Peri gives herself a little shake. Through the mark constantly pulsing on my chest, I can feel her rousing her most upbeat spirits as well as she can—as if she thinks she has to put on that cheerful front for me when her heart isn’t in it. My own heart squeezes.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she says. “So far. Rollick seems to think the hunters are going to retaliate against us somehow. And I haven’t really been able to talk to Gracie yet. She was so exhausted and even a little dehydrated when we got her back…The hunters weren’t very nice to her. Dominic healed her some, but he said we should give her time to rest.”
I don’t see why the shadowblood who doesn’t appear to have been alive for more than three decades should be calling those shots, but Peri obviously took his request seriously.
I nudge her gently. “I bet she’ll be awake and recovered soon.”
“I know. But then wewillhave to talk.” Peri’s spirits droop again. “She helped me so much, and I ran off on her. I don’t even know what her dad did to her after we left. He probably punished her. And then Ikilledher dad.”
I would have thought the first part made the second part okay, but I’m still getting a handle on how much standards of morality can differ, especially when it comes to humans.
I do know this much. “Youdidn’t kill him. You freed the shadowkind who killed him, but your hands are totally clean.”
Peri gives a little huff. “I don’t think both of those things can be true.”
“Well, is she really going to be all that upset when her dad was such an asshole?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if she knows he’s dead. How long would it take anyone to find that secret lair of his? Maybe he’ll never be found. So I have to tell her.”
“You could just… forget to mention it.”
“No, I couldn’t.” Peri shudders. “I’d be an awful friend if I kept something like that from her. I do hope we can still be friends…”
I suspect my Cream Puff is worrying too much about other people’s feelings the way she tends to do.I’mmore worried about the other difficulty she mentioned. “Does Rollick think the hunters are going to attack us—or encourage the other humans who are playing at hunter to try to grab you again?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t understand why they do any of the things they’ve been doing. I guess Jonah and Sorrel are the most likely to get in trouble, since they’re the only ones the hunters saw.”
Of course she’d be fretting about everyone other than herself. The tightness in my chest condenses into an ache.
I tuck my presence around her in a shadowy embrace. The ache creeps up to my throat. “I wish I could keep you safe from everything that could hurt you.” Hunters, other marauding humans, former friends who might react badly to unexpected news.
That’s all I’ve ever wanted, really. To protect as many shadowkind as I can from the harmful parts of the mortal realm.
Peri deserves that security even more than most beings.
The thought of my long-held dreams sends a shiver of exhilaration through me. Maybe Icanshield her, at least for a little while.
I nudge her again. “Come with me.”
She does, curiosity tingling through her more fraught emotions. I lead her through the camp and into the stretch of trees where Mirage found his pretty little clearing.
I don’t need to go as far as the clearing. As soon as we’re out of view of the human settlement, I emerge into physical form and reach for my powers.
Ice shoots up amid trunks. It shapes into a turret here, a staircase there.
The structure winds between the trees. With each wave of power I pull through my body, more and more crystalline surfaces glimmer into being. I cast them farther, higher, my pulse racing alongside the sensations.
Peri gasps, and I come back to myself. We’re standing before a castle like the ones I used to build in my dorm room at theacademy, only bigger. Its spired roof rises nearly as high as the treetops.
An arched doorway stands open before us. I hold out my hand to Peri, taking on the chivalrous pose I imagine a knight would.
I never thought of myself as that kind of hero… but maybe for her, I could be.
Beaming now, Peri twines her fingers with mine. We step through the doorway into the castle’s interior.
Intricate carvings decorate the icy walls. The building is only big enough for one grand if narrow room, but I made it as impressive as I could, with a soaring ceiling that lets in light through thin sections of ice and a spiral staircase leading up into the tight space of the turret.
Peering around at it, another urge tugs at me. I inhale deeply and release my grip on the humanesque form that’s become an ever-present disguise.
