Page 12 of Veil of Death and Shadow

Sora squeezed me so tight that I dropped my partially devoured banana and fought to take a breath. “You didn’t bother to come let me know you’d found her? Where the hell was she?”

“She just wandered in here with a bird and her hair full of twigs, like some feral child of the forest not five minutes ago.” Frank’s expression dipped into a defensive scowl. “She needed a meal. I fed her. What more do you want from me? I own a diner, not an investigative business.”

“I’m okay.” I ducked out of Sora’s arms and turned towards her. “Really, I’m okay. I think.” I studied her and frowned. Her usually bright, teasing expression was nowhere in sight. Instead, there were dark circles under her black eyes and a grayish hue to her pale skin—which had, somehow, grown even paler. Her bloodshot eyes welled with tears, and she didn’t even fight the two that escaped down her cheek. I pulled her to me again in a tight hug, applying pressure to her chest like she did for me whenever I felt overwhelmed or on the verge of a panic attack. “Are you?”

She sucked in a ragged breath, sinking her weight against me. “Where the hell have you been, Mars?” Her voice was low, raspy, and I could tell she was fighting back more tears. “You just disappear? For three days? And then you show up here?” She pulled back a few inches and gestured absently behind the counter, her button-nose scrunched in disgust. “To seehimbefore even bothering to let me know you’re alive. I thought you were dead. For three days. Do you have any idea what that’s like?With everything going on right now? Do you know what I’ve been through? Imagining the absolute worst?”

I did know what that was like, actually. My brain provided me with a constant film reel of the worst things I could think of happening to the people in my life. The realization that I’d put her through something like that—even unintentionally—made me want to throw up.

Frank raised his brows, eyes wide, and stepped around the counter. “I’ll, er, leave you two girls to it. It’s been a day, and I could use a nap. Stay as long as you need.” He started towards the stairs, then stopped, removing the lid from the treat jar, before tossing Sora the bat, which she caught effortlessly. “And take that with you when you go, can’t be too safe on the streets right now. You’re not even supposed to be on them at all. Not that I’m surprised it’s you two breaking the rules.” He muttered the last sentence more to himself than to us.

The streets? He sounded like a character in a bad eighties B-movie. We were in a pretty safe part of the city, all things considered. There was hardly ever anything more concerning than a few break-ins, and those were almost always nonviolent—just people desperately in need of food and shelter in a city that made both increasingly difficult to access.

What the hell did I miss?

Sora snorted. “Like you haven’t also been out on the streets looking for her,” she shot back, her dark brow arched in challenge.

Sora was a thin, unassuming Japanese woman, whose head reached just below my shoulders—in heels. Her smile was sweet, her eyes often shining and kind. But those who knew her, knew her size and soft features were misleading. There was a hidden edge in that smile that flared to a smirk, a dark promise, whenever provoked. She had a face gentle enough to draw somebody in, but a tongue sharp enough to flay. And shewas one of the few regulars brave enough to regularly challenge Frank—and charming enough to still be allowed to eat in his restaurant.

Of course, Frank always pretended to find her sometimes abrasive personality obnoxious and annoying, but I could often read through his gruff groans and flared nostrils. She amused him, and he maybe even respected her for not taking any of his shit. Some days, I was convinced that she was actually his favorite customer.

Other than the neighborhood dogs.

With a final grunt and nod in my direction, he climbed back up to his small oasis, the sound of his steps and the creaky wooden door, an ominous soundtrack to Sora’s lingering anger.

“Dude, where the hell have you been?” She nudged my shoulder, pulling my attention back to her.

Now that the wave of relief had dispersed, I could fully see what a wreck she was.

She was a hairstylist in an edgy studio downtown and her jet-black hair with bright-purple highlights was typically worn in pristine waves that looked like they were pulled straight out of a magazine.

Right now, her hair was a chaotic furl of knots with greasy roots, and there were a few spare brow hairs growing below the always perfectly plucked arches.

Sora was the kind of girl who wielded her style like a sword: perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect skin. She took care to mold herself into whichever mask she felt like wearing that day, her precision and skill both a weapon and armor she donned with meticulous attention.

Today, her defenses were down.

My stomach dipped. What the hell had I missed? I hadn’t seen her this off balance in years.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I literally just woke up in Ravenna Park. Had no idea how long I’d been out until I got here.”

“Why were you in Ravenna Park by yourself?” She fell back on the stool next to me and sighed, catching her chin in her hand. “I didn’t even think to thoroughly check down there, it’s nowhere near the route between here and the apartment. Think I did a quick scan at one point, but I didn’t see you. Didn’t see anyone.”

“I was sort of tucked inside of a bush.” I shrugged. “Would’ve been hard to spot.”

She nodded to the crow, his head now shamelessly buried deep inside the jar of treats. “And the bird?”

I studied him, still trying to wrap my head around the strange circumstances of his resurrection.

“Last thing I remember before passing out was touching him. He was—” I bit my lip, considering. “Well, he was dead. Or I thought he was dead, anyway.”

“Your first instinct when encountering a dead bird is to touch it?” she deadpanned. “You get that that’s weird behavior, right?”

“I don’t know what came over me.” I shook my head, gesturing to him as he obnoxiously devoured the crumbs. “Anyway, he’s obviously not dead, but I gave him a ring and now he insists on following me around. Sort of absurd, I know.”

“Generally, yes, but today, not really.” She studied me, her eyes darting between me and the crow. “Or at least, a zombie crow coming back from the dead to stalk you isn’t the most absurd thing to happen this week.”

“What do you mean?” I snorted. “What the hell beats a crombie?”

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