Mirage shivers. “Two miles is a lot of room,” he says, but he doesn’t sound as if he really believes that.
Misery rolls through me in the wake of the pain. It feels like more than one serving—I can’t say how much of it is even mine.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean foranyof this to happen.”
Hail glowers at me. “Lot of good that does us.”
Raze whirls on him. “Leave her alone, you?—”
At a squeak of the door, he falls silent.
Pearl has appeared in the doorway. After a glance at all of us, her usual cheerful demeanor dims.
“Hey,” she says tentatively. “We just got a call from Rollick. Another one of those weird rifts has popped up. He wants the team back together.”
4
Periwinkle
The first thing I notice when we step out of the car is the scattered high rises looming over a sprawl of lumpy urban architecture in the distance. Normally I like a thriving city atmosphere, but in this particular case, it seems non-ideal.
I hesitate. “The new rift appeared this close to a city?”
Rollick beckons the five of us away from the vehicle that transported us from the airfield, his expression unusually solemn. “And less than a quarter mile off one of the biggest highways in the country. It seems we got lucky that the first one appeared in such an out-of-the-way location. Come on, have a look.”
I feel the rift before I see it—that squirmy, wobbly sensation its strange energy provokes under my skin, cutting right through the warm spring air. I shiver, already sure I’m no keener to diveinto this portal than the one up in northern Canada that we investigated over the past few weeks.
As we approach, the smear of wavering energy appears like a vague blurring of the low, grassy hills behind it, hovering just a couple of feet above the ground and stretching at least twenty higher and across.
Rollick stops when we’re still about ten paces away, and I can’t say I’m upset to keep my distance. I can see just fine from here, thank you.
“Popping up here, popping up there,” Mirage says, but his singsong voice sounds just as unsettled as I am.
Jonah glances at Rollick. “How did you find out about this one? Do you have any idea how long it’s been open?”
The demon shakes his head in answer to the second question. “I’m guessing not very long. One of the local shadowkind stumbled on it and alerted me yesterday. Some digging turned up a few tales of strange beasts roaming the city streets over the past day or two, but nothing beyond that.”
Hail grimaces. “The warped creatures are tumbling out of this one too? We won’t be keeping the existence of shadowkind secret for very long if they’re partying all through downtown.”
“As I’ve observed time and time again, humans have an incredible capacity for pretending away anything they don’t want to admit could be real.” Rollick rubs his hand along his jaw. “But there are limits. And this rift poses a significant threat to the nearby mortals as well as to us.”
The winter fae scoffs as if dismissing the idea that any human deserves our concern. A deeper twitch ripples through my skin.
What if that whole city found out creatures from a realm of shadows exist—and regularly travel into their own world? Would hundreds of thousands of them pick up shiny nets and laser whips to hunt us down like a few mortals already do?
I’ve met plenty of friendly humans in my explorations of the mortal realm, but most of them had no idea I was what they’d consider a “monster.” I’m not sure gambling on their good will would be a very fun game.
Jonah considers the rift with his forehead furrowed. “Has anyone notified the Highest Ones about all this weirdness yet?”
I glance over. “The Highest Ones?”
Rollick clicks his tongue. “Ah, you’re lucky enough not to have crossed paths with our supposed overlords or any of their minions in your existence so far. The Highest mostly lounge around way off in the deepest depths of the shadow realm and only get involved in other business if they think they personally might be threatened. And I’d imagine they’re still licking the wounds to their egos after an unfortunate incident a couple decades ago. We’re probably better off without them trying to interfere in their out-of-touch way. None of them has so much as peeked into the mortal world willingly in centuries.”
Raze takes a step toward the rift, his shoulders flexing as he studies it. I taste his tension like a thick, peppery soup. “Why did you want us to come out here? We couldn’t really do anything about the first rift.”
“And that whole experience ended so wonderfully,” Hail mutters.
The basilisk shifter’s head jerks around so he can glare at the other man. When Rollick clears his throat, they both appear to tamp down their animosity.
