The woman in the shelter—a mother with a baby in a sling on her chest, its small head warmed by a blue knitted hat—watched them with wide eyes, turning her worried face to stare up the road as if willing a bus to appear.
Kay paused. The last thing she wanted was to cause a panic. And she was under the strictest rules to never, ever reveal the Order, but she couldn’t let the mother and her baby stay.
She leaned down and whispered, “I really think you should get a different bus.”
The mother glanced at her and then slowly back toward the two men, both of whom were now obviously trembling. Without saying a word, as if suddenly released by Kay’s permission, she gathered up her things and started walking quickly away, pulling out her phone as she fled.
Kay turned back to the two men and reached her hands out slowly, palms open and non-threatening. They were both bigger than her and blatantly unwell. The Shadows around their necks twisted darkly.
She took in a slow breath and then released it equally slowly, centering herself, grounding herself in her years of training. And then she stepped closer.
The two men didn’t move; they merely watched her with eerie focus.
“Can I help you?” she asked again.
One of the men opened his mouth as if to answer, but a cord of black wrapped itself fully around his throat, pulsing and squeezing, and he choked, his face reddening in panic.
Kay called the Shadows and flicked her fingers, sending a flurry of tendrils out toward the man, planning to lift the tentacles from his throat. They reached out, made contact—and she almost went to her knees under the backlash.
It was like cracking open a rotten egg, stinking and slimy. A slickly cold sweat broke out down her back as she fought to hold the recoiling Shadows. A wave of corruption poured from the dark Shadows now climbing up both men’s faces and traveled along her Shadows, reaching back for her.
Kay swallowed heavily against the acid in her throat and widened her stance, steadying herself. She itched to call her Shadow blades, but she didn’t want to really hurt the two men. Men who seemed as horrified by the dark Shadows as she was. Instead, she flung her hands out, sending a wave of her midnight-blue Shadows to push back against the darkness.
The dark Shadows retreated in a slow undulating ripple—too slow. She called another massive wave of Shadows and launched them outward, forcing the darkness away while working frantically to unravel the tentacles strangling the two men.
To an outsider, it would have looked like three people standing utterly still and staring at each other, but inside the shelter it was a maelstrom of pulsing Shadows. Kay’s blue-streaked Shadows grappled frantically at the oily Shadows surrounding the two men, the dark tentacles falling away like ash only to be replaced by more; growing and spreading almost as fast as she could tear them off.
A siren howled in the distance, breaking into their strange standoff, and suddenly, as if a hidden puppet master had cut a string, one of the men fell to his knees, gagging. His jacket flapped open to reveal a lethal-looking hunting knife strapped to his side, but she didn’t have time to deal with him. The second man jerked upright, consumed by the dark Shadows as if all the malignant energy was now focused entirely on him. And he was focused entirely on Kay.
He stepped forward and threw a brutal punch toward her face. She danced back but was blocked by the wall of the shelter and his fist connected heavily with the bottom of her jaw. She shook it off and followed up with her elbow to his chin. He stumbled back, half-turned, and she kicked hard into his kidneys. It was a vicious blow, but his eyes didn’t even flicker at the pain. What the hell was happening to these men?
Shadows flew up around them, churning and pulsing as they grappled. The man on his feet twisted to slide a wicked blade out from under his jacket and whirled toward her in a frenzy of slashing blows.
Kay deflected again and again, stepping in to return his swift jabs with her fists and elbows while spreading out a constant onslaught of Shadows, battling to claw the tentacles from his neck. The churning need to vomit was almost overwhelming as the dark Shadows corrupted hers as quickly as she pushed them back.
A crowd formed around them, heckling and shouting, the sirens growing ever louder while Kay struggled to split her attention across the Shadows and the men.
A flicker in the corner of her vision warned her, and she glanced back as the second man pushed to his knees, blade held high. She pulled back just as he lashed out. His blade missed her side but carved a deep slice through the muscles of her forearm. She ignored the agonizing burn and retaliated with a roundhouse kick that knocked him back to the ground. He rolled, then grabbed her legs, and she fell hard, hitting her head against the curb.
Pain radiated through her, along with the knowledge that she was losing. Two armed men and the constant onslaught of toxic Shadows were almost too much. But she wasn’t about to give up. Kay pulled her Shadow blades into her hands as she leaped back to her feet, facing the two men.
A siren blared from right next to the bus shelter and a police car screeched to a halt at a sharp angle, doors flinging open as officers poured out yelling orders. The men, still hidden in their hoodies, seemed suddenly to collapse in on themselves. Without a word, they spun away and ran into the crowd, pushing as people screamed. The crowd panicked and ran into each other, shouting and shoving as the two men forced a path through the chaotic mass and used the mayhem to get away.
Kay moved to chase them, but the seething nausea in her belly and the stabbing pain in her head stopped her. There was no way she could follow. Kay sank back to the curb and watched as the dark Shadows slowly broke apart and drifted away.
ChapterFour
Kay restedher pounding head on her knees. The cut on her arm was pumping blood sluggishly through her shirt to drip onto her jeans and her jaw throbbed relentlessly.
More police cars pulled up, sirens blipping, as officers pushed the crowds away, forming a clear ring around the shelter.
A female officer came up to her and crouched down in front of her. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” Kay replied. “Just… give me a minute.”
“You don’t look so good. The ambulance is coming.”
The officer leaned over to talk into the radio strapped to her chest before looking back at Kay. “One minute and it’ll be here.”
