“I’m sorry you were worried,” she finally said. She wasn’t sorry she’d done it, she would make the same decision every time. But she was sorry David was upset.
David turned to face her, watching her intently. He was a Guardian, like her, but if she hadn’t known it, she might have thought he was looking for some kind of sign. It was the kind of look Elizabeth tended to give.
They sat in silence for a few moments until David spoke. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
Kay explained everything from the time she’d seen the two men, leaving out how she’d known to be there in the first place.
She held back a shudder as she told him about the darkness that had pooled around them. “They each had some kind of strange Shadow that looked like it was wrapped around their necks but felt more like it was embedded in them somehow. I almost thought… it seemed like the Shadow was controlling them.”
David steepled his hands and looked over the top of his fingers at her, his body going completely still. “Are you sure?”
Was she sure? It had happened so fast. Most of the Shadows had been hidden under their jackets and hoods. She had felt it. But was a feeling enough? “No. Not a hundred percent.”
David pushed himself up and walked over to the window, staring out at the gray London sky. Eventually, he turned and rested his weight on the windowsill. “What you’re saying could be nothing. Or it could be something deeply concerning. Leave it with me. I want to look into it more, see if anyone on the Council has heard anything.”
Kay winced. That was exactly what she wanted to avoid. But she couldn’t ask him not to take it to the Council.
“I’d be grateful if you could keep this between us for now,” David added.
Damn. More secrets. “Can I at least tell James and Zach?” she asked.
“No. Not until I’ve got agreement from the Council.”
Kay nodded slowly. What he was asking felt wrong. And it was going to make it very difficult—impossible even—to investigate the dark Shadows. But she trusted him and she was prepared to wait. For a while, anyway.
The silence stretched and she was about to push out of her chair, convinced he was done, when he waved her back down. “What you did was dangerous. And you could have exposed us all. I don’t have to tell you the repercussions for that.”
She swallowed. Shadow stripping—having your ability to hold Shadows permanently severed—was one of the worst things that could happen to a Shadow Weaver. And it was the punishment for revealing the Order.
“And yet,” David said in a low voice, “you’re a Guardian. We ask you to take an oath to defend those in need and to use your Shadows to protect the light. And that’s what you did. I’m proud of you, Kay.”
Damn, that meant a lot. “Thanks, David.”
He sat back down at his desk with a half-smile. “You can go, but just do me a favor: please phone your grandmother. In person.”
“I will.” She stood up and walked to the door, turning to look back at him over her shoulder. “Did you like your book?”
“What book?”
“The book Zach went to buy for you last night.”
David shook his head. “I didn’t ask Zach to buy me anything. What book did he think I wanted?”
That was weird. Zach had left her, right before the attack, to get a book he’d never actually been asked for. Why would he do that?
“I don’t know,” she replied slowly. “I must be confused. It was a long night.”
David waved her off, turning back to the papers on his desk, not noticing how deeply his comment had unsettled her.
She let herself out and made her way to her room to call Elizabeth.
“Cariad.” Her gran’s voice was warm. “It’s good to hear from you.”
Kay updated Elizabeth on everything that had happened, including her feeling that the men were being manipulated by the twisting black Shadows.
“We need to tell David about your vision,” Kay told her gran. “He thinks this came out of nowhere.”
There was a long silence and then a slow sigh from Elizabeth. “You’re right.”
