Page 26 of Another Damned Storm
Whatever. As long as the looky-loos kept their distance, we would be fine.
In the meantime, I had questions. “Did I miss the apocalypse? Or did the Panthers finally win the Super Bowl?”
“Not exactly,” Tenebris offered.
“But you do know what happened, don’t you?”
His brow arched with so much judgment I felt like I’d been slapped. “You happened, Never.”
“What? No. I’ve only been gone for…” I did a little quick math in my head.
If it was late summer, which was how it felt, then we were talking eight months. Was that right? It hadn’t felt anywhere near that long in the Nassa. I folded my arms over my chest, wanting to deny everything, but there was no point. Whether it had been a week or a year, this right here, this destruction, was what I feared when I made the choice to leave the Nassa and Hook.
Longing twisted in my chest at the thought of him. The ache had started even before I’d dragged myself out of bed and it hadn’t subsided in the least, only now it was like someone was pouring salt on the wound.
What if I could figure out how to summon him again? How much trouble would I get in?
Better question: How much trouble would that create for him?
Before I could put more thought into it, the sky opened up and icy rain poured down out of the clouds in sheets.
Well, that’s unfortunate timing.
We’d already pissed off the fates once, and I was defying them again by coming here. Right in front of one to boot. As tempting as it was to try to call Hook back to my world, it was too risky, and not just because of them.
Let’s say I did manage to access my magic. There was no guarantee it would work the way I wanted. I couldn’t even figure out how to flash five feet. Plus, I apparently had a fate babysitter to deal with.
This sucks.
I closed my eyes, let the rain soak my clothes, and gave myself to the count of ten to pull my shit together. “Focus on the mission,” I whispered.
Matty and Lily.They were the reasons I was here.
I pictured my brother’s face in my mind before opening my eyes, pulling in a bracing breath, and heading down the sidewalk.
Several sets of eyes followed me as I walked. The awareness of being watched crept along my nerve endings. More unsettling, though, was the state of the neighborhood surrounding the park. The buildings were all battered and rundown, like a hurricane had hit the area but no one had gotten around to starting repairs.
The same went for the road, sidewalks, fences. Everything. And when did the city put up that shitty chain-link fence? From what I could see, it probably went all the way around the park.
Thankfully, once my brain adjusted for the wear and tear, I was able to get my bearings. “We’re not far from my apartment,” I said, wiping the water from my eyes.
If a bunch of strangers wanted to huddle in their alcoves or peek through their curtains at the chick talking to herself, good for them. What I wasn’t quite so cool with was the fact that a few of them had started following me.
I stopped and turned, eyeing each of them openly. “I count four stalkers,” I said, just loud enough for Tenebris’s ears.
“There are five.”
I turned back around and resumed walking at a normal pace, or as normal a pace as I could manage while consciously trying to walk normally. The cool water soaking my hair and dripping down my neck wasn’t much help, either. “The guy on the steps of the apartment building across the street. The one a few yards behind him hiding in the alcove. And the couple on this side with the umbrella. Who did I miss?”
“The man on the bicycle.”
“He was going the other way,” I said.
“And now he is coming this way.”
I twisted back to check and sure as shit, he was pedaling along slowly, his tires kicking up a fine spray of water from where the rain was gathering on the asphalt. He was wearing a dark blue rain jacket with the hood up, and when he caught me looking, he curved his bike around in a wide arc and headed the other way.
“Subtle,” I snarked.
