Page 48 of Bizarre Bonds
On the edge of what, I couldn’t say anymore. I don’t know what I’d do if she touched me now.
“I don’t like it either,” she says. “Rollick is going to let them wander near the house a bit and see what happens. Maybe getting more freedom will heal them up!”
My smile relaxes at the optimism in her voice. Peri is always hoping for the best, for all of us.
That’s why she’s here with me now.
A swell of affection sweeps through me so forcefully I’m leaning toward her before I realize it. With a hitch of breath, I spring to my feet instead.
“Mirage?” Peri says, blinking.
“I’ll be okay,” I tell her. “I just… I feel like I need to keep moving. It’ll be good to see the creatures get a little freedom. Thank you for coming to talk to me.”
Then I bound toward the front of the house before the glow she’s attached to me can drag me any further into its bright but inescapable cage.
17
Periwinkle
I’ve always had mixed feelings about cities.
Oh, I love the currents of human emotions ebbing and flowing all around me. I love the energy that thrums through the air, connecting people and mingling their joys and struggles into a vibrant smorgasbord. I love how easy it is to slip from one place to another in a blink and find a totally different atmosphere.
The thought of how many people I could end up hurting if my powers got away from me… That was the factor that made me hesitate.
Now, it’s the harm a different being caused that’s left my stomach hollowed out. It doesn’t help that slinking through the downtown streets in the wee hours of the morning, too late for any of the businesses to still be open and too early for most early birds to have risen with the sun, makes for a pretty spooky setting.
The sides of all the buildings are painted with shadows. The only light comes from the streetlamps poised over the sidewalks, some of which are dimmed or flickering.
Everything is still and quiet with the hush of sleep. Only every now and then do I hear the distant growl of a single vehicle heading to some unknown destination.
I suspect this city is especially quiet right now because a lot of the people are afraid to come out of their homes at all.
The destruction we’re looking at is definitely the most disturbing part of this walk. Every new sight makes me want to dart away into some cozy patch of darkness and think happy thoughts instead.
A sidewalk bench has been folded over on itself almost in half. One car has been tossed onto another, smashing the first so it sags on its tires.
Cracks and scorch marks ripple through the asphalt of the road. Several streetlamps farther down have toppled over like chopped-down trees.
Glass crackles under our feet from the car windshields and the shattered windows on the nearby buildings. I spot a glimmer of reddish liquid in the hazy light, splattered across one frame of jagged shards.
Did the strange crocodile-tailed woman start hurting people as well as their belongings?
The six shadowbloods who’ve been monitoring the city wander through the wreckage alongside me and my four men. Riva’s mouth is set in a tight frown.
“We didn’t manage to get here in time. It’s hard when there’s a whole city to keep track of…” She balls her hands into fists. “This shadowkind seems to have figured out that she can get away with more chaos if she only pops out for ten or fifteen minutes, does as much damage as possible, and vanishes before we can make it to the scene.”
The warped higher being is a fast learner. All the more reason she’d be better off at Rollick’s school than terrorizing mortalkind.
I shiver. “Is there any way to protect the whole city against her? If we scattered silver and iron on every street…”
One of the shadowbloods who arrived while I was away, a lanky guy with dark curly hair who Riva called “Drey,” snorts with amusement. His tone comes out dry. “It’d take a lot of metal, but at this rate, I think Rollick might ask us to try. It could work better than anything we’ve accomplished so far. Paint the whole city in silver! It’ll look pretty, at least.”
Despite his lighthearted words, I can taste the sour-apple apprehension drifting off him. He’s just as worried as the rest of us.
My gaze travels to the most silvery building already standing in the city. The peak of the Diamond Victory Tower protrudes over the shops and low rises around us, glimmering in the moonlight like a beam of hope.
We won’t let the humans here down.
