that completely failed to look human, but I was more captivated by what they were wearing.
“What is that?” I breathed, watching as the exquisite evening dress one of them had on, a light, floaty, silken thing, like flower petals made into cloth, suddenly changed—into scale-like armor that cascaded down the full length of it, turning it into a battle dress to match the shield that folded out from the purse she’d been carrying.
Goddamn, I could use one of those!
But I hardly had time to take it in before a little graffitied crab was waving its pincers at me from a nearby rock wall. It was bright red and blended in a little too well with the stone. But the movement caught my eye, and its urgency made me follow it from the front of the sushi place it had been decorating, across the bumpy floor, and over to the other side of the huge, mall-like space.
Where I was promptly distracted by a magical tattoo parlor where powerful tats were being applied to several clients. And by a candy store, where a kid had just dropped a package, releasing a cloud of buzzing taffy bees. And by a bookstore full of animated ladders that zipped around overstuffed shelves five stories high and advertised book binding in “properly sourced dragon hide—certificates upon request.” And by a florist, where gorgeous flowers spilled out of the shop and into the walkway in colorful profusion.
The scent was almost overpowering this close, because I didn’t know these fragrances. And because the baskets of dried herbs inside were adding their perfume to the fresh flowers piled around the door. But despite that, a group of bright pink blooms were so sweet that I couldn’t resist moving in for a—
Saffy grabbed my arm. “Don’t sniff those. Unless you like fur.”
“What?”
But then I noticed that my little red guide was waiting for me, just up ahead, where—
“Oh my God!”
“It’s like shopping with a sugared-up toddler,” someone said behind me, but I was already off, heading for a large force field of the kind that subbed for window glass around here, but this wasn’t covering a window. It stretched from the bumpy floor to the rocky overhang of a ceiling, several stories up, and curved as if flowing around a corner. Only there was no bend here, just a wedge-shaped protrusion out into the corridor, one that was filled with—
No.
It couldn’t be.
I ran up and pushed a finger against the field, which bounced around like jelly. Or like what it was, a huge slab of water jutting out from the stone like an aquarium. But it wasn’t an aquarium, because inside weren’t fish but—
“Oh my God!”
“Can you do something?” somebody asked.
“You’re the one who brought her here with no buildup. I told you—”
I wasn’t listening. I was pressing my hands and face against the surface of the barrier, passionately wishing the kids were here to see this. We have to bring them, I thought, staring at a bunch of tiny yellow fish—because there were fish in there, after all, zipping by in the light of more of those weird crystal formations. The crystals were blue and yellow this time, and spiking out from rocky promontories and occasionally the floor, sending what looked like sunlight filtered through water cascading everywhere. Enough that I could see flickers of silver tails, larger than any fish would have, flashing in and out of stalactite-like formations in front of what appeared to be an extensive cave system.
But I didn’t care about the caves. I cared about—
There! Right there!
I leaned in, trying to get a better look, sure I was seeing things. Because it couldn’t be what I thought it was. It couldn’t—
My face suddenly slipped inside the wedge.
Oh, shit, I thought, and tried to back out. But before I could manage it, the rest of me was sucked in, too. Leaving me stunned from the sudden shock of cold water, like jumping into a November pool.
It was close to freezing, but the lack of air was more of a motivator. I started thrashing against the skin of the force field and panicking when it refused to let me through, before I remembered that I could just shift out. Spatial shifting was a perk of an office that desperately needed a few, and it had gotten me out of sticky situations in the past.
But not this one.
Because my power didn’t work.
And, okay, now I was panicking. And staring at Hilde’s horrified, slightly distorted face outside the