by Kit Hallows
Naturally, the first place Samuel wanted to go was the pub, but I felt I owed Erland a visit first, and so I took Astrid and Samuel through the snowy streets to the downtown offices.
The rooms above the Chinese market were silent and the frosted glass doors for Humble and Glass’s offices were dark, but a light burned in Erland’s room. I gestured for Astrid and Samuel to wait in the chairs outside the room and promised I’d be brief as I rapped on Erland’s door.
“Come,” Erland called. He looked up from his papers as I entered his room and I was glad to find him out of armor and dressed in a dapper grey suit, sky blue shirt and thin black tie that matched the bruises below his lilac eyes. “Rook,” he said, with his usual formality. And then a rare smile broke over his face as he stood, reached over his desk and shook my hand. “You’re back then.”
“Mostly.”
I released his hand and then walked round the desk. We embraced.
“Tea?” Erland asked. “Whiskey? Wine?” He began to rifle through a drawer.
“I can’t stop,” I said, “we need to get cleaned up. And then I thought-”
“A trip to the pub?”
“Yeah, you want to join us?”
“I believe I’m free tonight.” Erland grinned, and then a slow shadow passed across his face. “I take it Stroud’s finished?”
“He’s gone. My other too.”
Erland nodded and held my gaze. “It seems the loss of your father was a good thing, and your other, less so. But you’ll heal in time, Morgan. And once you have, we can finally get you some proper training, knowing we’re not arming our future demise. That is, if you’re interested in remaining with me? I take it you’re staying?”
“For now. There’s a few loose ends left in Penrythe.” I told him about the demons Stroud had summoned to ravish the land.
“I’m sure I can send a fighting force to have them dealt with, and then me and you can get the Organization rebuilt and up to speed. The Nightkind are quiet for now, but they’ll rise again. They always do. Will you help me?”
“I’d like to, but I need to talk to Astrid and Samuel, see what they want to do.”
“Then go and do so, and in the meantime, I’ll summon the faithful to the Leery Leper.” Erland fiddled with his cufflinks with his usual nonchalance, but I saw the spark gleaming in his eyes.
The snow fell hard, filling the tracks of the people trudging along the sidewalk before us. They wore thick heavy coats and scarves, and if they noticed our strange clothes they showed no sign. Blinkereds, I thought, the Gods love them.
“Where now?” Samuel asked, “I mean this is all very pretty, but I’d sooner find somewhere warm before my tenderer parts freeze and fall off.”
“Do you have much magic left?” I asked. “Because I want to call a cab and-”
“And we need to look presentable.” Samuel nodded and whipped up an illusion spell. He cast Astrid as a real estate agent once more, and himself her assistant. And me, well it seemed he knew exactly what holiday was fast approaching because I got to be Santa Claus.
“Thanks, Samuel,” I said, while Astrid pulled my beard and laughed as she patted my bulging belly.
“Ho ho ho,” Samuel said, “now get us a cab before I make you look like a greasy-faced simpleton.”
Finally, we found a ride. There weren’t many cabs or cars, and the streets were mercifully quiet. We pulled up before my apartment and I stuffed cash into the driver’s hand as I was filled with an intense rush of relief at being home. Or home from home at least.
I unlocked the front door, and we climbed the stairs as a bright, jazzy rendition of a Christmas carol blared from Mrs. Fitz’s apartment. It was loud, but not enough to mask our arrival and a moment later her front door snapped open.
“You’re back, Mr. Rook!” she said, her eyes gleaming. Her breath was laced with wine as she leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. She smiled sweetly at Astrid and Samuel. “You and your friends. My, I’m so glad to see you. I thought…” Her words tailed off and it took her a moment to compose herself. “I thought you were dead, Mr Rook. I felt it… I… but, but you’re not. That’s what I told myself this morning, he’ll be back, Lyra, I said, you’ll see. And here you are, right on my doorstep with your charming friends.” She gave Astrid a quick peck on the cheek and hugged Samuel tight. “You should come and help me hang my star, Samuel,” she slurred.
“It will be my pleasure, Mrs. Fitz,” Samuel said making a beeline for her dining room. “Why, is that a freshly opened bottle of wine I spy before me?”
“It most certainly is. Help yourself dear,” Mrs. Fitz said as she gave me a knowing wink and closed the door.
I was about to reply when Astrid grabbed me tight and kissed me. It was a long, unhurried kiss, and then we went upstairs, had a shower and fell into bed.
It was late when Samuel finally rapped on the door, before letting himself in. “Are you decent?” he asked, masking his eyes with his fingers as he entered the room.
“Yeah. For now at least,” Astrid said. She sat close to me on the sofa, holding my arm as best she could given the horde of cats dotted around us. There were too many to count, and most were high on catnip, and even Storm’s scarred face seemed lighter somehow.
“Good, just give me fair warning,” Samuel winked, “Moving on, I must say the wonderful Mrs. Fitz keeps a well-stocked cellar, but to be honest I could seriously murder a beer.”
“There’s some in the kitchen.” I said. “We ordered pizza too, if you want some.” I got up and was about to fetch the beers when I glanced at the photograph of Willow on the bookshelf, and for a moment I could have sworn she winked. I winked back.
“Something in your eye?” Samuel asked as he pulled the fridge open. “Tell me that’s not the last of the beer!” he said, as he opened a bottle and drained it in a single glug.
“It is,” I said, “but we’re almost due at the pub, so go shower and try to do whatever you can to make yourself presentable. If that’s even possible.”
The Leery Leper was packed and it seemed Erland had gotten the word of our return around fast. I made my way through the crowd, half cut, exhausted, but brimming with slow, drunken happiness.
I paused as someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turned to find Dauple by my side. He was wearing his battered top hat and a tatty old jacket and shirt.
“Morgan!” he said, as he grabbed me around the shoulders and hugged me, his un-ironic eighties aftershave prickling my nostrils. “Morgan, Morgan, Morgan!” A tear gleamed in his eye and he let it fall. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again, my friend.”
“Me neither.” I gave him a squeeze, then held him away to give my nose a break. “Can I get you a beer?”
“No, the drinks are on me!” Dauple said as he curtsied to Astrid and revealed his grey and yellow teeth to Samuel. “Bastion’s here,” he looked over the crowd, “somewhere. And Erland too, being all mysterious and enigmatic. You should go and see him.”
“Sure,” I said, and left Astrid and Samuel in Dauple’s grimy but capable hands.
Erland was at a table at the very back of the inn, about as far from the music as he could get. He took a long sip of merlot as I approached and gave me an aloof smile which soon gave way to a proper one. “Morgan,” he said, standing and offering me a seat. He filled the empty glass before him and held it out to me. “To your good health.”
“And to yours!”
“So, did you mull over my offer?”
“I did, and we’re in. At least, on one condition.”
“Which is?”
I glanced back to the stage where a not unattractive elf belted through It’s Not Unusual. “You do a spot of karaoke.”
“Are you fucking serious?”
“Deadly.”
The rest of the night was mostly a blur. I had vague recollections of stage diving with Bastion and moshing with Dauple, who seemed to have done it more than a few times before. Then there was dancing and slopping m
y beer over my shoes with Astrid. Or maybe it was Samuel, it was hard to remember because the drinks kept coming and the empties glistened under the enchanted spotlights as the snow swirled in a blizzard outside the window. And then there was Erland’s slurred rendition of We Could Be Heroes, which got far more applause than he seemed to have been expecting. Glory turned up at some point too, leeching the colors around her, and forcing me to drink some strange, heady bright blue concoction.
It was somewhere in the wee hours, when I found myself leaning on the bar with Samuel, trying to work out which of the drinks lined up before us were ours (it turned out they all were), when my phone rumbled. I glanced down.
- DH.
“Who's that?” Samuel slurred as he plucked the buzzing phone from my reaching fingers.
“Detective Haskins,” I said.
“Haskins?” Samuel said as he answered the phone. “No,” he said, “you’re Haskins, I’m Samuel. What the buggering hell do you want?” A moment later he covered the mic and whisper-shouted, “He says there’s a problem. One of your kind of problems.”
I nodded and was about to take the phone when Astrid leaped to my side and snatched it away. “There’s always a problem,” she said, before switching the phone off and wedging it down her top. “But not tonight.”
“No,” I said, handing out the heaving tankards, “not tonight. To us, and to new days. And cats,” I said, as my drunken mind searched for other things to toast. “And to the snow, my friend, my good good friend Bastion Stout, and all of Dauple’s flies, even the dead ones. And to you and me, and even Samuel. Cheers!”
THE END
Dark Covenant
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Afterword
Thank you so much for reading The Shadow Rises, the final book in The Order of Shadows series... (for now at least!)
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Kind regards!
Kit
Also by Kit Hallows
The Order of Shadows Series:
Dark Covenant (A Free Prequel)
Dark City
Midnight Falls
A Game of Witches
Ender of Worlds
The Shadow Rises
Short Works:
The Ghost’s Story
About the Author
Kit Hallows was born in London, England and now lives in the United States. Kit spends most his time sitting before a jet-black typewriter (that looks suspiciously like a laptop) dreaming up tales of urban fantasy, occult horror and adventure.
Currently Kit’s busy writing the Order of Shadows series with Morgan Rook, as well as planning new adventures in dark new magical worlds.
Join Kit at kithallows.com and sign up for exclusive reads and further journeys to fantastical worlds and lost, mysterious places.
For more information
kithallows.com
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