by Anita Oh
She zipped the coat up over her new things, then left the bathroom.
Eli was waiting for her in her new room, watching the old TV set in the corner. She liked the room. It was big and bright. A thick yellow rug covered the stone floors, and there was a yellow quilt on the bed. Most importantly, the windows were too small for anyone to enter through, and they looked out over the grounds, out to the river and the city beyond. It was as if she stood at the top of the world, able to see any approaching threat.
Eli rolled his eyes when he saw her wearing the coat. “Are you serious? What’s the point in showering and then putting that dirty old thing back on? Can’t you at least let me send it to be dry-cleaned?”
She pulled the coat tighter around herself.
“Well, I suppose it’s a start,” he said. “So, what do you think? Do you like it here? Think maybe you’d like to stay?”
She liked that even though he could just read her mind for the answer, he still asked.
She did want to stay. It felt safe here. But part of her wondered what the catch was. Surely, it didn’t all come for free.
“So jaded,” he said, smiling at her. “But you’re not wrong. If you want to stay, I can take you to meet the president and the two of you can work out where to go from there.”
She nodded and smiled back at him, but as he moved to turn off the TV, something flashed up on the screen that stopped her heart.
“What’s wrong?” Eli asked, obviously catching her change in mood.
She couldn’t even form a coherent thought for him. The news report was too awful. She pointed at the TV.
“I’ve seen that symbol before,” he said.
So had Audrey. It was the insignia for the Cult of the Fifth Shadow. It had been everywhere at their compound: on flags, carved into doorways, stitched on their clothing. She’d never seen it like this before, though, spelled out in blood. So much blood.
The cult revered animals, saw them as more pure and holy than humans. For them to break into the zoo and sacrifice animals like that – Audrey couldn’t begin to understand the meaning of it.
“This ritual is old,” Eli said as he sat back down in the chair, riveted by the news report. “Old and dark.” He glanced up at her. “Are you sure you don’t know anything about it?”
His words sounded far away. Even if she didn’t look at the screen, she could still see those images.
Eli turned off the TV. “It’s not your fault,” he said, moving over to her. “You can’t blame yourself.”
Audrey shook her head. She had no idea what was happening, what the cult wanted, but she did know it was because of her.
“Hey,” he said, taking her by the elbows and forcing her to look at him. “You can’t hold yourself responsible for someone else’s actions, only your own. Got it?”
Somehow, his words cut through the fog in her brain.
“Good,” he said. “Okay, I guess this means we should hurry and get you to the president’s office.”
Audrey didn’t see what the president of a talent agency could do about the cult, or a bunch of slaughtered animals, or some dark, ancient ritual. She followed Eli downstairs, but no matter how many questions she thought at him, he didn’t answer her. She didn’t know if he was purposely ignoring her or if he was just too lost in thought to notice her awkward attempts at communication. She’d been horrified by the attack, but Eli seemed disturbed on a deeper level.
They waited for the drawbridge to lower and then got into the long, sleek black car that was waiting for them. The whole time, Eli seemed completely distracted. As they drove away from the academy, he barely looked up from his phone, frantically typing.
Audrey took the opportunity to watch him without worrying that he might pick up on her thoughts. Her mind kept straying back to the images she’d seen on the news report. She tried to distract herself by mapping the constellations of his moles against the paleness of his skin. The more she looked at Eli, the more she wanted to keep looking. He was fascinating. Everything about him seemed like a wonder: the curve of his cheekbones, the sparkle of his eyes. She wondered how he’d known to save her. Did he do that kind of thing all the time, walking around the city streets of a night until he sensed someone in distress? Did that make him some sort of superhero? How many of the kids at the academy were there because of him? Part of her hoped that was wrong, that he’d sensed her feelings in particular, had been drawn to her. That it had been fate.
She blushed and looked out the window.
After a moment, her eyes were drawn back to him. He was still typing on his phone. He had cute hands, large palms that made his fingers look short, though they were average-sized. He typed so fast. After a moment, he looked up at her and smiled, and she got that warm blanket feeling again.
“We have another issue,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “This morning, when we left the diner, someone photographed us together. The agency wasn’t able to contain it, and the pictures were leaked online.” He handed his phone to her so she could see the photos.
Audrey scrolled through them. There were a few of him grabbing her when she was trying to run away from the diner, then him holding her by the shoulders. One where he had ducked his head toward her looked as if they were about to kiss, and another of him holding her by the arm and leading her to the cab. It looked kind of suspicious, but she didn’t really get why this was an issue. The cult thought technology was a sign of human weakness, so it wasn’t as if they’d see the pictures and track her down.
Eli shook his head. “The cult isn’t the issue here. The agency has a strict no-dating policy, and our fans get very angry if they think it’s broken. Apparently, they’ve surrounded the office building in protest. We might not be able to get in.”
Audrey continued to stare at him. Nothing about what he said made any sense to her. If those fans had seen the pictures, surely they could tell she was just some shabby street kid he was helping out. Shouldn’t that make them happy, that they were fans of someone so nice? She and Eli obviously weren’t on a date. Neither of them looked happy or in love or anything.
Why did anyone even care? Eli was awesome and probably a superhero, but did it really matter if he talked to some random girl? There were all sorts of injustices in this world. Children were sold into sex slavery, and evil companies did torture experiments on animals, and people starved to death in the streets, but she didn’t see anyone protesting those things the second they happened.
“I’m very popular,” Eli said. “Sorry.”
She shrugged, convinced he was exaggerating about the protest, but then the driver lowered the glass partition.
“Mr. Gale, there’s a commotion around the building. This is as close as I can get to it.”
As he said that, something hit the side of the car.
“They’ve noticed us,” Eli said. “We’re almost there, but we might need to make a run for it. I’ll try to use my aura, but keep your hood up and get inside the building as fast as you can.”
“I’ll get you as close as I can,” said the driver.
The banging on the side of the car got worse, and everything went dark as the car was surrounded and the daylight was blocked from the windows.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the driver, honking the horn. “I can’t get through them.”
Eli nodded. “Give us a moment,” he said.
The driver raised the partition again, and Eli shuffled around to face Audrey. He took her by the hands, and Audrey gulped, not sure what was happening.
“We’ll have to run for it,” he said. “I’ll protect you as best I can, but we might get separated. If that happens, I’ll try to lead them away from you. Head straight for the big, pink building. You’ll be safe once you’re inside. I want you to take this.”
He put something in her hand: a thick silver ring with symbols engraved around it and a square yellow gem embedded in the center.
“It’s an empathy ring. I have one that’s the same.” He pulled out
a chain around his neck that had an identical ring hanging on it. “This way, you’ll be able to read me as well, at least a little. You’ll know I’m safe if I can’t get back to the office right away.” He squeezed her hand. “We might not be able to meet for a while. I leave town to go on tour in a few days and the scandal won’t have died down before that. At least this way you’ll know I’m always with you.”
The ring was a little loose on Audrey’s middle finger, but it fit well enough that she thought she wouldn’t lose it. She definitely wouldn’t lose it. Nobody had ever given her anything before, and Eli hadn’t just given her this ring, he’d given her this whole new life. She’d take good care of it.
“Okay, now, don’t stop for anything,” he said, edging toward the car door. “I’ll go first. All you need to do is follow me.”
It sounded easy enough, but even opening the door was a struggle with all the bodies pushing against it. When Eli emerged, though, the crowd screamed and backed away. Audrey climbed out of the car, sticking close to Eli. For a moment, she thought his aura would work. He took her by the hand and forced a path through the crowd.
Then somebody yelled out, “THAT’S HER! THE GIRL IN THE PICTURES! GET HER!”
Before Audrey could tell what was happening, they swarmed on her from all directions. Her hold on Eli’s hand was broken, and she lost sight of him as he was swallowed up by the crowd.
Audrey kept moving forward, her arms shielding her head. Eli had told her not to stop, and she had no intention of standing around and letting this crowd attack her. She put her head down and charged forward, but it was like trying to walk through a brick wall. The crowd didn’t budge. Worse than that, they pushed back. It was all she could do to even stay on her feet.
She couldn’t move. There was no way out. The ring on her finger began to burn.
Audrey felt panic rising up inside her. She had no skills that allowed her to cope with this kind of situation. She couldn’t run away and hide. She couldn’t fight. Her only option was to stand there and let the crowd do whatever they liked to her.
Just as she really started to freak out, there was a loud honking noise, and Audrey thought she could vaguely hear pop music playing. The crowd began to part, and between all the scattering people, the hood of a car emerged. A bright pink, sparkly hood. The limousine rolled through the crowd slowly but without stopping, as if the driver didn’t care who was in its path. It pulled up in front of Audrey, and the back window rolled down.
A face with bright red lips emerged. A face whose eyes were covered with dark sunglasses and framed by tawny curls.
“Going my way?” the woman asked.
Chapter Five
Audrey sat opposite the woman, and for a moment they just stared at each other.
“Eli said you don’t speak,” the woman said abruptly, once the car had started moving again.
Audrey shrugged.
The woman was unlike anyone Audrey had ever met before. She was tiny, with very big hair. Even after she had raised the tinted car window, she didn’t take off her sunglasses. Audrey thought she was probably in her thirties, give or take a decade either way. She wore a sparkly pink pantsuit with a white shirt underneath and white elbow gloves. Audrey had no idea what to make of her.
“I’m Gemma Sparks,” the woman said. “President of Sparkling Gems Talent Agency. My employees usually call me President Sparks, but if you don’t become my employee… well, you’ll probably never see me again, so it won’t matter. And you’re Audrey?”
Audrey nodded.
“Mind if I vape, Audrey?”
Audrey wasn’t sure what that meant, but President Sparks pulled out a thin pink cylinder around the size of a ballpoint pen. She held it to her lips, and there was a strange sort of clicking noise. After a moment, the car filled with smoky vapor and the scent of strawberries. No, not strawberries, Audrey thought. More like strawberry candy or strawberry syrup — artificial and sweet.
“Eli said you didn’t know who he was.” The president sounded amused.
Audrey shrugged again, but she couldn’t tell if the president could see through the smoke. Audrey could only see her outline through the white swirls.
“And that the Cult of the Fifth Shadow is after you.”
Audrey wondered exactly what else Eli had told the president, how much of her mind he’d been able to see. Still, she was pleased that she didn’t have to explain it all to the president.
“He said that the cult had stolen your memories of your home and your family. Would you like to get them back, Audrey?”
Audrey’s heart thundered. She’d never even considered that it might be possible to regain her memories. She’d just assumed this was who she was now, a nobody from nowhere.
“There’s no end to the things I can do if you come to work for me.”
The smoke was so thick now that Audrey couldn’t see her at all. The strawberry scent became cloying.
“I can offer you protection from the cult,” the president said. “As long as you work for me, no harm will come to you. That much I can guarantee. It’s part of the standard contract. While on my property, all of my employees are safe from physical harm.” She exhaled another cloud of smoke. “I can offer you a home.”
The scent became too thick for Audrey to breathe. The more she tried to gulp down air, the more her throat closed up.
“Of course, I don’t offer any of this for free.” The president hit the button to lower the window, and the air cleared. “You’ll have to work for it, harder than you’ve worked for anything in your life. Well, not that you’d remember.” She snorted in laughter, and one last stream of smoke puffed out of her nose.
The president leaned toward Audrey, motioning for her to move forward. Audrey had the distinct feeling that behind those dark glasses, the president had sharp eyes, and they were cutting right through to see inside her heart.
“What is your dream, Audrey?” the president asked suddenly, her voice too loud for such a small space.
That wasn’t something that Audrey had given any thought to. She’d been so busy running that she’d barely had time to sleep, let alone dream.
“Think about it,” the president said. “It’s the most important question you can ever ask yourself. That’s is what we deal in here. Dreams. It’s our business. You think we’re selling music, or movies? Wrong! You think girls go crazy over Eli Gale because of his singing voice? The way he moves his hips? Wrong! It’s because they feel as if they know him, as if they’re close to him. He creates a whole world for them that exists only inside their heads, and it’s a world that makes them happy. They feel loved there. They feel special. Whatever they yearn for the most, he creates a dream that gives it to them.” She shook her vaporizer at Audrey. “And that is why he’s my top earner. He understands the business.”
Audrey’s heart grew a little heavy. She understood all too well what the president was talking about. It was exactly what Eli had done with her. He’d seen how alone she was and had sold her the dream that she didn’t have to be. She wasn’t sure why it made her feel sad – it wasn’t as if Eli hadn’t held up his end of the bargain so far. It was just that he’d made her feel special, somehow.
“Do you have any type of powers? Abilities? Anything that might come in useful in the business?”
Audrey shook her head. She’d gotten pretty good at avoiding capture, and she could fight if she had to, but she didn’t think that was exactly what the president had in mind.
The president slumped back in her seat, looking out the window. “Oh well,” she said. “I guess you can’t have everything.”
They drove around in silence for a while, the car stopping and starting in the heavy traffic. Audrey wasn’t sure where they were going; she didn’t know this part of the city. They’d been in the car a while, but the traffic was too backed up for them to have gotten very far.
“At any rate, as a show of good faith, I’ll tell you what I know about the Cult of the Fifth Shad
ow,” the president said as they waited at a traffic light. “Though I suppose a lot of it, you already know. They’re ancient, powerful, blah blah blah. There used to be other branches who weren’t shifters, but they didn’t survive modernization, mostly because their belief system doesn’t hold up against logical thought. I’m not an expert, and honestly, this sort of thing bores me, but their beliefs are something about heaven, hell, shadows. They’re basically a doomsday cult. They got a lot of attention in the late Renaissance because they thought their time was at hand then, and they set about with their apocalyptic rituals just like they’re doing now with the zoo animals and you. After that, they fell into obscurity for a while. Probably embarrassed, since they captured and sacrificed a young street urchin much like yourself, which was supposed to be the final act of the ritual. They did it quite publicly, too, but the world didn’t end. A bit of a laugh, really.”
Audrey didn’t laugh.
“Well, I suppose not for the girl they killed,” the president said. “At any rate, there were a lot of different elements to the ritual, and they each had to be done during specific phases of the moon. I suppose at some point, someone messed up a calculation. That’s the problem when you delegate important tasks. The girl’s death was supposed to give rise to a dark power that would end this world and bring about a new one, or some such nonsense, but it was all very anticlimactic. Obviously, they think you’ll do a better job than she did. You don’t want that kind of burden on your shoulders, which is why you should come and work for me.”
The president slid open a compartment in the seat beside her and pulled out a stack of papers that was at least two inches thick. “Standard contract,” she said, dumping it on Audrey’s lap.