The Shadow Walkers

by Shannon Reber

  “You stand there with a human, acting like I’ve done wrong?” Argil shouted, his eyes bugged as spit flew from his mouth.

  “I stand with humans, yes. I honor our contract because it is our way.”

  “It’s only our way because nobody has ever had the backbone to think past the contract! I will no longer live in servitude. I will choose my battles and I have already chosen my confederate, and it is not you.” He turned his eyes on me with a sneer. “Shadow Walkers are the children of Erebus, not your servants.”

  “I never called you my servant,” I said around Loam’s hand.

  “You would have! Adrian has told me all about you. She told me how you tormented her when you were young and how you turned her own brother against her. You should be ashamed.”

  My heart rate rose as my breath caught in my chest. Arguing with him about Adrian would do no good, though. He had himself convinced that she was the innocent victim. Adrian had done a very good job of manipulating him.

  He stood only a few feet in front of me, the knife in his hand poised to strike me down. The dullness in his eyes told me he was ready. He planned to kill me.

  Before he got too close, I pulled the gun from my bag and supported my non-shooting hand with my other. It was the grip Erkens had thought was best for me to use and it had worked well for me. I had never fired outside of a range before, though, and my nervousness made my hands quiver slightly.

  Argil’s expression hardened but he didn’t look at me. He looked at Loam. “You plan to let this pathetic child hurt me, Loam? Is this how far you’ve sunk?”

  I gave him a black look, my hands steadying as my resolve hardened. “Drop your knife. Put your hands behind your head. Get on your knees. Do it. Now,” I ordered, even my heartbeat slowing as determination gripped me tight.

  I felt Loam’s hand loosen but didn’t realize what was happening until after it had happened. He had released me, making me no longer one of the shadows.

  The problem was, everything was still black. If they really were the children of Erebus, darkness was part of their power. I had been totally wrong on that count.

  I lowered the gun and held out my empty hand. “Guys?” I asked, not sure where they were.

  “Mads!” Ian’s voice said and all of a sudden, his arms were around me.

  It took me a moment to be able to breathe from the force of his embrace but there was no way I’d complain. He had found me very easily, so that must mean either that he could see in that all-consuming blackness or one of the spirits had guided him to me. I didn’t care which. He was there. He was safe. Hopefully, the others were too.

  “Everybody, close your eyes and prepare yourselves to be dazzled,” Erkens’ voice said and that was when luminosity shone from his arm.

  It looked like he had finished the solar symbol. Even with my eyes closed, dazzled was precisely how I felt. I buried my face in Ian’s chest and waited for my vision to return to its regularly scheduled programming.

  As I waited, sounds came from the shadows. It was a fight, a brutal one. I had a bad feeling it was going to turn into a lethal one.

  Relief filled me when the front door opened to reveal Gabe Sheenan. His eyes were already glowing as he stepped in, the bluish purple color radiating into the blackness like a strobe.

  And all of a sudden, the blackness faded back. Gabe’s ability to nix magic made the Shadow Walkers into men . . . blood-soaked men right then.

  The problem was, Argil was beyond sense. He had to know he had lost but instead of facing that truth, he picked his knife up from where Loam had knocked it away and lunged at me.

  Without the slightest hesitation, I pulled the gun from my bag again. “Try it,” I said through my teeth, my hands steady as a rock.

  He faltered and that slight hesitation gave the rest of the guys the chance they needed. Argil was knocked to the ground, Erkens’ knee in his back as Gabe handed him a pair of silver handcuffs.

  I waited until Argil was securely bound before I turned to look at Loam. I put the gun back in my bag and held out my hand to him. “It was your fight. I get that. You are a good man,” I said, worried about him as he staggered toward me.

  He took my hand and gave it a light squeeze before he turned to face Gabe with his hands held out. “I am Loam of the shadow realm. My contract was broken,” he confessed, widening his stance to keep from falling over.

  Gabe looked at Spencer and gave a slow nod. “I’ve been authorized to offer you a position at Realm Enforcement. You’d be there on a probationary basis but you’d be given a chance to redeem yourself for your mistakes.”

  Loam stared at him for a few long seconds, his eyes flicking around at all of us. “Will I be imprisoned if I refuse?” he asked, his hands still held out in front of him.

  “Did you have a hand in the theft at the Otto house?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Well then, no.”

  Loam glanced at me, clearly confused. “Uh . . . I . . . if I accept such a position, that would leave Dorothy alone and unprotected. I prefer to fulfill my original contract but if Realm Enforcement will still accept me after Dorothy has moved on from this world, I would be pleased to accept the position you offered.”

  Gabe smirked at him. “Good answer,” he said and guided Loam out of the house to be looked at by a waiting medic.

  My heart sank. Dorothy. I hadn’t found the cup. What if what those goons had done to her had been too much?

  Like he’d read my mind, Ian ran his hand down my arm and linked his fingers with mine. “Let’s get to the hospital. These guys can take care of the reports and junk.”

  Erkens scowled at him for a moment, then huffed out an exasperated breath and clapped him on the shoulder. “I still think you’re an idiot but I understand you a little better now. And yes. We’ll take care of the reports.” He glanced at me and gave me a nod of approval. “I’m proud of you, Madison,” he informed and gave me a kind of awkward half-hug.

  I smiled at him, my mind still spinning through everything that had happened. Adrian was an intelligent woman. She was good at manipulating people into being on her side.

  If a wraith was after her for making some kind of bargain with them and not being able to follow through on it, she had to have a plan on how to get out of it. How the Cup of Jamshid would be a bargaining chip with a soulless creature, I had no idea. But it had made sense to Adrian. I had to figure out why.

  Ian and I walked out of the house to find a group of cops all gaping at us. Since most people didn’t believe in the paranormal, I understood their confusion in the things they had probably seen.

  The thing that drew my attention fully, was Adrian sitting on the stoop of one of the neighboring rowhouses with a paramedic standing over her. Her eyes flashed in a malevolent way as she saw us. To me, that meant part of her plan had failed, so I considered that a victory.

  We walked over to where she sat, our hands still entwined as we went. I didn’t want to admit right then how scared I was. With everything that had happened in the last few days mixed with my first face-to-face encounter with the girl who planned Emma’s murder . . . my heart pounded so hard, it hurt.

  She waved the paramedic off when he tried to clean up the small amount of blood on her face, her eyes fixed maliciously on us. “You two are like cats. Nine lives,” she said in a cold voice.

  I tipped my chin back and glowered down at her. “I want you to know, you’re going down. It might not be for what you did to Emma but it will be for this.”

  She stood up, her lips peeled back from her teeth. “You want to take me on, Madison? That’s fine. I’ll play but this time, you won’t make it.”

  Ian took a small step closer to her, his bold, blue eyes condemning her where she stood. “You had a boyfriend who was a drug dealer. You lied to him about your father, how he hurt you and your boyfriend wanted to help you. So you set it up for your father to be called to the scene of a fight and you watched while your boyfriend gunned your fath
er down. Lieutenant Ezra was a cold, cruel man but he didn’t deserve to go out like that. He never hurt you but he knew the truth about you, so he had to die. He had found the pile of trophies you had taken from your victims. A stash of dead animals that you had--”

  Adrian swore at him, her eyes so wide, the white was visible all the way around. She continued cursing at him, her hands balled into tight fists.

  Ian didn’t look affected in the least, motioning over his shoulder to where Gabe stood. “You will go down for everything you’ve done. Realm Enforcement has some questions for you about your involvement with Argil and the execution of Lars Nemen.”

  She took a step back but for some reason, a slight smile came to her lips. It was a nasty expression, although I could see fear in her eyes.

  That was when I saw the dark shape moving toward us. It wore a black cloak with the hood pulled up to cover its face. A wraith. In the middle of the day, in the middle of a busy crime scene. Holy bluescreen.

  Adrian skittered back, her breaths coming out in short, shallow gasps. No matter how horrifying the situation was, it was wonderful to see that psychopath afraid. Maybe that thing would make her pay.

  Shame filled me. No. I would not allow that thing to suck out her soul. Not a chance.

  The problem was, there was nothing I could do to stop the wraith . . . other than call Spencer. I fumbled for my phone but it was too late. The black, hooded beast had reached Adrian.

  It wrapped its arms around her and all of a sudden, it vanished. Adrian Ezra was gone.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  I felt defeated. We had lost. Dorothy was hurt. Adrian was probably dead. The Cup of Jamshid was nowhere to be found. Losing was not my favorite thing.

  Ian had his arm wrapped around my shoulders as I leaned into his side, his expression as defeated as mine was. It was a strange thing as we stepped into the trauma center at Penn Presbyterian to feel hope rise inside me again. Maybe Dorothy was okay. Maybe ONE thing had gone right.

  After we’d been told what room Dorothy was in, we started walking toward the elevators. A display of flowers inside the gift shop drew my attention, so I stopped, staring into the case that held them.

  “How did you get here?” I asked Ian, my eyes still fixed on the flowers.

  He sighed and scrubbed his hand over his face. “I was on the road, driving to Lily Dale when Tria let me know what was going on. I called Simms and he came to get me, took me through a portal to the Realm Enforcement office,” he stated succinctly, moving his hand to the back of his neck. “If I miss another appointment, the guy who’s supposed to help me figure this spiritism thing out is just going to give up on me.”

  I opened the case and took out a bouquet of sunflowers. “Thank you, Ian. I’m so glad you came,” I said in a dull voice.

  He didn’t respond for a moment, his arm falling away from my shoulders. “Mads, it’s been a rough week for all of us. It’s not always going to be like this.”

  “I’m not so sure.”

  He turned me around, shaking his head as he looked at me. “I am. We’re not always going to win. We have to learn from our losses so we can make things right the next time,” he said sagely, his lips quirked up with a tiny smile. “Or that’s what I read in a fortune cookie.”

  I pulled back from him and walked to the register to pay for the flowers. I wanted to be encouraged by Ian’s words. I wasn’t. All I felt right then was exhaustion.

  After a few minutes, we stopped in front of the door to Dorothy’s room. Fear wrapped its arms around me. Please let her be okay. Please. Please.

  I took in a fortifying breath and stepped into the room. It was a standard hospital room with a few chairs at the end of the bed and a rolling tray over it.

  My mouth fell open when I saw what was on the tray. It was the cup I had seen in Dorothy’s museum, not the Cup of Jamshid but the Nanteos Cup. It was the one that could heal wounds.

  Next to it, sat Slip. His little legs dangled over the side of the tray as he ate a cookie.

  I examined Dorothy closely, seeing that she looked almost perfect for a woman in her nineties. The bruises had faded to a level that they looked weeks old and the sling which had immobilized her arm had been set next to Slip.

  Dorothy turned her eyes to meet mine and she held out her hands between us. “Madison, I’m so pleased you came to see me,” she enthused, sounding stronger than I would have thought possible.

  I took a small step closer, my eyes fixed on Slip as I took Dorothy’s hand. I placed the bouquet of sunflowers in her other hand, my confusion only growing.

  She took the flowers and cooed over them for a moment before she motioned to Slip. “My new friend here has told me something wonderful,” she said, tapping his tiny foot as he swung his legs back and forth. “My Leopold knew that Slip was in the house and made it possible for us to live in harmony without me being any the wiser. He told Slip where I keep the honey and told him it was his.” She smiled fondly at the brownie as she motioned to the cup. “And when Slip couldn’t do anything to help me get away from those villains who were after the Cup of Jamshid, he brought me this cup, the little dear.”

  My mouth worked silently for a few moments before my brain was able to understand. Slip was no ordinary brownie. And Leopold Otto must have been an amazing man.

  Slip glanced at me and scowled. “You’re still stupid,” he growled at me, his lips quivering as he tried not to smile.

  “I guess I am,” I agreed, no longer planning on taking anything at face value again.

  After a few hours, the baffled doctors released Dorothy and she was allowed to go home. Ian, Erkens, Spencer, Gabe, and I all checked the house over to make sure nothing and no one who shouldn’t be there, was there. It was easier to handle the idea of leaving Dorothy alone since I knew she wouldn’t be alone at all. Loam and Slip would take care of her. There wasn’t a doubt of that in my mind.

  Gabe laid his hand on my arm when we all got out to my car, his eyes more earnest than I had ever seen them before. “Spencer was telling me about your sister and the PSA. I looked into the PSA at Realm Enforcement but I couldn’t find anything. The thing about a magical contract, though, I can’t nix that kind of magic.” He held up his hand before I could speak. “Remember that shaman Sam dealt with when she was trying to free me?”

  I folded my arms. “The shaman you acted like such a tool when you found out she’d gone to him?”

  He shuffled his feet a little and nodded. “Yeah. Not my finest moment, I know,” he admitted and went on. “I think he might be able to help. I checked him out with both Realm Enforcement and the Arcane and he’s legit. I think he could help you get your sister out of the PSA’s contract.”

  I closed my eyes and breathed, counting to three as I did. “Gabe, I think it’s possible you might not be quite as big a numbnut as I thought you were,” I teased, opening my eyes to smile at him. “Thank you. Really.”

  He smiled at me and shrugged. “I’m still a numbnut. I just have my moments of awesomeness,” he said and some of my anxiety eased back.

  I had a plan. I would go to Boston. I would find the shaman. I would get my sister out of the PSA’s hands. And maybe, just maybe, I might even find a way to handle everything else. Maybe.

  EPILOGUE

  Dr. Renat sat back in his chair and waited. He hated waiting. He had not shown up at that ridiculous bistro in the middle of Philadelphia’s seediest neighborhood to sit around waiting.

  He scowled as a young woman walked over and sat in the chair across from his. They had spoken several times over the phone, although he had never seen her in person. He was not impressed by what he saw.

  Lank, brown hair. A curveless body. Plain features. The girl was ugly, which to him, was one more strike against her.

  “Dr. Renat, I’m Adrian Ezra,” she said, placing a box on the table between them.

  He nodded in acknowledgment of her introduction, his eyes fixed on the box. “Miss Ezra, I assume you don’t plan
to waste more of my time.”

  Adrian gave him a cold look and opened the box. “This is the cup of one of the greatest rulers of Shahnameh. Jamshid ruled for hundreds of years. His cup grants immortality,” she said, not bothering to keep her voice down.

  “Allegedly,” Dr. Renat answered in an equally cold tone.

  Adrian shrugged. “Legends do tend to have a basis in fact if you believe in the supernatural or not.”

  “True enough,” he said, his hands aching to pick the thing up but he wasn’t willing to allow the girl to have the upper hand.

  He turned his tablet around and showed her the alert that had been put out on the news. Adrian Ezra was wanted for questioning in the murder of one man and the theft of an object from one of Philadelphia’s most beloved philanthropists. That was far too large a spotlight on the PSA if they were caught in possession of such an object.

  But a cup that granted immortality was the kind of object he had been waiting years to find. When Adrian had first approached him, he had almost brushed her off. After he’d looked into the girl, though, he knew she was someone he wanted on his side.

  She would be an invaluable resource. The news she had given him on the phone was again news he had waited his entire lifetime to hear. Adrian had offered him a demigod.

  He sat back in his chair and folded his hands in his lap. “So your offer is to give me this cup, along with the son of Hades,” he clarified, his head tipped to the side as though he found that deal too good to be true.

  Adrian sat back as well. “In exchange for your protection. I need a place to lay low, a place that will keep the wraiths away from me, as well as the police.”

  Dr. Renat could have laughed out loud. Protecting the girl from the law was something that he found an odd sense of pleasure in and wraiths were easy enough to deal with.

  He looked at the box and plans formed in his mind. So many experiments could be run on the paranormal creatures if they couldn’t die. So much could be learned.

  He stood up and offered his hand to Adrian. “Our main office is in Pittsburgh but we have a few facilities that will work for you.”