Page 35 of Siege of Shadows

I straightened up. The question had already formed before I could stop it, but it wasn’t until I peered up again into his quizzical face that I gave it words. “Have you... been to Prague?”

Rhys let go of my hand. “Prague?” He paused. “Maybe on a mission? I can’t remember.”

My arms felt heavy. “The museum,” I said carefully. “Have you been to the museum?”

What little was left of Rhys’s smile had disappeared. “Why would you ask something like that?”

“Why would you avoid a simple question?”

His unreadable expression was so fleeting, I couldn’t be sure I’d seen it at all because in the next second he gave me a half-amused, half-incredulous look. “I’m not avoiding it, Maia. It’s just a bit random is all. But if you’re that curious...” He furrowed his brows and thought. “Prague... wait... actually, yeah. Yeah, I did once. I saw a dinosaur exhibit or something like that. Maybe earlier this year—I can’t remember exactly when. Why?” With a teasing grin, he added, “You interested in going with me sometime?”

He’d admitted it. He’d gone to the museum. But... if he was trying to conceal what he’d done to Natalya, would he have admitted it so casually? Or maybe he was so casual exactly because he wanted to throw me off? I stepped back. What was I supposed to believe?

“You okay? Are you tired?” he asked, but the moment I saw his hand reach out for me, my body jerked away so violently that he withdrew it immediately, shocked. “Maia...”

“Sorry, I’m okay,” I lied. And we stood there staring at each other.

Did he or didn’t he kill Natalya? The truth was, I wasn’t prepared for the consequences of knowing.

9

IT WAS EARLY IN THEevening when I got a call from Cheryl, Sibyl’s mousy assistant.

“The mission starts in sixteen hours,” she said. “But before your briefing, Director Langley wants you to report to the Research and Development department. Fifth floor.”

She sounded distracted, so I wasn’t surprised to hear shuffling in the background. Probably another mountain of paperwork. She now had to deal with constant requests to set up photo shoots, radio interviews, and other frivolous marketing stuff superfluous to her actual job as an assistant. I guess when she suggested to Sibyl that we get pushed as the pretty and marketable faces of the Sect, she didn’t expect to be the one taking on the brunt of the work.

“Just me?” I wasn’t particularly feeling up to doing much of anything after what had happened this morning.

“Just you.” Cheryl sounded annoyed over the phone, but then these days she was always a little irritated with someone. “You need to get fitted for your new equipment before the mission begins.”

Effigies get equipment?Iget equipment?I jumped off my bed. Hopefully, it was something badass. I always thought it kind of sucked that agents got really high-tech weapons and gizmos while we Effigies just relied on our own natural ability to control the forces of nature and summon giant weapons out of nothing—

Actually, no, that was kinda cool too.

But havingactualequipment certainly wouldn’t take away from the cool; it could onlyenhanceit. Like how you could equip Aki from the Metal Kolossos series with different armor and accessories. Hey, being an Effigy was dangerous and bloody and usually resulted in tragedy and death, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t have a little fun with it. I definitely could use a little fun right about now.

Chae Rin and Belle were off training again—separately. Not unexpected for the two in our team who were the least gung ho about being in one. My dear roommate, Lake, was still stomach-down on her bed, completely free other than anonymously writing malicious comments on pop forums about her old pop group.

“What?” she said. “I’m nervous about the mission and this helps me relax.”

“Okay.” I dragged her off her bed by the legs. “Let’s get some fresh air.”

It was better to go to R & D with someone else anyway. The long trek across the grounds was twisty and confusing, the directions taking us through the stone halls and the overhead walkways overlooking the grounds.

We reported to a giant, busy laboratory on the fifth floor of the department. While some scientists bustled up and down the long aisle, others were busy at their terminals, studying the metallic-blue specs projected onto translucent LCD screens so thin and wide the figures could have been twisting in the air all by themselves. Natural light sifted in through the army of blinded windows lining the walls. But the electric lighting fixtures on the ceiling would have been more than enough to illuminate the room.

My eyes followed down the aisle all the way to the huge monitor hanging on the wall at the front of the lab. There were other computer screens, much smaller, screwed into the wall, but this one showed a map of the world against a black screen. Some areas lit up with red spheres of different sizes, its color fading as it radiated outward.

“What’s that?” I pointed at the monitor, walking ahead of Lake down the walkway.

“A map. Novel, isn’t it?”

I stopped in my tracks. Behind one of the terminals to my right, just in front of a glass case filled with Sect-grade weaponry and Sect maroon suits, stood Rhys, dressed in a blue-gray baseball jacket and a pair of faded jeans just tight enough to showcase his long legs.

“Uh, I swear I’m not stalking you,” he said, noticing my surprise.

As he started toward me, I thought back to the momentary silence that’d stretched between us in the gym and started shifting on the balls of my feet, my brain sputtering for some kind of excuse to leave.

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