Page 68 of When Storms Ruin

Alastir nodded to one of the rooms off the small living space, getting up slowly from his chair. “There is a spare bedroom there, the rest can sleep out here. Rest easy tonight, Donika cannot find you here. You’ll give my best to Isaac?”

Nik met Alastir’s expression with one of shock. “How do you know Isaac?”

Alastir only smiled knowingly before dumping the remainder of his coffee in the sink and disappearing into the other bedroom.

Tess and I had taken the spare room, curling up under the coverlet together and falling asleep quickly. We could hear Nik and Puck whispering out in the living space into the early hours of the morning before sleep eventually took them, too.

Puck woke with the sun and gently shook us awake, careful not to wake Alastir in the adjoining room. I wasn’t sure howmuch help he had been with how vague his answers were, but I was thankful we at least had one answer: The spell we needed to control my magic was the key, and it was in The Shadow.

I rubbed sleep from my eyes as I bundled myself into my black cloak, tying it at the neck and draping it across my shoulders. The others did the same, hoping to stay somewhat inconspicuous as we traveled through The Shadow.

Nik didn’t want to travel back to the safe house to get Saanvi or Liss to escort us, and I understood why. Donika might not know our exact location anymore, but she knew we were in Prins, and she knew we were in this part of the city. It was too much of a risk to lead her straight back to the members of our cause. We would need to find our way in and out of The Shadow on our own.

We took to the streets with our hoods up and fell into step with the foot traffic down the hill, towards the main part of the city. Alastir’s wasn’t too far from The Shadow, and it wasn’t long before we were facing the staircase that would take us down into the darkness.

The sky overhead was gloomy, as if a rainstorm threatened to cascade down on us at any moment. The clouds swirled together angrily, and I hoped we wouldn’t get caught in a driving rain—in a place we weren’t familiar with.

We paused before the steep stone staircase, steeling ourselves before we ventured down. Tess gave me a reassuring smile and followed behind me as I made my ascent. Puck had proposed we start at a pub, it was as good a place as any to try to find someone. We had passed a few pubs on our travelsthrough The Shadow before, so at least we had a starting point.

We traveled through the long, stone tunnel to the streets located beyond. The road was inlaid with cobblestone as it was in the rest of Prins, but here, it hadn’t seen the sunlight in decades. The stones were a muddied, filthy brown, and you couldn’t avoid sloshing your boots in a dirty puddle as we made our way around the first corner.

There were no people busily walking the streets here. No stores open, no shop owners hawking their wares to passerby.

It was utterly quiet.

A crow circled overhead, calling out, and I peered through the sheets draped between buildings to see. I had a sneaking suspicion it was Kenna, but couldn’t be sure. A woman with a cane and a suspicious looking green bottle of liquid tried to stop us, but we ignored her and pressed on.

We popped into the first pub we saw, and despite having our hoods drawn up, all eyes immediately turned our direction. We stuck out here, and that would only make finding Phineas even more difficult.

Nik and Puck sidled up to the bar, and I had a feeling whatever they served herewasn’tDragon’s Ale. The bartender had a cap pulled low over his eyes, and he watched us as he polished an amber bottle with a dirty rag.

“Aye, you lot aren’t from around here, are ye?” he asked, placing the bottle back on the bar top and slinging the rag over his shoulder. “What can I get ye? Two hundred poundscould buy you a good time…” he trailed off as Puck shot him a glare.

“We aren’t patrons of your…establishment.” Nik cleared his throat. I glanced around, and for the first time I realized exactly what kind ofestablishmentthis was. It surely wasn’t Dragon’s Ale they sold here. “We are searching for someone.”

“Aye, everyone is searching for someone, ain’t they?” The bartender peered at Nik under hooded eyes. “Can’t help ye.”

“You don’t know who we are looking for,” Nik protested as the bartender turned his back towards us.

“Nobody in The Shadow is lookin’ for anybody good, of that I’m certain. Run along,” the bartender replied, shooing us away from the bar top to make room for other, paying, patrons.

“Well, that was a bust,” Tess sighed as we moved towards the door.

“We’ll have to try another place,” Puck agreed.

As we passed through the door Nik stopped and engaged with a man standing there, an ale in one hand and the other firmly planted inside his jacket. “Do you know a Phineas Wolfe?”

“Boy, are you stupid?” The man screwed his face up at Nik. “Bugger off.”

“It was worth a try.” Nik shrugged.

“Now the question is, did he think you were stupid because you asked about Phineas, or for more obvious reasons,” Puck asked with a laugh as we made our way back out onto the street.

“Not helpful, Puck.” Nik sighed, turning his face skyward.

“Where do we try next? Where would a sinister spell-stealer be hiding out?” I asked, peering up and down the deserted street.

“What about that pub you thought you had seen Tyr going into?” Tess asked. “Surely if they let a fifteen-year-old in, it can’t be as seedy as this one. Maybe we would have better luck there.”

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