Riva lets out a disbelieving sputter. “Like it wasn’t bad enough already. We’d better get over there and see what we can do.”
Yes. Right. Because we’re the ones who are supposed to have a handle on the problem. The experts in this situation.
Someone needs to convince my brain of that before it spirals into total panic.
The shadowbloods race off toward the city. I spur myself into similar action, tuning out the frantic thrum of my pulse as well as I can. With each hurried footstep, I gulp deep breaths to offset the lightheadedness that’s creeping over me.
There’s got to be something I can do. That’s why I’m here.
I’m sure as hell not going to help anyone if I fall apart again. I’m not a little kid anymore. This isn’t that old catastrophe.
Nope. It’s one much more immense.
As I pick up my pace, dodging the frantic humans, Peri and Mirage pop out of the shadows alongside me. Peri stares at the new deluge of shadow with a twist of her lips. “Why would it happen now? Did the soldiers do something? Or the hunters?”
“Not that I noticed,” I say. “But I wasn’t even outside when it started, so I wouldn’t have seen. I guess that’s possible.”
Of course, the soldiers and the hunters were nowhere around the first few times the strange rift started spewing. It seems a little unfair to blame them for the current bout, as many other complaints as we could raise.
A trace of a blush colors Peri’s cheeks. She glances at Mirage, and a twinge of emotion that’s both guilt and pleasure passes through our bond. “You don’t think— It happened right after?—”
Mirage laughs, though the sound is more halting than his usual buoyant humor. “The rift didn’t mind when we all took care of you before. How could just the two of us having fun set it off?”
Having fun? Oh, they were— I did pick up on some wafts of desire and delight not that long ago, but they were distant enough that I could ignore them.
Despite the awfulness of the situation, the corner of my mouth kicks upward. I tease my fingers through Peri’s hair. “I’m sure getting it on didn’t set the rift off.”
She rubs her forehead. “I guess maybe nothing did. As far as we know, it was totally random all the other times, wasn’t it?”
“As far as we know.” I don’t like to consider how much wedon’tknow.
Given Rollick’s inability to find any specific culprit, it seems likely that my previous worries were only panic-driven paranoia. Peri’s theory about the borders between the realms thinning makes more sense than anything else. But we’re not much closer to figuring out how to fix that problem.
We jar to a stop at the edge of the evacuee camp, where the temporary shelters give way to the last short span of scruffy grass before the first factory buildings rise from the earth. A few dozen soldiers have already marched into some kind of formation nearby, but they’re gaping at the scene looking just as dazed as I feel.
The thicker darkness pouring from the rift isn’t just streaming down now. It’s… churning, swirling into the lighter murk as if someone’s stirring it with a giant spoon.
All the things Peri’s suggested about how part of the shadow realm might be trying to merge with the mortal world come back to me.
I glance over at her. “Are you picking up any emotions from the creatures in the city? Does thisfeeldifferent from before?”
She frowns, an uneasy orange glow flickering through her hair. “A little… Bits and pieces… Restlessness. Impatience. They’re tired of waiting.”
The churning of the haze seems to echo those emotions. I can almost taste the tension in its spiraling movement myself, winding tighter into the atmosphere, seeking something it’s not finding.
A shiver runs over my skin.
Mirage’s posture stiffens. “Here they come.”
A few incongruous creatures are shuffling into view out of the murk. They weave back and forth with no clear sign of direction, scratching at the earth and bumping against the nearby buildings, but agitation shows in every twitch that wracks their warped bodies.
One of the soldiers shouts, and they all level their guns. I open my mouth instinctively, the sorcerous syllables that’ve become an innate part of my being flowing off my tongue.
Go back. Go home.
I toss out the command as firmly as I can, but only one of the creatures even sways in its steps. It veers to the side before straightening out its path again.
The soldiers open fire.
