The Shattered Dark

“Finished?” Sara asks, her tone clearly saying she wants me out of there. I can empathize. I hate trying to communicate with fae when Sightless humans are around.

I hand her the empty glass. “I think my ex is gone, but can I use the restroom?”

She presses her lips together. I think I’m going to have to find another excuse to stay, but finally, she says sure and points to a back room.

“Thanks,” I say. The restroom is on the left side of the storeroom. I open and shut the door without going inside, making sure it’s loud enough for her to hear, then I tiptoe back to the open doorway of the storeroom and listen. I don’t really care to hear what they say; I just have to be able to see Aylen’s shadows when she fissures out.

“Quick,” Sara says. “Before she gets back.”

I peek around the doorframe, see Aylen tip open a draw-stringed pouch. Strands of gold slide out. Necklaces. Thin bracelets. A couple of plain rings. If Sara makes deals like this with fae often, she must be making a fortune.

“It’s behind the counter,” Sara says.

Aylen nods. She opens a fissure as she walks behind the register, but it’s not until after she bends down to pick up a crate of six bottles that I realize this isn’t going to work. Half her shadows will be hidden behind the counter when she fissures out.

My sketchbook is already open and I’m halfway across the store when she disappears. Sara’s back is to me, so I give in to the urge to scratch down what I see. A swoop of black tinged with shades of gray fades in and out in the upper part of my vision. Aylen’s gone to a coastal city. I’ve drawn the waves on the top of the page, so she’s on the southern edge of a body of water.

I turn to the next page, draw a craggy spine down the left side of the page. She’s gone to Criskan Province. There’s a city that’s bordered by mountains to the west and the Daric Ocean to the north. It’s called…

I frown, trying to recall my mental map of the Realm. I don’t have every single city memorized, but this is a major port town with a gorgeous beach and a dense population. I should know it.

I close my eyes. I’m going to have to remember the name of that damn city before Lorn will give me Paige’s location. What is it?

“You didn’t flush.”

My eyes snap open. Sara is standing directly in front of me.

“What?”

“The toilet,” she says. “It sounds like a tornado when it flushes. You didn’t flush.”

“Oh. Um.” I look over my shoulder at the opening to the storeroom. “Sorry, I’ll—”

Her gaze drops to the sketchbook in my hand. My map is a mess of wavy lines and lopsided trees, but it’s clear she knows exactly what it is. She looks at my drawing, then up at me, then over to where the fae disappeared, then back at my drawing.

“Son of a bitch,” she says. “Who the hell are you?”

Well, crap. The game is up. Might as well be polite.

“I’m McKenzie,” I say, holding out my hand for her to shake. She doesn’t take it.

“Who sent you?” she demands.

As if on cue, a fissure opens to my left.

“Lorn,” Sara all but snarls when he steps out of the light. “You brought her here?”

“She didn’t stumble upon you all by herself,” he says, staring at the map, not at her. “Where is this?”

Good question. I still can’t remember the name of the city.

“It’s at the northern part of the Jythia Mountains,” I say. “The big city on the coast?”

He glances up at me, then stares down at the map. “This is Eksan?”

That’s it. “Yeah. That’s where she went.”

Lorn raises an eyebrow, waiting. He’s probably memorized at least one location in Eksan, but he needs me to say the city’s name out loud to have any chance of fissuring close to where Aylen did, and I’m not about to name it. Not yet.

“My customers trust me, Lorn,” Sara cuts in. “They don’t expect to be stalked by their competition.”

Lorn laughs. “Aylen is hardly any competition for me.” He turns to me. “Now, name the city.”

“Don’t,” Sara says, her fists clenched at her sides. “My business is none of your business.”

“No one will know I tracked her from here. The city, McKenzie.”

“Tell me where Paige is first.”

His lips flatten into a thin line.

“You gave me your word,” I remind him. “And you always keep your word.”

“I promised to give you her location,” he says. “And I will. Just as soon as I learn where that location is.”

He doesn’t know. Damn it.

Sara hmmphs as if I should have known better. I did know better. I came here on a gamble that didn’t pay out, but I’d do it again. I’d do it again because I owe it to Paige.

“The deal is off,” I tell Lorn.

“The deal is not off,” he says, a warning slipping into his tone. “You have ten seconds. If you don’t name the city, I’ll leave you stranded here and your kimki stranded in Las Vegas, and you’ll never find your friend.”

“You’re not my only option,” I say.

“If I don’t want you to find her, you won’t find her. Five seconds.”

I grit my teeth. I don’t know if he can see that threat through, but I definitely don’t want to make him my enemy. “You swear you’ll try to find her?”

“I do.”

Another second passes. I curse, then finally relent. “Eksan.”

Lorn gives me a curt nod as he tugs at the cuffs of his sleeves. “I’ll let the rebels know where to find you. Have a good day, ladies.”

Shadows fill the space he occupied. I squeeze my eyes shut until my hands stop itching to draw them. When I reopen them, I’m able to focus on Sara.

She glares at me through the twisting shadows. “Get the hell out of my store.”

TEN

I’M NOT ABOUT to rely on Lorn to send a fae back to get me, so I ask a man on the street to use his cell phone. Unfortunately, Shane isn’t at the suite when I call. I leave a message telling him where I am, but I don’t know if he’ll notice the tiny red light on the hotel phone when he gets in.

At least Lorn stranded me in my world, not the Realm. I blend in here, and if my bank account weren’t at zero, I’d have the option of booking a flight back to Vegas. I suppose if worse comes to worst, I can go into my overdraft protection. I shouldn’t have to, though. Either Lorn will keep his word and send a fae for me, or I can stake out Sara’s wine store until another fae shows up. I might be able to talk whoever it is into fissuring me to Corrist on the promise that they’ll be well paid if they do.

So, I decide to spend the rest of the afternoon at the cafe two doors down. It has outside seating, and I have just enough change in my pocket to order a cup of coffee. That ends up being a mistake. It makes me jittery. I’m no closer to finding Paige, and with each passing minute, I worry more about her and about what’s happening back at the palace.

An hour passes. Then another. I flip through Naito’s sketchbook. Two more pictures of Kelia are sketched on its pages. One of them is in the corner of a shadow-reading. Naito’s ten times the artist I am, but his maps look like a child’s scribbles just like mine do. I wish I knew where this one leads to—he’s drawn an elaborate frame around the entire page, so it’s probably somewhere important—but shadow-readers can’t decipher anyone’s maps but their own.