Circle of Arms (The Shades of Northwood 2)

by Wendy Maddocks

  It was alarming how quickly her eyes adjusted to the pitch darkness of the club. People were still yelling about being dumped into darkness but the DJ had tentatively put some chill-out music on, very quietly but insistent enough to mute the mass panic to a kind of collective confusion. She left the chaos, slowly returning to normal, and squinted around. She put her arms out in front of her and pushed gawkers out of her way until she found a wall, then followed it a few feet to her left until she stood with the corridor stretching off to her right and a green fire exit to her left. There was much more light along here, courtesy of the harsh fluorescent tubes overhead. They were making Katie tired and she realised with a jolt that being under the fairy lights of the club or in the murk that seemed to follow her everywhere, she had felt more awake than in the light.

  She twisted left and faced the fire door. Déjà vu.

  Katie sucked in a lungful of stale air and pushed down on the fire bar. For a few terrifying seconds, she was sure the door was going to open on nothing but bins and metal stairs. Bu she knew this was where she was meant to be. Unless her dream had been all another lie. Or a mistake. What if she had been meant to let them all out in her dreams? What if she didn’t know how to help these Shades? There might be nothing left to do and she had no right to be standing here, expecting to open this door and-

  - find herself staring down the barrel of a gun.

  Chapter seven