Still, I weave through the cluster of trailers that we shadowkind and our associates have been using to the one set up as a sort of medical room. I peek inside to see a couple of shadowkind beings lying on the cots at one end of the room, one of them still seeping a little essence from his bandaged limbs, and a sort-of familiar human sitting up on her cot at the other side.
Only sort-of, because for all I recognized Gracie on sight, it’s obviously been years since I last laid eyes on her. The final lingering childish chubbiness has faded from her face, which is still youthful but definitely a woman’s now. The chestnut hair she used to wear in ponytails and braids has been cropped into a chin-length bob that’s drooping after her trials.
But when her eyes light up at the sight of me, there’s no denying she’s the same Gracie I knew.
“Peri,” she murmurs, as if she can’t totally believe I’m here. “You look… You look good. You’ve been okay the past six years?”
Six years since I escaped. Having a number doesn’t change anything about the blur of time spent huddling in the shadow realm and then creeping out into this one to feed.
A quiver of my old guilt runs through me to join all my current regrets.
I push my mouth into a smile. “I am now! I mean, other than the whole crazy rift spewing shadows into the mortal realm thing. Everything else is great!”
Gracie’s lips twitch, probably because that statement sounds absurd no matter how you cut it. “I always wondered… Iwas worried the things Dad did might have injured you permanently.”
I see no need to mention the ache that prickles through my feet and ankles when I’m on them for too long. It’s one small discomfort that barely matters compared to being out of that cage.
“Shadowkind are pretty tough.” I ease closer to her, feeling oddly cautious, as if she might run away after all the hassle she went through to find me. “Haveyoubeen all right? I worried a lot… If I could have stayed and helped you… I heard how angry your dad was after you set us free.”
Gracie’s brief laugh is careless enough to soften the sharp edges of my guilt. At least, that particular patch of it. “The whole point was to get you out of there. I’d have had him angry at me for nothing if you’d stuck around and gotten captured again.”
Her lips form a smile as crooked as Rollick’s was minutes ago. “I won’t say it was fun. He laid into me a lot, and for a whole year he wouldn’t let me out of his sight except while I was in school. But then he got distracted by some new project—the second I got accepted into college, he shipped me off to the dorms and took off. He came back for a couple of Christmases like he was going through the motions, but I haven’t seen him in almost… two years now.”
The other gob of guilt sticks in my throat for a few seconds before I can speak. My voice comes out thin as if it’s squeezed around the lump. “You aren’t going to see him again.”
Gracie’s brow knits. “What do you mean? He doesn’t have anything to do with all this, does he?” She motions vaguely to the city beyond the trailer walls.
She doesn’t know anything specific about his research then.
I grope for the right words. “When we were first investigating the rifts—just us shadowkind—we found one off in the wilderness in Canada. Your dad was up there too. He must havenoticed the unusual energy somehow, and he was studying the warped creatures, using them for his… usual sort of purposes.”
Forcing them to attack people he wanted out of his way, mostly. David Blaver was the kind of guy who’d sooner choke you on a cupcake than offer it on a plate. And then be mad if you didn’t thank him for the honor.
Gracie winces. “Oh. He barely talked with me about that part of his life after I ‘screwed things up’ for him. I had no idea.”
“Yes. Well.” I twist my hands in front of me. “We didn’t want him to hurt any more people. We found the place where he was working and freed the shadowkind he’d caged there. And they… They killed him.”
You can hardly blame them for holding a grudge against a guy who’d forced them to live surrounded by silver and iron, ordering them around day in and out, zapping them with his weird testing equipment when he was in the mood.
But, maybe you can blame them if you’re the guy’s only kid. That kind of relationship comes with special benefits.
Gracie stares at me for several seconds as if in a daze. Then she blinks and gives herself a little shake. “Oh. Oh my God.”
Another laugh spills out of her, rougher than the last. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I started telling people he was dead just to avoid awkward conversations about what he was up to. I always wondered if he’d try to tackle the wrong monster someday.”
She doesn’t sound angry, but the word ‘monster’ ripples through my senses alongside a dollop of resentment as sharp as cactus skin. I don’t know who that resentment is aimed at more, but I’m not sure I want to find out.
“I’m sorry,” I say quickly. “I wish… I wish things could have been better.”
Why couldn’t David Blaver have been a more loving father? Or at least found a good mom to look after Gracie instead? Imight not fully understand human family dynamics given that shadowkind come into being fully grown rather than starting as babies, but I don’t think they get much more messed up than this.
“So do I.” Gracie leans against the pillow propped on the head of the cot frame. Her gaze goes distant. “At least it’s over now. I don’t have to worry about him popping back into my life and screwing things up forme.”
I swallow thickly. “What have you been up to? I mean—I guess you went to college— How did you even know to come looking for me?”
Gracie’s next smile looks warmer, a splash of strawberry-sweet amusement coming with it. “I saw you on TV, silly—like most of the world did, as far as I can tell. The reporter said where you put on your little show. I know it’s kind of dangerous being near this weird rift, but I wanted to see you again. I had vacation time at my job I needed to use…”
Her attention slides away from me. “I had no idea there’d be people here who’d have such a problem with that. What is the deal with those assholes who think wanting to talk to a shadowkind is a crime?”
