Page 74 of Shadow Caster
“The angry kind.”
O-kay. “And that would be?”
He closed his book and raised his dark eyes to mine. “I—” The beeping intensified, and Brady’s gaze flew to the sector map. “Fuck.”
One of the posts was blipping red.
I stood. “I’ll get it.”
He arched a brow. “Let me wake one of the guys to go with you.”
“I can handle it by myself. Devon and Aidan are already out there. I won’t be alone. I want to do this. Please.”
“You sure?”
I smirked down at him. “Have you seen my maintenance record?”
Brady looked speculative but then nodded. “Okay. Radio up, and keep in touch.”
Excitement bubbled up inside me. I was going to fix an AM post. I was going into the mist. And I was going alone.
* * *
The mist was fey-madeand housed goodness knows what kind of monsters, but a part of me craved being in it. It wrapped around me soothingly, blocking out the world for a little while.
Just me and a task.
High up on the post, the mist was thicker, but I’d worked the sim so many times my muscle memory for the task was excellent. One of three things could stop a post working. I ran through the requisite checks, and it took less than three minutes to get the post functioning again. The posts didn’t have a battery pack because they siphoned energy directly from the air. The problem was usually the snap component, which acted as a convertor. We had plenty of replacements. I popped out the defective piece and slotted in a fresh one. The post hummed to life.
Done.
I was halfway down when I caught the shift of shadow in the mist to the far left of me. A figure. One of the guys maybe? No. It was too small … and was that the flap of a cloak?
“Hey!” I scrambled down the post. “Wait!” I fumbled for my radio. “Brady, you there?”
“Yup.”
“There’s someone out here.”
Silence. “Not the guys?”
“No.”
“Get back to base. Now.”
“But shouldn’t I investigate?”
“No. Justice, get back to base. You hear me?”
Another shadow to my right. Not cloaked this time. Not the same figure—this one was bigger. Shit.
“Justice.” The radio crackled and then died.
What? How the heck did that just happen? It was feytech, which meant it drew energy from the air.
A low moaning sound drifted through the mist … a horn? The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention. Time to get the fuck out of there.
I turned and ran. My inner compass clicked into action, and my feet steered me in the right direction. The sound of horns grew louder. They were behind me. They were in pursuit.
