Kit felt a cold danger spark, even as the constant loop of orders threatened to distract him.Return to the base. Re?—
The man took a small step back, the neon lights illuminating his many silver facial piercings. "You okay, man?"
"Okay?" Kit echoed. Was he?
Not until he foundher.
The man dissolved into the crowd, done with waiting for Kit’s answer.
Kit shouldered his way through the crowd. Where wasshe?
He had tracked her here, to Lunar City. After she’d disappeared into the Soul Searcher’s strange portal, Kit hadtraced her footsteps through the snow, finding the spot where they disappeared.
Shadows on the ground, in the snow. Then, dark footsteps pressed into the snow from nowhere, picking up where her tracks had ended. He followed them until he had found himself at a decrepit parking garage in Solar City. A corner store’s broken welcome sign had illuminated the dark streets. The dark shadows of an unlit, broken lamppost had offered a perfect hideaway. Until his gloved fingers had been frozen stiff, and frost clung to his lashes, he stood—until a dark vehicle emerged from within, and the shadowed footsteps had reappeared, trailing after the vehicle.
A roar snapped him back to the present. Laughter. A lowlevel Rogue backed into a corner near an alley. Men stood around it with long rods, electricity crackling at the end.
"Kill the fucker!" one shouted.
"No—capture it and sell its parts on the markets. You really want to pass on the cash?"
The Rogue shrieked as the rods jabbed into its side.
Kit stared at the blue flash of electricity. His chest tightened.
Where he stood at the mouth of the alley, he caught the attention of the group. One man swung around, the rod pointing at Kit. "The fuck are you looking at?"
The electric hum drowned him. His fingers twitched. One step forward.
Return to the base.
Kit stopped. He wanted Vesperin. Killing them would delay him.
He left the alley.
Eyes followed him as he prowled. Whispers, flinches. He was drawing attention.
Too many voices, too much chaos.
Kit’s fingers spasmed. Eight letters. Three vowels. Five consonants.
Vesperin. Vesperin.
He realized he was speaking aloud when a man with deep brown hair and a golden ring in his nose gave him a narrowed-eyed look. "Are you trying to hit on my girl?" He wrapped an arm around the woman at his side, her dark hair falling around her shoulders in thick curls.
Kit’s senses flickered, caught on something sharp and compelling. They were both magnetic—out of place here. Even the way he spoke was out of place, as if the words were a facade.
The woman scoffed. "Like I’m your girl. I don’t belong to anyone. Let’s go." She reached for the man’s collar and hooked her finger in it, drawing him intoSalli’s Smoke Shack.
Kit paused—how had he found himself back here?
She turned back to meet Kit’s eyes, biting her lip. "You should come. Streets only get worse as the night wears on. You’d better learn fast. Or hide." She didn’t wait for Kit’s reply.
Kit followed her inside, cringing from the sudden influx of noises and scents.
Colorful smoke wafted from fizzing tubes along the wall. The woman sat alone at the bar.
Kit walked to her. This close, he saw the purple in her eyes.
