatory.” Eden pointed toward the back of the bus. “And clean up anything in it that’s disgusting before I go use it.”

  A grin spread across his face. “Deal struck.”

  Eden pulled a small box of cookies from her bag, grateful she’d thought to empty the cupboards on her way out of the boat. She needed them now more than ever, having agreed not to step foot off the bus until they’d reached Transylvania.

  Of course, staying on the bus wasn’t enough protection. What did a ghost care about being seen? Ash had reached out to the Custos and been given directions for a spell—one that would ward their bus from unwanted phantom invasion.

  Eden had questioned why she couldn’t just re-cast the spell at every stop they made, but the answer soon became clear. The spell was advanced and took a good portion of her energy to maintain. As it was, the protection it provided was semi-permeable. But making it stronger would have sapped Eden’s strength completely, and it wasn’t as if Olivia was the only threat.

  So far, luck—and the ward—had held. Eden had felt a rush of cold just once, alerting her to the ghost’s presence. But Olivia hadn’t made an official appearance.

  Just marking her territory.

  Eden noted the bitter edge of her thoughts, and while she’d have liked to chalk it up to Olivia attempting to kill her, she knew it ran deeper. She was jealous.
/>   Something had begun with Ash. And it wasn’t just because she’d shared her magic with him. That may have deepened what she felt, but if she was honest, it wasn’t the source. Something had begun, and now it was…over? Eden wasn’t sure. She didn’t even know if starting something with Ash was a good idea. Where could it possibly lead?

  Eden had to deal with Agamon, and if she let Ash help her, what did that say? She valued his life less than she did Quinn and Sarah’s?

  She looked down at the cookies, her appetite gone. She shoved them back in her bag.

  “Are you going to let me starve, too?”

  She glanced up at Ash, seated across the aisle. He’d switched places at the last stop, signaling a thaw between them now that Eden had agreed not to leave the bus.

  Eden pulled out the box of cookies and tossed them to Ash. He opened them and held one out to her.

  “You should eat too.”

  “I’m not hungry.” Eden waved it away.

  “You should have a few anyway.”

  Eden rolled her eyes and took the cookie. “Okay, Dad,”

  Ash smirked. “I’m not sure I like your tone, young lady.”

  “Younger than you.” Eden took a bite of the shortbread and glanced up at him. “How old are you, anyway?”

  “I’ve been told I’m old soul,” he said, enjoying not answering and Eden’s obvious annoyance over it. “I’m twenty-three.”

  Four years older than she was.

  And a half.

  She took her time chewing, her face twisting in dissatisfaction. “These are stale.”

  Ash popped a second one into this mouth and shrugged. “You get what you pay for. Have another one anyway.”

  Eden had the words ready to refuse, but when he proffered the cookie, she took it. It had been hours since her last snack, and if she didn’t eat, she’d soon have a headache.

  “Tell me about your village.” Eden pulled a bottle of water from her bag.

  “You’re going to be there in half a day. You’ll see for yourself.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Eden slid across the aisle, taking the seat next to him. “You call them your people, but you say you don’t have family. The village is in Transylvania, but you barely have an accent, and to my untrained ear it sounds like a mix of many. Did you grow up in Romania?”

  “No,” Ash said. “I was born in England. My mother was from there. We lived there until I was seven.”

  “Why did you move?”

  “Once she died, there was no reason to stay. It was my father who descended from the Custos. He’d grown up all over Eastern Europe, so we returned there.”

  “To the village where we’re going?”

  “For a few years. It was…convenient for my father to have people to look out for us.”

  “While he was doing what?”

  “His duty. Looking for the stones.”

  “I thought that was only once a year.”

  “For most, it was. Not my father.” The admission seemed to pain him. “In truth, I think he just didn’t want to be around Ani and me. We reminded him of my mother. Of losing her.”

  “How did she die?”

  “Nothing magical.” Ash almost sounded regretful. “Just cancer. Nothing to do about it. Nothing to avenge.”

  Eden understood. Something like that—with no rhyme or reason—was almost harder to accept than being able to blame an evil force.

  “So, while he was out hunting, or…whatever he was doing, my sister and I learned the old ways. Until I was twelve.”

  “What happened then?”

  “It won’t surprise you to learn my sister was a bit of a difficult child.” Eden could well believe it. Ash went on. “She was an even worse teenager. When she turned fourteen, there was an incident.”

  “What kind of incident?”

  “The kind that had the elders in the village calling for our expulsion.”

  “Both of you?”

  “Ani liked having me along on her…adventures.”

  Eden was dying to know more about these adventures but didn’t dare stop the flow of conversation.

  “In the end, we kept our status as members of the community, but my father was given two weeks to retrieve us, which he did.”

  “And then where did you go?”

  “Where didn’t we go?” Ash’s eyes lit up with memory. “Europe, the US. I spent an entire semester at school in Florida of all places.”

  “You just kept moving around?”

  “My father never stopped his quest for the stones. He just brought us along.”

  “Surely, not when you were twelve.”

  He shrugged. “Children are not coddled in my world. Ani had killed her first demon when she was fourteen.”

  “Fourteen?” Eden’s mind reeled at the horror of it.

  “I didn’t bag my first until I was fifteen, a fact Ani never let me live down.”

  “And that’s what you’ve been doing since then? Killing demons?”

  No wonder there was a hardness to him.

  “And looking for the stones. My father amassed a network of people not part of our cause but willing to help for the right price. If a seer caught a glimpse of a stone on Samhain, we heard about it. We followed every lead.”

  “And that’s why you knew I had one?”

  Ash nodded, now looking uncomfortable. “We were already nearby when it was given to you. Close enough to track it and you back to Coventry House.”

  “And Jules?” Eden said her friend’s name softly, the grief of her death not yet past.

  “I asked Jules out to get access to you. And the stone.”

  “Jules deserved better.”

  Shame clouded his features, but he held her gaze. “She did.”

  “So, it was all a lie?” Eden hurt for her friend. At the memory of Jules telling her about her kiss with Ash.

  “It started as one.” Ash exhaled. “But I liked her. If things had been different, if my life had been different, I don’t know what would have happened between us.”

  “And when you and Ani followed us into the clearing?”

  “We couldn’t believe you’d bring an object like that to a power vortex.”

  “I didn’t know what kind of object it was until you told me.”

  “Ani got carried away.”

  Eden raised her eyebrows. “That’s a charitable description.”

  Apparently, he has a habit of excusing the bad behavior of the women in his life.

  “I didn’t know she would take it that far. Our code… We’re never supposed to kill innocents. Never. My father drilled it into us, but then he and Ani were ambushed, and he was killed before her eyes. Losing him—the way she lost him, unable to save him—it broke something inside of her. I tried to be enough. For so many years as kids, all we had was each other. But I was never able to fill the void my father left. She was never the same.”

  “Do you have any idea where she is?”

  Ash shook his head. “I hope she’s on a beach. I hope she found some rich man and married him—or knowing her, conned him—and she’s happy. I know what she did to you was wrong, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. Whatever she’s done, she’s my sister, and I love her.”

  “I understand.” She laid a hand on his. “I’m not saying I want to run into her anytime soon…” They shared a small smile. “But I hope you do someday.”

  “Thanks.” He squeezed her hand.

  “Have you been back to the village since you left?” Eden wasn’t sure it was a good idea for him to show up after a long absence with a girl hunted by a god in tow.

  “Here and there. Never more than a few months at a time, but I stay in regular contact.”

  “And the village, is that where Olivia is from?”

  Ash nodded. “She was born there. We spent our childhoods together. Even after we left with my father, we would return, and it would be like Olivia and I had never been apart. We didn’t share our first kiss until we were six
teen, but I think I might have loved her before then.”

  It was strange to hear Ash speak of love—the conversation seemed to both soften and harden him. She supposed losing love had that effect on everyone.

  “That’s a powerful bond.” But still, a few weeks here and there? What kind of relationship was that? “Did Olivia ever travel with you?”

  “When she wasn’t needed in the village. Once we turned eighteen, she and I searched for the stones together. Ani and my father would follow one lead, Olivia and I another. You learn a lot about a person when you’re on the road together.”

  Eden gave a small smile. “I can’t argue with that.”

  This honesty between them would have never happened otherwise.

  “Now, do you understand why I can’t let you hurt her?”

  Eden met his eye but tried to keep the bitterness from her voice. “Even if she wants to hurt me?”

  “You know I won’t let her.” He held her hand in both of his. “I promise you. I swear it to the gods. On the soul of my mother.” His eyes sparked with intensity. “I just need time with the delegati to understand what’s happened to her. Please trust me.”

  “I trust you.” Eden felt the words deep in her bones. Trust did not come easily to her of late, but he’d more than earned it.

  He touched a hand to her cheek and pressed his forehead to hers. His breath tickled her lips, their mouths only an inch apart.

  But then a chill rippled through the air, and Ash sucked in a breath, backing away from her.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered.

  Eden couldn’t tell if the words were meant for her or Olivia. Ash nodded toward Eden’s seat across the aisle. She slid over but didn’t take her eyes from his.

  The chill passed, but the distance between her and Ash remained.

  Chapter 40

  Sarah typed into her phone with shaking hands.

  Sarah—Where are you?

  Quinn—Home. What’s going on?