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He can’t see me, can he?
“Shadow,” he calls out. His voice has that harsh edge to it that was a major clue when I was younger that I pushed my emotionless Shadow Man way too far. “Where are you?”
I drop the shadows, letting them pool around my waist. “Here.”
His eyebrows rise sky-high. Relief dances across his face before his lips curve just enough to cause my heart to pound in my chest.
Is it just me or does he actually look impressed?
“You learned how to pull the shadows toward you.”
I’ve been working on it for three nights now. Every hour I spent cursing and thinking I was even more nuts for continuing to try is worth it just to see that look on his face.
I don’t want him to know that, though. I shrug. No big deal, right? “Once I realized I could do it all, it was actually kind of easy.”
“And shadow travel? How’s that coming along?”
I want to smile and just manage to hang on to the urge. Same old Nine. He’s slipped right into his role as my teacher, just like usual.
I don’t want to disappoint him so, instead, I lie. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”
There’s something about shade-walking that doesn’t sit right with me. It made me nauseous the only time I shade-walked while conscious, like motion sickness on steroids, and that doesn’t even count how I landed in the Fae Queen’s garden. If there’s a risk of that happening again, I’m good. I’ll stick to playing with the shadows instead of walking through them.
I nod up at Nine. “So. You came.”
“You called.”
“I thought you said the name wasn’t enough. That I needed to add a command.”
“For any other human, yes. For you? A command… it isn’t necessary. I just needed for you to say my name, to know that you were ready to face me again.”
Any other human… only I’m not a human. Not entirely.
With his answer, Nine’s just given me the perfect opening to ask him about my half-fae status. Except, now that I have the opportunity, my tongue feels like it’s glued to the roof of my mouth. I can’t get the words out.
I… I don’t want to know.
Doesn’t matter. Before I can find the balls to spit it out, Nine moves toward me. Something flashes in his eyes. Something I can’t describe or explain. I just know I don’t like it.
“You’re hazy.” His lips thin. “Riley, what have you done?”
I lift my hand up so that it’s resting on the bulge in the front of my hoodie. Carolina’s gift. I fold my gloved hand around the lump, covering the nail.
“Me? Nothing,” I lie. “Maybe it’s the fence outside. I think it’s iron. You guys don’t like that, right?”
Nine narrows his brilliant stare on me, focusing on the way I’m basically feeling up one of my boobs.
I drop my hand.
“Perhaps,” he agrees. Stepping away from the portal, Nine crosses the room in a few powerful steps. I stay where I am on the floor, mainly because I just don’t have the energy to get up. He pulls something out of his pocket when he’s in front of me, crouching down to hold it out. “Here. You forgot this.”
I recognize it immediately. The silky fabric piece that Nine gave me, but that I left behind in the sewer after I tossed it at a rat.
“I didn’t mean to,” I tell him honestly. I reach out with grasping fingers, closing my leather glove around the tail end of it as Nine offers it to me. “When I went back for it, it was gone.”
Once I have it, I rub it against my cheek. It’s even softer than I remember and, to my delight, it still smells like Nine.
It reminds me of my shadows, too, only way stronger and way thicker. This has definitely gotta be silk or some other real material.
