Page 10 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
“I like Obama,” I answered. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders and a big heart. I think he wants to serve the public. I don’t think he’s just power hungry.”
“Some say his big heart might spell disaster for the economy.”
“Could it be any worse than it already is?”
“Yes, Amy, things could always get worse.”
“If it comes down to saving money or helping sick people get the care they need, I’ll choose the man with the big heart. Every time, Daddy.”
“It’s not always so cut and dry. You need a balance.”
“But balance can be—insufficient. You try to make everyone happy but end up pleasing no one, doing no good. Sometimes to be effective, you should just pick the best side, knowing you’ll anger people on the other.”
I pictured Daddy grinning. “Well, my dear, if you’re ever confronted with a policy decision that puts your head and your heart at odds, I hope you still find action so easy.”
“Wouldn’t be hard. In this fantasy where I’m leading the free world, I’ll just make Jamie the Cricket an advisor.” Nowadays, I saved the ridiculous answers for the end. “Carrie Bobbin can be VP.”
“That would make—”
My phone fuzzed with digital snow, and the fitting rooms went black. The punch of teen rock from the store’s speakers stopped. The attendants’ chatter ceased. Even the caress of air against my skin stilled to inertia.
Intangible murk boxed in my limbs, jolting my pulse into a gallop. I inhaled a sharp, calming breath, reminding myself,Darkness can’t hurt you. I clutched my phone, the void devouring its glow. The MulBerry illuminated nothing past its screen, which inconveniently read,No Service.
“Olivia!” Arms outstretched, I rose from the bench, bungling into walls and hanging clothing. “I can’t find my doorknob!”
She didn’t reply, but my dressing room door rattled.
I followed the noise until I touched a smooth metal knob. I turned it and opened the door. “Does your phone have a spotlight? My screen’s pathetic.” I reached for Olivia but grazed only inky oblivion. “Where’d you go?” I reached again, my hand meeting nothing. “Are you dodging me? Why are you being so quiet?”
My phone flew from my fingers, sailing along an obscure gully until it fell into a hand. I started, the glow sketching the face of a boy—or a raisin left out to bake in the sun too long. His blue-lit skin crimped around a leer, his eyes more like chasms. A snaggletooth protruded from his mouth as he snickered, impish as the small child he was.
Was he some sort of cosplaying pickpocket? Impressive, if he was. Nothing about him looked human.
“What the hell, dude?” I grabbed him, started at his unnatural boniness, then stumbled over my own snow boots when the kid wrenched back. I wound up flattening him to the floor, where we scrabbled for my phone.
“Knock it off,” I growled. “This prank wasn’t even funny when it started!” I gripped the boy harder than I meant to, fisting his rough shirt.
The thief reeled back, snarling, before something hard and edged stamped me like a bead of hot wax. My breast instantly throbbed, a bruise upwelling.
“Learn to fight harder, Amaranthine,” the child rasped. “For all our sakes.”
He knows my name?
“And warn the king—the portal’s open—before something wicked steals through.”
WTF has this kid been smoking?
Whatever it was, he and the light of my phone vanished, darkness swallowing me like a crumb. My throat constricted, my eyes seeking focus. All my joints locked for an eruption of something horrendous.
The track lights above flared, brilliant as stars. Life resumed, angsty music riffing away, inane chatter continuing. The scent of cotton meandered onward in a particulate ocean. The thief—and my MulBerry—were gone.
“Fuck!” I pounded the floor. Uncle Neel would kill me for losing my phone, even to a thief. MulBerrys were hella expensive.
“These look a bit snug,” Olivia surprised me, “but they have a good stretch.” My friend stepped from her dressing room in a new pair of khaki shorts. Unworried and unruffled, she arched a brow at me. “Why are you on the floor?”
I tossed up a hand. “Didn’t you hear me being mugged?”
Her eyes rounded. “What?”
