Page 6 of Siege of Shadows

My fingers moved quickly.

4EXX#G7

The monitor lit up blue and the metal ball gave a few curious shivers before going rigid and sinking a little into the ground. I poked it. Nothing. Even against the shifting sand, it was immovable. Then, in the next moment, a blue haze of light shot out from beneath the device, drawing a clean line in the sand as far as my eye could follow in the darkness. After turning my goggles back on, I saw them—blue lines shooting out from three different positions triangulating around the blinking center that marked Saul’s hideout.

“It’s activated!” said Chae Rin.

“Get into the field now,” Sibyl said. “Quickly!”

We didn’t need telling twice. Another phantom was already after us. Together, Lake and I dove into the protected zone before its twisted jaws could reach our skin. It collided with the hazy field instead, its flesh and bone bursting into smoke and dissipating into the air.

Grasping the sand in her delicate hands, Lake crawled a little deeper into the zone until finally collapsing onto the ground, panting heavily. I flopped over onto my back, chest heaving. The field was faint, but the particles reflected enough starlight for me to see the thinnest, wavering curtain shooting up into the sky above me.

“This mission is time-sensitive, girls,” said Sibyl. “You’ll need to make your way to Saul’s hideout.”

According to the Sect’s intel, Saul was somewhere in this area, underground. It took a hell of a lot of work to get him into Sect custody the first time. This time, we wouldn’t lose him.

With a half-haphazard tap of my hand, I jostled Lake before she could lose consciousness. “Come on, we’re getting up.”

“You first.”

Wiping sand off my cheeks, I dragged myself to my feet, helping Lake up. After one last glance at the monsters roaming behind the protective field, we started our trek to Saul’s hideout.

The winds were gradually starting to calm on their own. Respectable gusts shifted the sands across scattered green shrubs dotting the desert hills. I ignored the sound of phantom cries to concentrate on the stars above me lining the dark sky.

When I was a kid, my sister, June, would look at the sky from behind the window of our bedroom in Buffalo. She was the stargazer, the dreamer. She’d stare at the stars, maybe imagining the impossible. What would she think if she could see me here, battling phantoms in the middle of a desert?

For me, impossible was just another day. That’s what it meant to be an Effigy.

“Oi.” As we neared the location of Saul’s hideout, Lake pointed at Chae Rin’s running figure in the distance. “How the hell does she still have any energy after all that?”

Chae Rin’s stamina and strength were incredible, even for an Effigy. But Chae Rin hadn’t gotten out of the phantom onslaught without a scratch. She had a few up her arms, her pale skin and blood exposed to the air through the tears in her sleeves. Her short black hair grazed her shoulders back and forth as she continued toward us.

“You okay?” I called out to her.

Slowing down, she lifted her slender arm. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” She looked around. “So, where’s the Warrior Princess?”

If she meant Belle, she didn’t have to wait long. Soon, she emerged out of the darkness, her body veiled only momentarily by sudden gusts of wind carrying tufts of sand into the air. As her blond ponytail fluttered behind her, she lifted up her goggles to reveal those icy blue eyes, tired but steady as they found us in the night.

My body instinctively seized when I saw her, a tinge of fear that months ago would have been unimaginable. Back then I would have been fangirling in the truest sense of the word. The coldly beautiful but aloof Effigy whose years of experience had hardened her into a badass warrior. This was the girl whose posters and collecting cards were still somewhere in my New York apartment, probably in my bedroom closet along with all the other stuff I hadn’t brought with me to London. For so many years, I wanted tobeher.

It wasn’t until I actually met her that I realized I never really knew her at all.

Chae Rin rolled her eyes. “Took you long enough,” she said once Belle was near us.

Belle stopped in front of us, and I twitched. Just slightly. I didn’t even notice at first, but once I did, I berated myself.There’s nothing to be worried about, I told myself.Just stop thinking about it.I steadied my body.

“Wanted to make an entrance, eh?” Chae Rin continued to prod her, but Belle wasn’t biting.

“These devices are specially made by our R & D department for missions,” Belle said, ignoring the comment—a slight that did not go unnoticed by the visibly annoyed Chae Rin. “But their power is limited, which means this electromagnetic field is too. We’ll have to work quickly.”

“You mean,I’llhave to work quickly,” Chae Rin muttered.

“You’re both right,” Sibyl said through the comm. “You’ve got fifteen minutes before the field gives out. But once you go underground, we’ll lose contact. Make sure you keep track of the time from your visors.”

The countdown started at the top right hand of my goggles’ translucent screen.

“Roger that.” Belle lowered hers back over her eyes.

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