The main space was the auditorium, and many shades sat in groups there. The pews had been removed, and instead some tables and folding chairs filled the room. Even then, many of the shades simply sat on the floor. Across the large room, Soshi carried a small bowl of food to an elderly man who didn’t seem able to rise himself. It made me wonder why Soshi was here instead of with her family.
“Her mother kicked her out,” Bowen said, his voice catching me off guard. He appeared out of nowhere too easily.
“But she’s so young…”
“The government likes to say it’s rare for shades to turn so early, and it isn’t as common, but it happens, especially with certain types. Brownies tend to change earlier. Soshi was seven when it happened. Her mother called the authorities who came and picked her up, tested and categorized her, and when they released her? Her mother refused to let her come back. About a year ago I found this tiny thing eating out of a trash can and couldn’t just leave her be. She was eight at the time.”
That burned, made me rub at that same ache in the center of my chest. The idea of Wade growing up inside Larkwood had been bad enough, but I hadn’t considered much about the life outside of an academy, either.
Low-level shades weren’t always kept at academies, yet they were often too young to work or unhireable due to that band on their wrists. The government stripped them of every ability to take care of themselves, stole everything from them, then threw them out to survive or perish on their own. Worse, they pointed to the inevitable disasters and crimes as proof that shades needed regulation rather than proof that the current system didn’t work.
“You didn’t have that sort of experience, did you?”
I shook my head, my hands moving as I answered.“I was nineteen when I changed, getting ready to leave for college. Some men attacked me, and I guess that spurred my change. They sent me to Larkwood.”
“You don’t look much older, so you couldn’t have been there long.”
“About a year.”
“It only took a year to plan an escape from Larkwood? That’s impressive.”
Was it? As I looked out over the room, at little Soshi running errands for shades, after being kicked out of her home, I wondered if it was impressive at all. Larkwood was horrible, but was this world really any better? We were trapped everywhere, imprisoned by our genes, by what we were, viewed by the world as monsters who didn’t deserve to exist.
Whether in Lakewood or out here, was it all that different?
Again, I wondered about a future, about what exactly I was running toward ifthiswas the world I had to look forward to…
A sound from behind me made me turn, especially because I recognized a gruff, growling voice. “If anything had happened to her, you won’t live through the day.”
Ah, good ol’ Brax, threatening people wherever he goes.
Sure enough, Brax stalked into the large auditorium area, his hand wrapped around the arm of a young man who couldn’t be older than seventeen. Funny that he wasn’t much younger than me, yet I saw him as a kid. His eyes were wide and he didn’t struggle at all.
Bowen let out a sigh as though reminded that we were all far too much trouble. “So you have a berserker with you?” He narrowed his eyes as he peered past Brax. “Along with an incubus and a void? I suppose you broke out of Larkwood Level 1, why did I not expect companions such as these? It isn’t as if they house the cute and innocent shades there.”
Despite the slight annoyance in his voice, he didn’t seem afraid.
Which was more terrifying than it should have been.
And judging from the way Wade had removed his gloves, I suspected the men had all anticipated the risk of a fight.
Brax swung his gaze around the room with the intensity of a man prepared to deal with any threat in the room.
At least until he stopped when he saw me.
I smiled and waved, which in terms of appropriateness might have been a strange reaction. I just wanted him to understand that no one had harmed me, that we had no reason to worry.
Bowen strolled toward Brax, Knox and Wade, showing no fear of them despite the very real danger the three posed. “Could you please release Thomas, there?”
The sharp edges of his face showed he walked that edge of control. “I’d rather keep my leverage until I’m sure Hera’s fine.”
Bowen gestured toward me as if to ask, ‘Do your eyes even work?’ “As you can see, she’s fine. I’m sure Thomas told you that as well. She was hurt saving one of ours, so I brought her here and healed her, then sent for you all. Consider it a gesture of goodwill to repay hers. Bloodshed now would be unfortunate and a waste of my work to save her.”
Knox pushed past Brax and approached me. He grasped my chin, tipping my head up, a hunger in his green eyes that shook me to my core. Not only he stared back at me, but his incubus, too. His gaze traced my face, my body, studying me as if gauging whether Bowen spoke the truth or not. The tension in the air was choking, violence simmering just beneath the surface, and not just from the three who had come for me.
The other shades, the ones who had been run down earlier, all seemed to ready themselves for a potential fight.
“You okay, songbird?” Knox asked, his voice quiet despite the harshness.