Page 139 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
“It’s there yet, lady!” Birdman called just before I left him and his friend in my dust, every hair on my body razor sharp. Yes, I was still petrified I’d be ensnared by some money-hungry harbinger as I darted into the teeming town square, but I was more afraid of missing my chance of rescue. Of missing my sister and brother. And the odds seemed good that if I reached them—and the security team thatmust’vebeen with them—the harbingers hunting me would become a moot point.
“Wait!” I screamed so hard I thrashed my throat, shoving slower moving bodies. “Vi! Ace!Wait!”
I’d just made the central fountain of the town square, where masses gathered to hail their royal family, when the ground pulled back on me, a tablecloth under a plate. I went flying face-first to the fountain’s cobbled steps, my right leg drawn as straight as a guitar string. When I spied the shadowy tendril shot through with emerald strangling my boot, I screeched, grabbed it like a rope, and yanked with all my might. I willed my tether to give. To stretch. To tear into tatters.
Somehow, I gained an inch. Then another. Then another. Then a foot. Two. Three. “Wait for me,please!” I cried as the forest swallowed sight of the last royal coach. An astronaut on Jupiter, I strained forward. “Guys, I’m coming!”
Just not fast enough.
By the time I’d stretched the tether five more feet, the convoy had clattered out of sight, and my energy was as good as sapped, my limbs quivering. I’d never catch them with the damn tether intact. I was as good as a chained mutt choking itself.
Whimpering, I plopped down on the fountain steps and hunched into my knees, weeping. I didn’t care if passers-by judged my aberrance. How could they fathom my feelings right then? To have salvation so damn close, to lose it simply because I wasn’t fucking strong enough. How infuriating! How utterly devastating.
I wasn’t surprised to hear the familiar pant of a snuff hound, or to feel a wet nose against my hand.
Wallowing, I looked up to see Pete rushing toward me, winded and—frightened? I was bemused that he’d drawn hisscian.
“What in Christ happened?” he asked, scanning the crowd. When he didn’t find anyone menacing, he sheathed his dagger and knelt beside me. He palmed the back of my head in one bear paw. “Are you unharmed?” His eyes, now damn near back to normal, panged as they searched me for injury. “Did someone find you?”
I just stared at him—at his sincere concern.
“Tell me, Shorty.” Pete gave me a gruff shake. “I must know if I’m to keep you safe. Did another harbinger come for you while I was gone? How in fecking hell did you get away?”
Finally, I shook my head. “No,” I snuffled. “Nobody found me. I just—I—”
How the hell can I explain this without revealing who I am?
Pete wilted upon the fountain steps beside me, exhaling. “Jaysus, Shorty. You scared the living piss out of me. When I felt the tugging, then the wrenching—to the point where I was being dragged—I was fair certain you were being abducted.”
I shook my head. “I saw someone I thought I knew.”
He arched a brow, sweat beading his temple. “In this world you’ve only just stumbled into? Who?”
I glanced at my knees, shook my head.
Pete cursed, then rubbed my back like he was trying to rid me of frostbite. “Someone deceased, I take it.”
Let’s go with that.
“Makes sense, what with how hard you were pulling me. Wouldn’t have guessed you had such strength in those bones, but you do surprise, don’t you?” He chuckled, then spat, shaking his head. “Anyhow, sounds like you encountered a Púca.”
“What’s a Púca?” It sounded downright dirty.
“A mischievous Unseelie fae. They mostly mimic animals, but some find sport in mimicking images out of one’s memories. If someone was foremost in your mind when you crossed its path, then—they might’ve taken liberties.”
I stared at the departing crowds. They reminded me of Vi and me whenever we’d gone to a Bayview Boys concert. It was always so surreal, seeing our idols in the flesh. Now, all these fae were stunned that the royal family they’d merely heard tales about had just paraded through their ordinary lives.
Leaving their subjects thrilled and wanting more, the glorious royal convoy had departed. With my little sister and brother. And had left me behind.
Pete squeezed my shoulder until I glanced at him, forlorn. “I’m sorry your father’s gone.” His eye color took the last nudge back to fresh-baked cookies. “Truly, I am.”
After a spell, I, too, extended an olive branch. “And I’m sorry for what I did last night. I may not have meant to do it, but I still did it, and I know we’re in big shit now because of it.” I rubbed the blood back into my face. “This really is all my fault. I should’ve listened to you. Next time, I will. Just—please, will you forgive me?”
Pete tipped his imaginary hat to me. “Now,that, Shorty, is a proper apology.”
Twenty-Four
Pete’sschemetoreplenishhis seed cache had phases. Phase one—pawn enough goods to make a modest sum. Phase two—buy into a monthly card tournament. And phase three—swindle a royal slaver out of an ass-ton of seeds.
