The Shattered Dark

“She didn’t have the Sight three weeks ago,” he says, motioning to Paige. “Someone gave it to—”

I don’t know where the knife comes from. One second, Naito is standing there all still and sober, the next, he’s closed the distance between him and his brother. Light from one of the hall’s tall windows glints off Naito’s blade as he slashes out.

EIGHTEEN

LEE’S QUICK. NAITO aims for his heart, but he turns his body sideways and bends out of the way.

Naito’s momentum takes him past his brother. He swings his left fist back, manages to hammer Lee in the face as he brings his dagger around a second time. But Aren steps in, blocking Naito’s attack and disarming him in a move too quick to follow.

“Naito, stop!” Aren gets his arms around the human. “Stop!”

Naito struggles, trying to get at Lee. He hasn’t been this animated since Kelia died, and it’s as if he’s unleashing all his bottled-up rage and pain at once until, all of a sudden, he stops.

Cautiously, Aren loosens his hold. “Are you done?”

“How did you get here?” Naito demands, his chest rising and falling as if it can barely contain his fury.

“Nice to see you again, too, brother,” Lee says, running a hand over his jaw and working it back and forth.

Naito’s nostrils flare. I swear he’s about to launch himself at Lee again, but then, his forehead creases. He looks from Lee to Paige, then back to Lee again.

“Son of a bitch,” he says. “He did it.”

Lee’s face hardens. He sticks his hands in his pockets but doesn’t break eye contact with his brother.

“Did what?” Aren asks.

Naito remains focused on Lee as well. “He was trying to find a way to give normal humans the Sight.”

Lena, who’s been watching the interaction between the two humans with a mildly curious expression, suddenly appears to be very interested.

“What?” she demands.

“I should have realized it in Germany,” Naito says. “Or in Montana. I thought my father had a lot of humans with him, but I didn’t think…”

Lena takes a step toward him. “What do you mean?”

“Nakano gave them the Sight?” Aren asks, turning to look at both Paige and Lee.

“Lee gave me the Sight,” Paige says. “I’ve never met his dad.”

Lena grabs Naito’s arm. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

He jerks his arm free. “I didn’t know. I thought most of them were firing blindly whenever they saw the underbrush move. That’s what they’ve always done.”

“Lena.” Kyol speaks her name softly but firmly. A muscle in her cheek twitches then, all the emotions she shouldn’t be showing in front of her guards—anger, worry, fear—vanish.

“How does he give people the Sight?” she asks, her voice cool.

Naito slides his hands into his pockets and says, “He was working on a serum.”

“And you didn’t think to tell us about this before now?” Lena is still calm but just barely.

Naito shakes his head, more in disbelief than in response to Lena. “I never thought it would work.”

I glance at Paige. Well, clearly it did work. Paige’s life has been turned completely upside down, all because Lee wanted to find me.

Lena’s mouth narrows into a thin line as she looks at Paige. I know why she’s worried. If the remnants know what we do, they’ll try to get the serum. They might already have it. If they do, they have the ability to make an army of Sighted humans with who knows how many shadow-readers among them. Our illusionists will be useless. We’ll be unable to fissure to safety. In short, we’ll be screwed.

“Do the remnants know about this?” For some reason, Lena’s asking Paige, not Lee. Maybe it’s because Paige is my friend and, therefore, more likely to help us than the son of a vigilante, but Paige meets Lena’s gaze, and says, “I don’t know.”

She’s lying. One of her ex-boyfriends discovered her tell a few years back. He was a wannabe pro poker player, and he noticed she always jutted her chin out after a bluff. It’s jutted out now, just the slightest bit.

“How do we get it?” Lena demands.

“You captured a fae yesterday,” Paige says. “Tylan. I want to talk to him.”

Lena raises an eyebrow. “Do you?”

It’s the wrong tone to take with Paige. She squares her shoulders and doesn’t look away. She has no clue how dangerous Lena is. She has no clue how dangerous all the fae are.

“Let me talk to him, and I’ll consider telling you where the Sight serum is,” Paige says.

“Paige.” Lee takes her arm, whispers something into her ear. I can’t hear it. The fae have better hearing than I do, but by the way Lena leans toward them, I’m not sure she picks it up either.

“We don’t need her to tell us where it is.” Naito’s voice is cold. He meets Lena’s gaze. “Send me back to Earth. I’ll get it.”

In my peripheral vision, I see Aren shake his head. Naito sees it, too. He rounds on the fae. “You should want him dead as much as I do.”

“We’re not protecting your father,” Aren counters. He doesn’t back away even though it looks like Naito’s one second away from ripping out his throat. “People make mistakes when they’re angry and mourning.”

Naito’s eyes are hard. “I won’t make a mistake.”

There’s a harsh laugh from my right. Lee. His jaw is swelling, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering him anymore. He glares at Naito with eyes that are just as dark and angry as his brother’s.

“Dad was right,” he says. “You’ve gone native, and you aren’t coming back. You’re turning your back on your family.”

“My family”—Naito practically spits the word—“turned its back on me first. I know why you’re here, Lee. I was born with the Sight. That made me Dad’s favorite. Now, you can see the fae, and you have Dad’s blessing to kill me. You’ve been dreaming about this day for years, haven’t you?”

Before Lee can answer, Paige’s eyes go wide. She turns on him. “God, tell me that’s not true.”

Lee grimaces. That hits me as odd. There’s major family drama going on here, and Naito’s tone has been scathing this whole time. Lee hasn’t flinched once. But at Paige’s comment? I don’t have much evidence to go by, but I’d bet everything I own that Lee has a thing for Paige. It’s not a surprise. I can’t exactly explain what it is about her, but she’s the type of girl that all guys want. The way she presents herself draws attention. She’s the life of the party, the girl you call if you need a friend to hang out with. In short, she’s fun. I wish I could be half as lighthearted as she is—I was back in high school—but the last decade of my life has been spent reading shadows and seeing fae. Seeing so much death and violence kind of puts things into perspective.

“Paige, you don’t understand,” Lee says. “My father lost his arm—”

“‘I haven’t seen my brother in years.’ ‘I need to know he’s alive.’” Paige’s mocking imitation of Lee is actually pretty good. “I was helping you because I thought you cared about him.”