Sweet Shadows

“I don’t know,” I admit. “Maybe she—”

“No,” Greer interrupts. “She is still in the city. Still in San Francisco.”

“How can you know that?” Grace asks.

Greer shakes her head. “I just know.”

“That’s likely true,” Nick says. “An oracle wouldn’t stray far from her home, from the vortex of her power.”

“Okay then,” I say, “if she’s still in the city, we need to find her.”

“It’s a big city,” Grace says.

“And if the oracle doesn’t want to be found,” Nick adds, “she won’t be.”

“If she didn’t want to be found,” I reply, confident that the oracle wouldn’t just abandon me—us, “she wouldn’t have left the pendant and the note.”

“Where do we start?” Grace asks.

There are two logical places to begin. Either she’s sticking close to home, to a territory she knows well, like the neighborhood around her storefront. Or she’s getting as far from her usual haunts as possible, trying to avoid whoever—or whatever—is looking for her.

“I think we need to split up,” I suggest. “Go out in pairs. We’ll cover more of the city faster.”

“Good idea,” Nick says.

“Grace, you can go with Greer,” I say. “She probably knows the city better than any of us.”

Besides, I want to keep Nick close to me. Not because I want him close—fine, that might be a tiny bit of my motivation—but because I don’t trust him enough yet to send one of my sisters out with him to scour the city for a missing oracle and whatever mythological players are hunting her.

“We’ll divide the city into sectors,” I continue. “It will probably take a few days to search everywhere, but hopefully we’ll find her before then.”

“Where should we search first?” Grace grabs her backpack off the floor and slips her arms through the straps.

I admire how she is always ready to go, always ready to leap into any situation, no matter the danger or uncertainty. She fully embraces our destiny and whatever challenges come with the package. Greer, on the other hand, is a little more reticent.

“Do you really think this is worth the time?” She doesn’t make a move for her purse. “Won’t the oracle show up if she wants us to find her? Won’t she know we’re looking for her?”

I ignore her questions. I’m not going to sit around waiting when I can be out looking. Passive isn’t in my personality.

“You two can use Greer’s car and start by driving the perimeter.” That will place them far from the oracle’s neighborhood, and hopefully far from whatever might be hunting her. Besides—I glance down at the impossibly high heels Greer is stepping back into—she won’t be much good on foot anyway. Nick is in sneakers and I’m in Doc Martens. We’ll make better time on foot than she ever would.

She must sense my displeasure, because she starts tapping her foot on the parquet floor. “I’ll have you know I could run a marathon in stilettos.”

“Nick and I will start in the oracle’s neighborhood,” I say, ignoring her again. “We’ll radiate out from there. You two can radiate in.”

Greer shifts. “I have hours of homework to do. I can’t be out all night.”

My jaw clenches and I have to force my hands not to fist. So much for thinking she cares about anything but herself.

“You signed up for this,” I snap. “You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to join us.

“Yes,” she snaps back, “with the caveat that it wouldn’t interfere with my normal life.”

“Well, I’m sorry if all Hades is breaking loose and disrupting your plans.” I step toward her and shrug off Nick’s hand when he tries to hold me back. “You might not have lost anyone you care about yet. Grace and I have. Grace and I know that the sacrifice is worth it.”

For an instant I think I see a crack in her facade, a tremor at the tips of her perfectly manicured hands. I blink and it’s gone. I must have imagined it.

Her gaze is steady and almost a little vacant, like she’s retreated.

I frown.

“Actually, I need to be home before dark too,” Grace says. “My parents are pretty mad about my disappearing for hours the other night. They’ve given me a curfew.”

I sigh. “Fine, search until dusk.” I’m irritated, but I guess I also understand. Being a huntress is my entire life. Family is nonexistent and school is more of a necessary evil than a priority. For my sisters, things are different. If I want them to keep as much normalcy in their lives as they can, then I can’t exactly begrudge them trying to do that.

“We can meet to compare notes and restrategize tomorrow after school,” I say. “Here again?”

Both girls nod, and I’m shocked that Greer doesn’t insist that we have to meet later, that she has some club meeting or tea party or study date that we have to work around. Every little step of progress counts.

“And in the meantime,” I say, “text if you find anything.”

“How will we know if we’ve found her?” Grace asks. “I mean, neither of us has ever seen her.”

Darn it. I hadn’t thought of that. I look at Nick, but he just shrugs. “I’ve never seen her in person either.”