I furrow my brow and resist the urge to sigh. Why would I have expected a friend of Shaw’s to be easy and accommodating? Of course, she’d be infuriatingly mysterious. But I don’t have time for any more riddles while the ones I already possess remain unsolved. “Do you know where my parents are?”
Aggie narrows her eyes. “It seems to me, little bird, thatyouknow where your parents are.”
Heat flames my cheeks and I glance guiltily at the refreshment table, as if there’s some way Shaw could have overheard from this distance. He chats animatedly with his friends, paying no attention to our conversation. “I do know where my father is, though I don’t know why he was taken. And my mother’s whereabouts remain a mystery.”
“I knew your mother,” Aggie tells me and my heart flies into my throat.
I want to keep her from speaking at the very same time I want to rip the words from her. “Knew?” I repeat weakly.
Aggie nods, her eyes staring off in the direction of Evie’s bakery and boarding house. “Knew. The Darkness changes everyone and your parents are no exception. I know her no longer.”
“She’s…she’s dead?”
Aggie doesn’t answer me, but her unseeing eyes flick to my face, staring as if they can see what lies beneath my skin. The secrets and the shame and the hungering thoughts I’ve been having while my brother lays dying a world away. If Shaw’s gaze is intense, it is nothing to Aggie’s.
“He is the Darkness,” she croaks, the sing song quality of her voice gone all at once.
I turn to her, startled. “I—what?”
“The Darkness will change you.”
The gray pupil behind the milky white of Aggie’s eyes is cratered and colorless. It reminds me of the moon. Not the moon that floods Nadjaa’s streets with warmth and light, but the one from Similis that has always seemed so far away, like it belongs somewhere else.
“The Darkness changes all those who enter, but it will touch you especially. Deep down in your soul, deeper than even you know, you will be changed,” she pauses, wheezing. Her throat is dry and her voice crackles like wind across fallen leaves. “He is the Darkness. The Darkness is he.”
I let out a frustrated sigh through my nostrils. “Changed how? And who are you talking about? What about my mom?”
Her face crinkles into a humorless smile and her gaze leaves mine. “When you decide to hear the earth’s whispers and dance in its power, come to me, my little bird,” the rising lilt of her voice has returned, and where it once sounded silly, it now sounds ominous. I stare at her, shock and anger mingling furiously.
Before I can give voice to them, Max and Calloway slide into the seats on either side of us. Max pushes a fizzy drink into my hand and wiggles a delicately painted eyebrow at me. “You’ll thank me later,” she says, clinking her glass with mine and taking a long sip.
I turn to Aggie, to demand she give answers instead of more questions, but she’s disappeared. I look around wildly, but there’s no sign of the strange old woman. I take a deep swig of the wine, bubbles fluttering in my throat and stomach.
Shaw drops into the seat next to me, raising an eyebrow at the glass already in my hand. I want to laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing: I’m sitting in the most magical place I’ve ever seen, surrounded by light and laughter and now, all I can think of is darkness.
* * *
Shaw
The party is in full swing by the time the moon has fully risen, raucous laughter and merriment echoing across the white cobblestones. The music has evolved from soft and lilting to cheerful and rhythmic, and groups of Nadjaan revelers dance in the soft light, clinking their cherry wine. I sip my own sparingly, having never had a head for spirits, and watch the festivities from the shadows.
Not the festivities. Mirren.
Whatever cloud settled over her while in Aggie’s presence has lifted and her face is luminous, her hair a spill of dark waves over her pale shoulder. I watch her greedily, my eyes a consolation for my fingers, running over her skin in their place; over curves hugged in seafoam green silk.
Cal spins her around in time with the music and she laughs, a mellisonant sound that reverberates in my chest. She tilts her head toward him and says something I’m too far away to hear, and for an absurd moment, I feel like taking my friend by his perfectly tailored collar and throwing him against a wall.
“Who is the new curiosity that has enamored Mr. Calloway?” The voice comes from my left, both oily and undoubtedly shrewd in its tone. Jayan.
I curse inwardly, having been too caught up in Mirren to hear the man approaching. If I had, I would have high tailed it in the opposite direction. A member of the People’s Council, Jayan has always been a repellant but somewhat necessary evil. The man is undeniably cunning, having used whatever is in his arsenal to be reelected six times in his district, be it campaigning or other, less savory means. It’s no secret that his aim is higher than a simple council seat, but a love of power isn’t uncommon among politicians and isn’t what sets him apart. I’ve never been able to pinpoint what, exactly, it is about him that sets my teeth on edge, but I know better than anyone what a man can keep hidden.
“A guest,” I reply tersely, turning to him irritably. He is shorter than me, coming only to my shoulder, but in spite of his slight stature, he holds himself as if he outmatches me. His watery blue eyes are sharp, and he is dressed as primly as ever, but something in the set of his jaw speaks to ruthlessness.
“Of our esteemed Chancellor? Or of yours Mr. Shaw?” His voice is polite but his eyes flicker with distaste.
Jayan has never hidden his opinion of Denver, nor of me. The former being one of grudging respect and the latter being one of blatant dislike. I’ve no need of Jayan’s approval, but I do need his continued support of Denver. It’s one of the reasons I’ve kept Denver’s disappearance quiet. The council grows restless and suspicious in his absences and once word of his abduction reaches their ears, Jayan won’t hesitate to vie for power. Denver’s vision for Nadjaa will be replaced by a much more brutal one.
“And where is Denver? One would think he wouldn’t miss the lunar celebration if he has plans to run for reelection?”
