Bow nodded, the centaur’s hands tight on the steering wheel. Had it only been minutes ago that we’d been chuckling and exclaiming over… I couldn’t remember what now, only the exhilaration that had come with the supposed brilliance we’d stumbled on. Diving into the shadows and back out again had felt like leaping through the frigid flow of a mountain waterfall, wiping my senses clean.
That “grass” the equines had given me had been potent in its effects. It had certainly loosened up something in my mind while I’d inhaled the smoke, but the uncertainty of what I’d actually been thinking in that loosened state left my nerves on edge. Perhaps not a substance I’d partake of again.
Sorsha sat rigid at the other end of the sofa, her fingers curled around the edge of the leather seat. “Did you see Company people out there?” she asked.
“I’m not sure of the exact threat, but someone hostile toward us is monitoring the place. Several someones. And I can’t imagine what other party would match that description.”
She shifted her weight. “I have to get in there. I have to see her and make sure she’s okay.”
“What good will that do?” Omen demanded, his posture tensed where he was leaning against the kitchen counter across from us. “You aren’t a doctor, and your powers have nothing to do with healing. You can’t help her with her injuries. Company people have seen you before—they’ll notice if you go in. And given how thorough they are, I think we can assume they’re watching every entrance.”
“It’s my fault they attacked her,” Sorsha said. I didn’t fully understand why this meant she needed to visit the woman—wouldn’t it be more sensible to steer clear and avoid drawing further danger?—but her voice was so raw it squeezed my heart.
Omen did not appear to be similarly affected. He motioned sharply at her. “So, get whatever details we might need to inform our plans over the phone, and leave it there. She abandoned our cause. You don’t owe her anything.”
Sorsha glared at him. “Maybe not in shadowkind terms, but humans don’t work like that. I’ve known Ellen for more than a decade—she and Huyen helped me get back on my feet after Luna died. I owe her a hell of a lot more than the last few weeks can decide. I’d be an actual monster if I didn’t make an effort to show I care.”
“Well, it looks like you’ll have to do that over the phone. Because you’re not walking through any door on that building.”
I glanced back toward the hospital, taking in the rows of glossy windows all the way up its dozen or so floors… and the neighboring office building, darkened at the end of the day, standing right next to it. The memory of Sorsha snatching the flower pot from the apartment balcony flashed through my mind.
“Maybe she doesn’t need to use a door,” I said before they could keep arguing. “I could slip into the place through the shadows, find a room that faces the building next door where I can open a window, and she could jump across.” I looked at Omen. “I’d make sure our mission remains uncompromised.” I wasn’t sure how well I could hold to that statement, so I didn’t make it an outright promise.
Omen’s jaw worked, but Sorsha had perked up a little from her despondence. “That’s perfect,” she said. “I’ll just pop in, see if there’s anything I can do or anything they can tell us that’ll help us crush these bastards, and pop back out. You know Thorn would never let me get up to anything ill-advised.” The smile she gave me was both sweet and a little sly.
“I could drive around the other side of the block and park there,” Bow offered. “The tour bus guise is pretty multipurpose—we can stop just about anywhere without looking strange.”
Omen threw his hands in the air. “Fine. A quick ‘pop’-in. But if you’re not done in half an hour, we’re leaving without you and you can find your own way back.”
Bow brought the bus to a surprisingly smooth stop less than a minute later. Sorsha sprang up immediately. “Be careful,” Snap said with a worried frown.
Ruse moved to stand. “It might be easier with more than one of us—”
“Everyone else stays put,” Omen said in a cutting tone. He jerked his head toward the doorway as he fixed his gaze on Sorsha. “Your half hour has started. Get a move on.”
Sorsha mouthed a quick “Thank you” to me on her way out, already opening up the pack of lock-picking tools Ruse had gotten her this morning to replace her old ones. Our lady was so sure of herself and so stubborn. By the realms, I hoped I hadn’t made a mistake in offering to orchestrate this surreptitious entrance.
Whether I had or not, the thing needed to be done swiftly. I stepped back into the shadows and trailed behind her out through the general haze of the dusk across the street. She ducked down an alley to weave toward the office building out of view, and I raced straight to the bright walls of the hospital.
It wasn’t, I realized once I’d squeezed through the shadow around a doorway, the most ideal environment for a shadowkind. Stark lights glowed all across the hall ceilings and reflected off the pale walls. I leapt from one thin patch of darkness to another until a trolley of operating equipment carried me the rest of the way to a stairwell. It was fortunate that the size of my physical form had no bearing on how I filled out the shadows.
The caller who’d notified Sorsha of the attack had told her that her injured friend was on the fifth floor. I rushed up that far and then dashed through the patient rooms on the side of the building that faced the offices. Finally, I entered a darkened room where the bed lay empty. I emerged from the shadows by the window, yanked out the screen, and shoved the lower pane high.
Sorsha spotted me from a fifth floor office room farther down. She gave a quick wave there, vanished, and reappeared directly across from me in a matter of seconds.
The buildings had only a five-foot gap between them. I stepped to the side, and she threw herself across that space with only a slight oomph as she caught the window ledge with both arms. She scrambled inside, bobbed up to peck me on the cheek, and hurried out to the hall.
I had the distinct impression that I’d hardly go unnoticed with my broad human body in the clothes I’d chosen for comfort several centuries ago, but I wasn’t going to let her charge off completely undefended. With another leap into the shadows, I followed her to her friend’s room.
A few figures from those meetings of hers stood outside the doorway. They all stiffened at the sight of Sorsha.
“What are you doing here?” asked a young man whose soft face didn’t show any of the strength he’d built up in his musclebound body. During my time on the battlefield, that would have marked him as easy pickings, barely worth the time it’d take to knock him off his feet. I might have judged it worth the effort anyway after his sneer at the lady.
“I had to come,” Sorsha said, her back stiffening. She glanced past him to the other figures. “How’s she doing? Is she awake?”
“Huyen’s in with her now,” one of the women said flatly. “From what she said, Ellen is still pretty out of it. They hit her hard—concussion, broken ribs, all that.”
At that moment, another woman strode out of the hospital room, her face tight with worry. Her mouth pulled even tighter when she saw Sorsha. Without a second’s hesitation, she grabbed our mortal’s arm and yanked her farther down the hall. The soft-faced man slunk closer, presumably to listen in, which only increased my desire to punch his face in.