Page 111 of The Last Lost Girl

I cringe, drawing my shoulders in.

“We need to hurry and restore the people so they can leave. I have a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.” Belle gives a wan smile. “If we give the shadows back, the people he hurt can make a new life. They’ll have a chance at a happy ending.”

I nod.

“I don’t know if you and I will, though,” she admits.

A heaviness settles on my chest. “As long as we’re together,” I tell her.

My sister hugs me tightly. “Always.”

thirty-four

Juneau and Seoul slump in relief on crates, breathing hard and wiping sweat from their brows. Their shirts are damp around the necks.

Their friends surround them, listening as Hudson, who is crouched between the two, peppers them with questions. How’d they get away? Did they have to hide? Who did they see?

There’s one question I can’t stand to let go unanswered a moment longer. “Where is Paris?” The moment I speak it, everyone goes quiet. My stomach sinks. Please let him be alive.

Juneau scrubs a hand down his face. “Alive, but… Pan has him.”

“Where?” I ask.

“He was being dragged to the cages when I saw him last,” Seoul answers remorsefully. “I had one chance, one second, to save Juneau and run, otherwise we both would’ve been beaten and imprisoned alongside him.”

“You did the right thing,” Hudson tells him.

Juneau meets my eyes and tries to smile. “He strung so many French curses together when they were trying to put him in the cage, I’ve never been prouder. He even spat on Wraith when he was closing the door. Wraith went after him, but Pan hauled him back and forbade him from going near Paris again. Said he’d use him as a lesson for those who considered disobeying his orders.”

Hudson mutters a curse. “Wraith won’t care. If he doesn’t forget it immediately, he’ll proudly take a pound of flesh for that slight.”

Something dark swirls through me. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Hudson slowly stands. “Ava, your eyes…”

My sister’s arm threads through mine, and she tugs me back toward Hudson’s room. “Hudson?” she calls out from over her shoulder. “Send the guys in one by one. Start with Smee.”

Another curse and he pushes through the crew and walks into his quarters with us. I lean against his desk and Belle stands at my side, ready.

“What are you doing?” he challenges.

Her dark wings solidify and buzz at her back as irritation flushes her cheeks. “She’s going to return their shadows to the crew tonight, one at a time. Then we’ll sail to town.”

He looks between us like he can’t believe he heard her correctly. “You… you’re serious!”

“Yes,” Belle says, crossing her arms.

Hudson breathes frustration and fear like a dragon breathes fire. “Did you forget what happened earlier?”

She looks unimpressed and certainly isn’t intimidated by his hulking form.

He licks his bottom lip. “This isn’t happening tonight. We need to think this through.”

“There’s no time, Hudson,” I bristle. When he glares at Belle, I snap, “Don’t look at her like that. You should kiss her tiny feet for bringing your shadow back!”

He’s quiet long enough for me to study his shadow, so ordinary a sight in our world and yet, I don’t remember what mine ever looked like.

“Fine,” he grits, then prowls toward me.

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