An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,90

were opening, and even more clones emerged, coming back from our island. As soon as the coast was clear, we kept moving, my nose sharper than ever.

We reached the edge of the Vale. For a while, none of us could do anything. We just stared at the sight before us. It was a mirror image of the real Vale, though faded in color. Once again I had the feeling that whoever had made this place had been pretty cheap on the pigments. But every line and every shape, every single person walking the streets of the Vale, was identical to those we’d left behind in The Shade.

They seemed normal. Going to different places, talking and laughing among themselves. The shops were open. The bistro terraces were bustling with mixed groups of humans and supernaturals. I recognized Hazel and Tejus and a few others from GASP, and it took a surprising amount of effort not to raise a hand and say hello. My instincts had been briefly fooled by the exquisite similarities.

“Jeez… this takes the term ‘creepy’ to a whole new level,” Dafne murmured.

“Claudia’s clone is in here somewhere,” I said. “We absolutely have to find her before she delivers what she took to whoever ordered her to take it.”

“Look, over there.” Soph, pointed a finger ahead. Up the main street leading toward the cloned Vale’s town center, Claudia’s doppelganger was casually walking, her rich, curly blonde hair flowing down her back. No one in her vicinity seemed bothered by the blood on her hands. Given that this whole dimension was just a massive dollop of freaky, it no longer surprised me.

We calmly followed her through the town center, careful not to draw any unwanted attention. I did notice some of the clones staring at us—particularly at Astra—but nobody said anything. “Got to keep our conversations to a minimum,” I mumbled. “Smile when we’re smiled at. Play it cool, if we’re to blend in.”

“I never thought the day would come when we’d be the ones acting like clones,” Jericho said, his gaze darting left and right as we moved through the increasingly crowded plaza.

Claudia’s clone looked over her shoulder. She saw me first, and the corner of her mouth turned upward. I froze because she was smiling. She knew we were here, following her. “Hold on,” I whispered.

She stopped and turned around, her head cocked to the side. Pressing a finger against the side of her neck, lips moving, she seemed to be talking to someone. Chills burst through me as I instinctively caught Astra’s wrist and stopped her from going any farther.

“Claudia’s clone is one cold-blooded bitch,” Dafne said.

No one else seemed to notice what was going on, but the horn sounded loudly enough to make us all cringe and gasp. It was way more powerful than what we’d heard in the real Shade, and it also had a robotic voice attached to it, howling across the fake Shade. “The pink-haired half-Daughter is here. She must be captured and killed. Immediately. This is not a drill. Find the pink-haired half-Daughter and kill her.”

And just like that, the entire wrath of hell broke loose. Every single eye was trained on us, while Claudia’s clone kept grinning. She fumbled through her pocket and showed us what I assumed she’d lifted off Isabelle’s double. It looked like a small object, the size and shape of a single die. I’d never seen it before, and I had no idea what purpose it served. But it was gone and far out of our grasp.

Footsteps rushed across the cobblestone. Astra grunted as she pushed out a massive barrier, then bolted away from the plaza. We dashed after her, speechless and terrified. The move had thrown many of the clones back, but only for a moment. By the time we reached the Vale’s border and entered the redwood forest again, there were throngs of them running after us.

“At the risk of… repeating myself… we’re really screwed, aren’t we?” Jericho breathed as we darted through the woods.

“You can say that again,” Dafne replied, racing him down a secondary trail.

Yes, we were screwed and then some.

Astra

(Daughter of Phoenix and Viola)

Every atom in me quivered as I ran. Somebody wanted me dead so badly that they’d sent a horde of clones after me. Claudia’s doppelganger had certainly facilitated my discovery, and the worst part was that we couldn’t go after her anymore.

No, we were zooming through the redwood forest, our heels burning as the murderous masses chased after us. They