Twilight Crook - Eva Chase Page 0,5
the wreckage, but it didn’t take long to determine that our enemies had left nothing incriminating or useful behind, only smashed concrete. Snap bent over various spots around the pit, flicking his forked tongue into the air just above the chunks to test for impressions that might still be clinging to them, but more hope seeped out of his face with each attempt.
Omen had lingered near me by the edge of the clearing, letting his companions do the work. No trace of emotion showed on his face—not discomfort at returning to the site of his torment, nor satisfaction at seeing the place in pieces, nor frustration at how utterly our enemies had obliterated the evidence of their activities.
There’d been several other shadowkind experimental subjects being held in the facility—beings we hadn’t gotten the chance to free. We hadn’t managed to figure out what exactly their painful experiments were meant to accomplish either.
“We have to find out where they’ve taken the other shadowkind,” I said. “And then shut down the sword-star crew’s operations completely. They can’t keep getting away with this.”
Omen didn’t move. “Obviously.”
That was all he had to say about it? I frowned at the barren stretch of ground. “It was hard enough getting just you out with the four of us working together. There are plenty of shadowkind who come mortal-side regularly or even live in this realm these days. Maybe we could ask around and see if any of them would join—"
Bossypants interrupted me with a dismissive snort. “Have you met many of our kind that linger in this realm? They’re no less self-involved here than they are back in the shadows. All they care about is themselves and perhaps their immediate circle. The greater good of our people means nothing to them if it requires them to lift a finger. Why do you think I was tackling this menace with such a small group to begin with?”
I had seen those selfish attitudes in other shadowkind. The group of humans I worked with to protect the creatures that traveled into our realm had reached out to local shadowkind gangs and the like before, but they rarely opted to get involved unless it affected them directly. Still…
“This is a much bigger deal than solo hunters or small collectives snaring lesser shadowkind for profit. All the higher shadowkind are at risk. Don’t you think that would matter to the others?”
Omen grimaced. “If it did, this ‘sword-star crew’ would never have managed to establish themselves as firmly as they have.”
He vanished into the shadows, putting a definitive end to that discussion. Such a lively conversationalist.
With a grimace of my own, I picked my way along the fringes of the clearing. Maybe a bit of useful debris had blown this way in the midst of the destruction and been missed during the clean-up. I scanned the piles of boards and the interlocking beams to see if anything caught my eye, squinting into the lengthening shadows of the approaching evening.
I’d made it about halfway around the destroyed facility when a warbling sound from above caught my ears.
My head jerked up. I flinched and stumbled backward just in time to dodge a streak of fire that plummeted down at me.
The blazing thing whooshed past me close enough to singe a few flyaway strands of my hair before it hit the ground. My pulse lurched. The flames flared higher, and I scrambled farther back, my arms flying up defensively. A bolt of pain shot through my bandaged shoulder. The fire flickered in the opposite direction and then slowly dwindled as its fuel ran out.
As I lowered my arms and edged closer to the now only smoldering object, Thorn charged over with Snap and Ruse close at his heels. I clenched my jaw against the ache still burning in my shoulder, and we all stared at the thing that had nearly landed on me like a flaming toupee.
It was a charred… pair of work jeans? Yep, with a sharp chemical scent that indicated how the fire had caught on them so enthusiastically. The fabric must have been dosed in some kind of lighter fluid and then been tossed down from above.
Thorn sprang back into the shadows, presumably to search for my attacker. Snap checked me over carefully. His eyes stark with concern, he fingered the singed strands of my hair, which he’d admiringly compared to the color of a peach when we’d first met.
I took his hand in mine with a reassuring squeeze. “I’m all right.