Page 4 of Veil of Death and Shadow

I felt heat crawl up my neck and bloom across my cheeks.

My brain was so far from being on my side today.

The man blinked a few times, shifting as if he’d just woken from a daydream. With a so-brief-I-might’ve-imagined-it squeeze, he peeled his perfect fingers away.

“Sorry . . . I . . .” I shook my head, turning to stare at the now very gone bus, feeling absurdly grateful, but still more than a little shocked, that bits of me weren’t currently whirring unpleasantly through its wheels like a baseball card in a ten-year-old’s bike spokes. A dark, heavy laugh tugged from mythroat at the image. “I should be so beyond dead right now. I . . . Thank you.”

But when I turned around, I found myself alone.

I scanned the intersection. Tall, tattooed men didn’t exactly just blend into their immediate surroundings, impossible to pick out.

Except for this one.

Right.

“Thank you,” I yelled, louder this time, hoping the wind might carry my gratitude to wherever he’d disappeared to.

An older man across the street shot me a confused look while he tugged his terrier’s leash to hurry away.

“I’m fine,” I yelled to him, then again, quietly to myself, “I’m fine.”

I took a deep breath, my fingers still shaking with adrenaline and my forearm still tingling with the memory of the man’s touch, before I remembered the frat boys and Sora.

The street was quiet and still; the man nowhere in sight.

But for some reason, even as late as I was, I couldn’t let it go.

On the left corner, I noticed a small alley carved into a tangle of trees. It was a path that eventually led down to Ravenna Park.

Had he turned down there?

I weighed the possibility. Sora’s rule was to never walk through the park alone, but it was daylight and hardly anyone was around.

I turned towards the trees, following the twists and turns. My boots gracelessly snapped twigs and decaying plant matter in my path, until it eventually opened up into a familiar view.

It was a stunning park, and I loved how small I always felt walking down the steep steps to the main loop.

Even with the sun out, the stretch of forest felt dark, the trees tall and twisting in a way that could only be described asenchanting. Down here, it was hard to believe that I was in the middle of a big, bustling city.

A squirrel chittered nearby, winding up a thick trunk, its tiny claws scratching into the bark.

A loud caw reverberated through the air, punctuated by the response of another crow and the soft whir of the creek.

Other than the furry and feathered creatures, it appeared like I was completely alone. The man’s silvery hair should be easy enough to pick out of the dark foliage if he’d come through here.

I wasn’t sure why I was so intent on finding him, on making him hear and accept my thanks. He’d obviously been in a rush, had thought nothing of it. As if casually saving a stranger was just par for the course.

But it was a big deal.

Not just because I was, you know, alive, but because it wastoday,and I was alive.

Today was my birthday, but it was also the anniversary of my mother’s death.

And Amto Amani’s.

And Rina’s.

And, as of six years ago, it was also the anniversary of the one and only time I’d ever intentionally taken someone’s life.

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