The Shattered Dark

Kyol’s through with me, which means he never cared about me in the first place. None of them did. I was just a tool to help them win their war.

My chest aches. I want to go back to their world. I want to be needed and important, and I want to see more of the Realm, meet more of the fae. I want…

I want Kyol. If he’s real, I want him.

Paige’s bed squeaks when she stands. I hear her sigh then, a few seconds later, my bed sinks as she sits beside me.

“Here,” she says, handing me a glass of water. “You should stop taking the meds.”

I stare at the water’s rippling surface. “They make me take them.”

“They make all of us take them,” she says. “They only watch us for five minutes afterward. Go to the restroom and throw up. Most of it won’t make it into your system.”

I take a sip of water, then force myself to focus on her. It’s more difficult than it should be. “That’s what you do?”

“Yeah. Ironic, isn’t it? I get thrown in here after downing a bottle of cold medicine and here they are forcing pills down my throat. Now”—she takes back the glass and sets it on my nightstand—“tell me. Why do you think you’re crazy?”

I haven’t told any of the other girls why my parents sent me here. I guess I’m sane enough to know how crazy it sounds. The meds must really be messing with my judgment now because, without hesitating, I tell her, “I see things. People.”

“Dead people?” she asks.

I give her an are-you-kidding-me glare.

“Just checking,” she says, grinning. She has a cute face, pixieish. I’ve lucked out with her as a roommate. She’s easy to get along with, and she doesn’t judge. Plus, she’s not a raving lunatic like some of the others here. She’s not a raving lunatic like me.

I squeeze my eyes together, trying to think through the fog in my mind. The details of the past few months, of the king and his fae and the false-blood and his devotees, are too vivid to be fake. And Kyol…I couldn’t have made up someone like him.

“Hello, McKenzie?” Paige says, waving her hand in front of my face. “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you are nuts.”

“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” I ask.

“I think we should break out of here tonight. Hit the town and party. There’s this guy I know. He can pick us up and…”

I jerk awake when something scurries up my leg.

I’m across the room before I have time to scream. This isn’t a cheap hotel. This is a fifteen-hundred-square-foot suite that costs over $500 a night. There should not be rodents here!

Heart thudding, I stare at the bed, waiting for the comforter to move. It doesn’t. Could I have dreamed that? It’s possible, but my calf still tingles where the thing touched me. It was furry, and even though I’m still wearing jeans, I’m sure I felt tiny feet.

The comforter wiggles, and I slam back against the wall. The thing is not tiny. The lump under the cover is close to two feet long, the size of a skinny pillow, and it’s shifting, rolling to the left, then to the right, almost as if it’s trying to burrow into the mattress. That’s not the way a rat behaves, is it?

I feel my eyes narrow. Pushing away from the wall, I take the three steps back to the bed, grab the edge of the comforter, and whip it off.

Something silver darts off the other side of the mattress. I hiss out a breath between my teeth, throw the comforter back down, then walk around the foot of the bed.

“Sosch.”

Two big blue eyes blink innocently at me, and silver fur fades to white as I watch.

“How did you get here?” I ask as I kneel down and extend my hand. Kimkis aren’t pets—they’re an endangered species in the Realm—but they tend to bond to certain people. This one bonded to Aren. Sosch can find him anywhere. Kimkis aren’t able to create their own fissures, but they can scurry into ones opened by fae. From there, they navigate the In-Between to their favorite people and places. This isn’t the first time Sosch has found me, but it’s the first time he’s found me in my world.

I slide my hand down his long body, watching as his fur flushes silver under my palm. Kimkis do that when they’re near scents they like, and they tend to like the smell of Sighted humans and gates. The fae use them as detectors. I’m pretty sure a kimki led Thrain to me all those years ago, and I know Sosch has helped Aren discover a few of the Realm’s Missing Gates. I don’t know if he’s bonded to me. It’s obvious he likes me, though, and I have to begrudgingly admit that he’s just a little adorable.

Sosch lets out a sound that’s a cross between a chirp and a squeak, then uses my outstretched arm as a springboard to my shoulders. He looks at me and does some weird, crinkly thing with his nose.

“Are you hungry?” I ask. What the hell do kimkis eat?

I spot the snack-sized bag of Goldfish on my dresser. That probably won’t hurt him. I open the bag and hold up a fish to Sosch’s mouth. He eats it, then his nose crinkles again.

“Good?” I reach inside for a second tiny cracker, but this time, he turns his head away, and his mouselike ears twitch. He leaps off my shoulder and rushes out of my bedroom one second before there’s a knock on the door to the suite.

“Housekeeping,” a maid calls. Shit. Humans can’t see the fae unless they want them to, but I’m pretty sure they can see a kimki that’s wandered into our world.

“Sosch!” I try to grab him, but he’s much too quick.

“No thanks!” I call out, hoping the maid will move on. She shouldn’t be knocking on our door at all. Shane and I leave the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging on the handle when we’re gone. I didn’t take it off when I was fissured here.

Sosch lets out another chirp.

“Shh,” I say. Then I see the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the inside of the door. Crap.

“Sosch!” I yell, but it’s too late. The door is already opening. The kimki flushes silver with pleasure, then darts past the maid’s feet.

“Sosch!” I call out again.

The maid lets out a squeak very similar to the kimki’s, then hops back. Her head turns, following his progress down the hall.

“What is that?” she asks.

“It’s a…a…an Egyptian otter,” I stammer as I move past her. Sosch scurries under the housekeeping cart. I grab the handle to move it out of the way.

“We don’t allow pets in this hotel,” the maid says.

“I’m sorry,” I say again. “I’ll get him out of here.”

Sosch looks over his shoulder, and I swear to God, he gives me the kimki equivalent of a grin before darting down the hallway. I’m going to kill him, and after I kill him, I’m killing Shane for leaving the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the wrong side of the door.

“He doesn’t shed, does he?” The maid has a look of horror on her face as she stares into my suite.

“I have no idea,” I mutter. I grab a pillowcase off the housekeeping cart and chase after the damn kimki. A chime rings and, just as I round the corner, I realize what the sound is.

“No, not the—”

Sosch scurries inside an elevator as a startled woman gets out. The doors slide shut right behind him. I sprint forward, try to hit the button to open the doors again, but it doesn’t work.