The Shadow Society (35 page)

There were more screams, and calls for the IBI. Panic was brewing—exactly like I’d told Conn it would.

“The IBI isn’t here,” I told them, “so there’s no one here to protect us. We’re going to have to protect ourselves. Because you’re right: something bad is about to happen.”

Not the smartest thing I’ve ever said.

It made the mayor’s bodyguards lunge at me. I ghosted and reappeared a few feet away. “Where are your basic math skills?” I shouted. “Can’t you count? I am one person surrounded by thousands. I am
way
more in danger of you than you are of me.”

This didn’t seem to calm the crowd much—or the bodyguards. One of them snagged my arm and slapped a firecuff around my wrist.

I wriggled away and darted to the very edge of the stage.

The bold guard slipped toward me warily, but he needn’t have worried. I was frozen, staring at the flickering bracelet around my wrist. I fought to fill my lungs with air.

Yet this is what they need to see,
a tiny idea whispered inside.
That you can be as vulnerable as they are.

I forced my free hand to move. Almost as if it didn’t belong to me, it reached for the dangling half of the firecuffs. Then I cuffed myself.

There was a gasp. It might have come from me. Or the people who had seen what I’d done. The guards hung back, astonished that their prey had practically hand-delivered herself.

Soon. They would seize me soon. As soon as the shock wore off. I had to find the right words to convince these people. I had to find them now.

I held up my wrists so everyone could see the flame coursing through the glass cuffs. Now my hands cupped the megaphone as if lifted in prayer, and as I saw the minute hand on the clock tower swing toward midnight, I searched for my voice. It came out shaky, throaty.

Afraid. Afraid of what I’d done to myself. Afraid of what I probably wouldn’t be able to stop. “I know you’re thinking I’m part of some plot to kill you,” I told the crowd, “and that even cuffing myself is an act. You’re standing there, torn between running away and stampeding me, because you don’t know what to do. You don’t know what
I
am going to do. And that’s because
you don’t know me
. You have no idea who I am. Think about that. Think about the fact that if you don’t know me, then you can’t
know
that I’m out for your blood. I could be a halfway decent person. I could even be trying to help you. And I am.

“Four Shades are going to burn down this house”—I pointed as best as I could with my cuffed hands—“at midnight. In
one minute
. The sidewalks you’re standing on are going to catch fire. I’m sure those Shades are watching us right now, and they are counting on you to let them frighten you, to let them steer you into the fire. Don’t let them. Be smart, and listen to me.

“I’m not asking you to like me. I’m just asking you to get off the sidewalks. Trust me that much. Trust me enough to stand in the streets. Put your feet on concrete. Get away from anything that can burn.”

The crowd muttered to itself, the mutters building to a low roar. Then someone stepped into the empty street and everyone fell silent.

It was Lily.

I saw Raphael step into another street, and Taylor did the same, and so did Jims, who (bless his big, loud mouth) shouted, “Listen to her!”

Slowly, miraculously, people began filing into the streets.

Then the house exploded behind me.

49

I went blank. The fire was so big. I was dimly aware that people were now fighting to get off anything wooden, and that claws of flame tore at the stage, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. It was like my brain had ghosted out of my body.

Then someone with huge arms grabbed me from behind. I snapped out of my trance and began to struggle.

“Don’t,” said a voice in my ear. “You’ll break your cuffs. I’m here to help you, Darcy. I know you’re on our side.”

I went still. I glanced down and saw that the man was wearing a thick uniform. Not IBI. The fire department?

“Agent McCrea told me to get you,” he said.

My heart soared. Conn was all right.

But how had he gotten here so quickly?

The fireman shoved through the crowd, carrying me in his arms. When he reached a fire truck, he set me down in front of Jims.

“There she is, McCrea,” said the fireman.

“Good work.” Jims clapped him on the back. “The IBI will be pleased. Very pleased.”

I went numb again.

Jims chattered at me, but I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. I kept my eyes on the fire, because that shut off my mind, and if my mind couldn’t think it couldn’t imagine Conn bleeding on the snow of Graceland Cemetery.

It had been stupid to think that he could thrust himself between two armies and live.

Why had I let him go?

I watched the fire.

It devoured the sidewalks, but firemen from the nearby precincts were there to contain it, and a lot of people who’d been standing on the wooden sidewalks had already moved into the streets before Deacon’s house blew up. The rest quickly decided that it was wise to do the same thing. As for the firemen, they barked the crowds into more or less orderly behavior.

There was no sign of Meridian, Orion, or the others.

Then the fire crept up a nearby building and the faces of the firemen changed. They weren’t so cocky anymore. I heard one of them curse. “An apartment building,” he muttered. “Hundreds of people in there.”

The firemen suited up to enter the building, and Jims was tugging at my sleeve, saying something like, “Hey, this is a job for the professionals. Let’s be professional cowards and get out of here.”

I ignored him, leaning against the fire truck. Finally, Jims gave up and did the same.

Just as the firemen were ready to go inside the burning building, dark figures appeared on the roof, settling at its edge like a flock of crows.

Shades.

Zephyr and Savannah manifested in front of the firemen, who staggered back with surprise. But even from a distance, I could see that Zephyr was at her most intimidating, pointing at the windows of the building, then at the Shades, and then in the fire chief’s face. Whatever she said must have been convincing enough to make the chief nod before he moved his men into the building. Zephyr and Savannah ghosted. Shades burst in and out of being around the apartment building, clinging to ledges, smashing the windows.

It took a moment to realize what they were doing, even though this had been my idea. I had suggested this to Conn, remembering how my parents had broken a window in the Ravenswood Medical Center so that I could breathe. The Shades were helping.

Which meant that Conn
had
talked with them, and they had listened. If they had listened, surely they wouldn’t have hurt him.

Hope slowly crept back.

The wail of an IBI siren grew nearer, and cars pulled into the street. Fitzgerald stepped out of one of them, and I began running toward her, so glad to see her harsh face, because it was good that she was here, good that the Shades were here. This meant that Conn must have succeeded. He had to be okay.

But I didn’t see the hypercycle, and he didn’t get out of an IBI car, and he wasn’t with the other agents.

I kept running anyway.

My cuffed hands threw me off balance, and I ran awkwardly. I stumbled, but didn’t fall, when Conn stepped out of the crowd and saw me.

I thought the expression on his face was relief. I thought it might be delight. But it vanished so quickly that I couldn’t quite tell, because suddenly there was nothing there but anger and a sick horror.

He rushed forward and caught me by the shoulders, holding me at arm’s length.

“Conn.” My giddiness at the sight of him drained away with the knowledge that he clearly didn’t feel the same way. “What’s wrong?”

“Who did this to you?” he demanded.

“What?” I followed his gaze to my wrists, and the firecuffs. “Oh.” I laughed, because now I understood. “I did.”

Conn took my hands in his, inspecting the cuffs. He went pale. “Darcy. Don’t move.”

It was the first time I ever saw his fingers tremble. He carefully deactivated the cuffs, and the light in them vanished. Yet even when he slipped the cuffs from my wrists, Conn still looked like he couldn’t breathe.

“The cuffs were set to kill you,” he said finally.

I didn’t really care, because, well, I
wasn’t
dead. And he wasn’t either. I wanted to spring up on my toes to kiss him, I wanted to touch him with hands that were free, completely free.

“No big deal,” I said.

He shook his head. “Only you,” he said with a faint laugh. “The Sanctuary’s fine, you know.”

“How did you do it? How did you stop the fight?”

“I talked to them.”

“That’s it?”

“Well”—he smiled—“and how did you save the day, Darcy Jones?”

“I, um, talked to them.”

“In the end,” said Conn, “it was easy. Fitzgerald showed up in time and reined in the IBI. As for the Society, I knew exactly what to say to them.”

“What?” I asked. “What did you say?”

His smile deepened.

Then his eyes lifted away from mine, glanced over my shoulder, and grew serious. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Well, Ms. Jones,” said a voice behind me. I wheeled around.

It was Director Fitzgerald.

“Come with me,” she said.

50

Conn shot me a warning look.

Fitzgerald darted sarcastic eyes between the two of us. She opened her mouth to say something, but the mayor stormed up to us, asking furious questions about the lack of security.

Conn pulled me behind a fire truck as I heard pieces of Fitzgerald’s calm reply: “… warned you … Ivers … no lives lost…”

“Ivers was fired,” Conn told me. “Michael, too.”

“What about Fitzgerald?”

“The mayor won’t replace her, because if he does she’ll go public with the fact that he pushed for this celebration despite our intel.” Conn paused. “It may not seem so right now, but in the end tonight is going to be a victory for the IBI. For the first time, the Society is working
with
us—under certain conditions. There are going to be a lot of changes in this world. But, Darcy … they’re not going to happen overnight. Fitzgerald wants you. She won’t imprison or harm you—if only because you’re going to be a hero in the eyes of everyone here. But she will use you. She will use you to get advice about how to bargain with the Society. Advice about any secret weaknesses Zephyr has, or Savannah has, or anybody else on the Council. If I were you—” He broke off, then started again. “If I were you, I’d go home now. Tonight.”

“Now?”

“Don’t you want to go back to the Alter?”

“Yes,” I said, because it was the truth. But I said it slowly, since I hadn’t heard Conn mention anything about coming with me. It was becoming painfully clear that I had my world, and he had his. Neither of us fit in the other.

Conn nodded. His face was firm. Convinced. I saw that he had decided that this was the Right Thing to Do.

The gladness inside me withered. “Fitzgerald can’t force me to do anything.”

“Trust me,” he said. “She’ll find a way.”

“I don’t see why I have to sneak away like some kind of criminal.”

“You’re not.” He frowned. “Why are we arguing about this? You said you wanted to go, and I think you should.”

I couldn’t speak.

“You should ghost,” he said, “before Fitzgerald wrangles herself away from the mayor. The Couch Mausoleum portal won’t be guarded right now. Even on a good day it’s badly monitored, and tonight practically every agent has been brought here. The dispatcher will have pulled all agents from unimportant posts, and that’ll include the Couch guards. I’ll find your friends and tell them to meet you there. Once you’re together, don’t waste time. Just go.”

“And you?” I managed.

“McCrea! Jones!” we heard Fitzgerald shout close by. “Where are you?”

Quickly, he said to me, “I’ve got to stick around. I’ll see you later, okay?” He touched my cheek. His fingertip sent a shard of ice into my heart.

I didn’t say,
Why are you pushing me away?

I didn’t say,
How soon is later?

“Yeah,” I said. “Sure.”

I ghosted.

*   *   *

T
AYLOR WAS, PREDICTABLY,
the last to arrive at the mausoleum, and when she did the sun was rising and she was lugging her suitcase.

“You stopped at the apartment?” said Lily. “Conn said not to waste any time.”

“Since when do we obey his every word?” Taylor replied.

“Don’t you have a ton of clothes back home?” said Raphael.

“Yes, but they’re not imported from
another world
.”

Lily sighed. “Let’s get out of here.”

Which was what we were going to do, when Savannah appeared.

“I am very angry with you,” she told me.

I winced. “I know. I’m—”

“Sorry? For lying, spying, and giving up the location of the Sanctuary? I don’t think ‘sorry’ cuts it. You could have come to me, you know. If you’d told Zephyr and me about Meridian’s plot, we would have stopped it. Now we have to
negotiate
with the humans.”

“But … isn’t that what you wanted? You wanted to become citizens. Doesn’t that mean, you know, laying foundations for how humans and Shades will deal with each other? You would have had to do that at some point.”

“Don’t get smart with me!”

“And won’t the human population be grateful to the Society for what they did tonight? No one died, did they?”

“Zero. That’s not the point. The point is I don’t forgive you.”

There didn’t seem to be anything I could say to that, so I muttered something lame like, “Well, okay. Goodbye, then,” and turned to leave.

Savannah stopped me. “I’m surprised to see you taking off so soon, though I suppose your young man is rather persuasive. Among other things.”

I stared at her. “You were spying on us?”

“Turnabout is fair play. How do you think I knew you were here?” Then Savannah said impatiently, “Oh, just go. But when you visit me—”