Page 20 of Acedia

Lucas gave my wrist a brief squeeze before releasing it. “In theory, you’re safe with Astrid. I’m not.”

Oh. That made sense.

“If you’ve changed your mind—” Lucas began.

“I haven’t. I know this must seem crazy to you but in my bones, it feels like the right decision. Nana always said that my gut would tell me what my eyes couldn’t.” I found myself smiling at the memory, a sense of peace washing over me. “It seemsinsufficient to say this after everything you’ve done for me, but thank you for your help.”

Lucas blew out a shaky breath. “I hope this is the right call. Helping you means helping theShades, and I feel pretty fucking weird about that, but I guess this is the side of the coin we’ve landed on. Let’s hope it was the right one. Now, go.”

I didn’t hesitate, pressing my palm hard enough against the wall that it stung as I picked up my pace with Tilly right in front. My breathing was so loud that I was certain they would hear me coming from a mile away. If that didn’t give me away, then my thudding heartbeat surely would.

Running away had been the bravest, most reckless thing I’d ever done, and I was already replacing it with a new bravest and most reckless thing.

Perhaps Nana had been right to worry about how I would behave once she was gone.

Tilly slowed, alerting me to the fact that there was someone ahead of me. I picked up the faintest shuffle of someone’s feet, though they were very quiet.

Should I say something first? Maybe. I was the intruder here, after all. I was the one in need of a favor.

“Hello. My name is Iris.”

There was a long pause. “Um, hello.”

I suddenly recalled that most Hunters knew each other—or at leastofeach other. It was quite a tight community that I had no part in.

“IrisNash. We’ve never met,” I added needlessly. I was confident that she would have never met a blind Hunter.

To be completely honest, “Nash” wasn’t even my surname, but no one had ever told me what mine was so I’d decided to copy my brothers.

“Nash? As in Moriah Nash?”

“My mother.” How strange to admit that out loud.

“Moriah Nash doesn’t have a daughter,” Astrid said, quiet and uncertain.

“Not one that she wants people to know about. No Hunter wants ablinddaughter. Especially not a Councilor.” Should I tell her about the attic? I had the oddest feeling that the revelation wouldn’t be well received. “It’s a big house, though. Plenty of places to hide a spare child.”

I’d been trying to keep my tone light and relaxed, but I suspected, based on the heavy silence, the words hadn’t landed the way I wanted them to.

“Do you… Do you want to come to the shadow realm?” Astrid asked eventually. “I can’t imagine you’ve heard many good things about it, living in the Nash home.”

“Not a single one, but I know my mother. She wouldn’t be so furious if there was no cause for concern. There must be something there to entice Hunters such as yourself and Austin—successful,popularHunters—to leave this world behind.” I jiggled the backpack I was carrying. “I’m all packed. Though it’s mostly kibble for Tilly.”

“Right. Then let’s go, I guess.” Astrid sounded a little baffled by the entire interaction. Maybe other ex-Hunters had approached the move differently. “No pressure, okay? If you don’t like it, let me know and I’ll bring you back.”

“I’m not coming back. I’ve been imprisoned my entire life. The shadows are going to set me free.”

“Alright,” Astrid replied, sounding much more certain this time. “Then let’s go.”

While I couldn’t see the in-between, I didn’t need to know the exact moment we stepped into it. The background noise of the world disappeared. The air cooled—it felt like the mist of themorning fog that sometimes hung in the air when I’d walk the forest paths outside the house. And the odd, faint sensation that had been tickling one shoulder became a solid, heavy hand all of a sudden.

“This is Soren,” Astrid said offhandedly. “Captain of the Guard, et cetera, et cetera. He’s my mate. That’s like… a husband or whatever.”

Soren snorted, perhaps at her rather unromantic description of their relationship.

“Nice to meet you, Soren.”

“Nice to meet you too, Iris,” he replied in a low, even voice. Despite the fact that IknewShades had two forms and they were more human-like in their own realm, it was still a little jarring to hear him speak.

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