Gods, how to even begin answering that question.
“It’s a long story.”
“We have time, Ez.” Cemmy motions for me to tuck in. “If you want to tell it.”
So, I do tell it, if only to purge the wealth of questions and contradictions from my head, share the madness with other people.
“A void?” Cemmy asks once I’m done with the telling, turning the word on her tongue. “I’ve never heard that term before—at least not in relation to Shades.”
“Me neither.” Chase drums a restless tattoo against the trunk. “Could the Indigo have misheard him, maybe? Or misunderstood?”
“It’s possible,” I say, since I wasn’t there with her. “But I saw his trail for myself and it was definitely . . . different. Less like a trail and more like a dearth in the shadows—an absence—but one I could feel.”
“Okay, so then what do you want to do next?” Cemmy asks, arms wrapping around her knees.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we’re not leaving Sarotuza until we know you’re safe so . . .
do you want to stay, do you want to go? Tell us what you need.”
“I can’t go yet.” That realization dawns on me unbidden, like a midnight sun. Hells, I’m not altogether sure that Icouldgo, even if I did want to, that the future would actuallyallowme to leave.It seems to want him here. If Raya was right about that assertion, then the fates would only conspire to lead me straight back to the city, because while changing the future is possible, fighting it is an exercise in futility. Mom taught me that. But it was her death that taught me never to ignore my suspicions, no matter how absurd they might feel, to keep my eyes open, always, and rely on the strength of my gift. “For some reason, the Council is blind to what the Meridian is doing to these typics; I can’t go without first finding out why that is, and why he’s doing it.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Cemmy says, as though I’d meant thatIas awe.
“No, that’s—Just because I’m choosing to stay doesn’t mean the two of you have to get involved.”
“We’re already involved, Ezzo.” Chase’s voice is resigned. “I saw the same future the Indigo did, remember? And it was all our colors in that vision, so if you’re going to stay, we may as well stay with you, get to the bottom of it together.”
“Any idea where we should start?” Cemmy asks before I can disagree, almost as if to stop me doing it.
“None whatsoever.” So instead, I concede. “I only got this far because the future was guiding Raya.”
“Then maybe it’s time to ask a different Shade for help.” Cemmy trades a meaningful look with Chase. “The Red did say we could reach out again if we needed to—and she knew an awful lot about a whole bunch of illegal things, so maybe she’ll know something about this.”
“I’m sorry—the Red?” That’s about the last thing I expected Cemmy to say. “What Red? Since when do you know a Red?”
“Since the day we had to rescue you from an impenetrable castle.”
Her head shakes with the question. “How else do you think we learned about the portals, Ez? Or managed to subdue an entire court? Did you really think we did that by ourselves?”
“I—” Didn’t think about it at all, to be honest, though now that she’s said it, it feels downright obvious. Of course they’d have needed help breaking into the Academy; until this morning, none of us even knew portals existed, never mind how to find or use one, and we’ve certainly never gone up against a room full of Shades—few Hues ever attempt that and live to tell the tale. “Gods, where did you even find a sympathetic Red?”
“That’s also a long story,” Cemmy says, climbing back to her feet. “We can catch you up once I’ve set the meeting.”
*
The meeting, as it happens, is to take place in a very normal-looking house, on a very normal-looking street, at the very heart of the one part of Sarotuza that’s dangerously low in iron. The color district, Cemmy called it, which feels like the last place three Hues should ever be—especially in the Gray, where our eyes are a death sentence and we can’t disappear among the typics.
“You didn’t want to go anywhere a little less . . . Shade-friendly?” I ask, blinking out of my gift. The number of trails in our vicinity is a rainbow sea, stormy and shark-infested, a shipwreck waiting to happen. “We’re pretty exposed here.”
“I didn’t pick the place, Ez, she did.” Cemmy strides up to the door with a confidence I don’t feel.
“Shebeing the Red that got you into the Academy?”
“That’s the one.” Cemmy’s knock is a rhythmic pattern they must have pre-agreed. Four raps of her knuckles followed by two more, then another three. “And while it may not have been my first choice, she said it would be safer for us to make the approach in the Gray.”
Yeah, I’m sure she did.The blood starts pounding in my ears. It’s the perfect trap, after all, allowing the trackers to catch us here; it would prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there’s illicit color flowing through our veins.
