“Are you okay?” Miss Blair snapped her fingers at him through the bars.
He blinked. “Yes, I’m fine.”
Her expression was skeptical as he tore his eyes from the monstrous form enclosing around her body.
A reflexive survey of the surroundings revealed very few clues as to the cause of her approaching mortality. Instinct took over. The ritual of finding sudden shadows on others had become involuntary over the years.
He ruled out an ongoing medical condition. The timing and ferocity suggested an outside source, as the shadow had not been there when he first arrived. His attention turned to the room, searching for a trigger.
With an air of refined calm, he adjusted his coat. He returned to his seat. He repositioned the chair so that he could see all of Miss Blair before he sank into it and crossed his arms. And then he waited.
He’d have to observe the scene with a new sense of focus until something stood out. The shadow around Miss Blair began to grasp her shoulders, ghostly fingers ready to pull her from the living. Her death was approaching and yet nothing seemed amiss.
He hated this part. The waiting. The watching. The trying to figure out how to stop Death before it was too late. A race against an unknowable timer. Did she have minutes or seconds? Was whatever awaited her even preventable or was death inevitable?
Kieran had learned to decipher certain clues from the shadow itself, but it wasn’t exact. It was never easier, either. Never without its toll on his conscience when he failed or his soul when nothing could be done.
In this instance, however, he concluded that her demise was preventable. Whatever was meant to kill her had only just started its course.
Kieran’s eyes flickered to the movement around them. Boots shuffled and pounded on tiers of floors with more activity than the lowly pits of holding cells. Humans were so easily extinguished. So frail.
A disheveled officer placed a tray of food on one of the desks near Kieran, drawing his attention.
“What’s this?” Rachel stated, raising a brow. But this officer wasn’t just disheveled. His uniform was the wrong size, sagging in places and the sleeves rolled twice to fit over his hands.
The new officer shrugged. “For the prisoner. Boss’s orders.”
Rachel narrowed her eyes as the man unlocked Miss Blair’s cell.
“Oh, thank the Divine.” Miss Blair dove for the desk, scooting into a chair and leaning over the tray. The shadow’s claws pierced her shoulders, biting at her flesh, preparing to pry out her soul. Kieran’s focus tunneled onto Miss Blair. The only sound was his pulse in his ears as all other stimuli faded into the background.
Miss Blair wiggled with oblivious excitement. “I don’t even care that the food here is shit. I’m so hungry.”
The food? Just to be sure, he watched carefully as Miss Blair lifted a slice of buttered bread. The shadow enclosed her face. Her soul was seconds from the afterlife. Death’s hands were on her now, growing closer as her hand neared her mouth.
Kieran rose from his seat and swiped the roll from Miss Blair’s hand. Her jaw closed on air.
The shadow flickered. Wavered. The claws unlatched from her shoulders. Her beautiful face was once again freed of the oozing darkness, revealing her exasperated, pissed-off glare. Directed at himself, who held her dinner above her head with no explanation.
“What the hell?” Miss Blair’s stare intensified in malice, but Kieran was more concerned with the effect he’d had on her imminent demise. He picked up the tray of food and stepped back, observing.
The shadow receded, fleeing and slithering back to the invisible depths of a death too far into the future for him to sense.
Satisfied, Kieran took the tray and poured the contents into a bin.
“Did you know that man?” He directed the question at Rachel. The disheveled officer was already gone.
“I… no, I don’t remember him.” She spoke slowly, as if still working out what had happened.
Kieran turned to Miss Blair. Her arms were crossed and her eyes speared him. But the shadow was gone. Her gratitude wasn’t necessary, but he did not enjoy being the recipient of her ire.
“I advise locating him before he gets too far,” Kieran said.
“Why?” Rachel was already rising from her chair. Of all the humans—or guardian, it was hard to tell at a glance since humans and guardians were genetically similar in every way aside from their blood—he had met, Rachel gave the impression that she was capable.
“He tried to kill Miss Blair.”
“He did what, now?” Miss Blair’s anger dissipated; her face danced through a medley of emotions before settling on wide-eyed fear. “He knows I failed. How the fuck did Cole figure it out so fast?”
