by Kait Nolan
~*~
She had a broken rib. There was time to note that as she lay in the protective cocoon of dark while the Sugea and the wraith and their unseen third companion searched for her. Time too, to reflect on how the shadows had opened for her when she needed them most.
Was it a fluke? Some kind of one off freak gift from the universe to give the middle finger to the bad guys of the world? Emily had never heard of such a thing. But the idea that she, too, was touched by shadow, could learn to bend it and use it as a Shadow Walker did was even more outlandish. By all accounts, what had happened to her was nigh impossible. There were almost never Shadow Walkers in the same family, let alone of the same generation. Her brother had been claimed by shadow at a young age. She should have been too old. So what did it mean?
She hurt too much to figure it out. Maybe Rab would know.
As the birds began to twitter, she knew dawn was approaching and she’d have to move. More than an hour had passed since she last heard her assailants. Still, she took great care getting to her feet and shambling away from the warehouse. The sun was high, filtering down in dappled shadows through the canopy of trees when Emily spotted the smokestacks of a factory in the distance. No one had thus far leapt out of the woods at her or come chasing through the trees, but she was wary of letting her guard relax even a fraction. Just because she’d escaped once didn’t mean she’d manage to do so a second time.
Still, it should be safe enough to activate the beacon.
Emily took another long look around her immediate vicinity before propping herself against a tree and shifting her attention to the ring on her right hand. She turned it seven times counter-clockwise around her finger. The jewel began to glow an iridescent green and rose up in the setting. She sighed with relief. Just a few more steps and Rab would be here. She reached for the risen jewel.
“I knew you had a way to contact him!”
The Sugea surged out from a cluster of trees, bipedal again, but his hood was flared, his eyes glowing gold as he rushed her. Emily stumbled back, fingers fumbling trying to turn the jewel clockwise. One turn. Two. She wasn’t calm, wasn’t centered, but she split off her incorporeal half. It was like ripping off a limb. For a moment both of them stood there, swaying from shock and pain. Then they each took off, running in opposite directions.
She managed a third revolution of the jewel while the Sugea paused, assessing which of them to follow. He bellowed for his partner and began to crash through the trees and underbrush after her double. She didn’t slow.
Four turns.
Though she could see both routes with her double vision, like a screen inset on a TV, Emily couldn’t focus, couldn’t keep her other self from whipping through tree branches or passing through other solid obstacles. She was too exhausted, too hurt to put much mental energy into her double’s path of escape. The Sugea hadn’t caught up quite enough to notice yet, but it would only be a matter of time.
Her breath sawed in and out, black flickering at the edges her sight from the agony of her broken rib. She reached for the ring again. Five turns.
A figure reared up in her path. Unable to stop, Emily threw herself to the side, away from his grasping fingers. She overbalanced, her feet snagging on roots, and she crashed. Pain exploded in her chest, in her abraded wrists. Her fingers were bloody as she reached once more for the jewel. They slipped, slid, and the man came closer. He wasn’t moving fast, knowing she was caught, too injured to rise again.
Six turns. Seven. And at last, she pressed it back into the setting. A beam shot out in front of her, creating a sort of screen, about as high and wide as a door but semi-translucent against the forest. The man stopped, staring at the image. It hummed there for long seconds before duplicating on either side with a snap! Once. Twice. Three times, until she was wrapped in an octagon of semi-translucent light, effectively hidden from everything in the outside world. And trapped inside with the unknown third kidnapper.
She wanted to sob. Wanted to close her eyes and have the whole thing be some horrible dream. But she couldn’t get the breath. She pulled her double back. No need to waste the energy on that ruse. It hadn’t worked. Not well enough.
Emily drew her knees up, rolled vertical, choking down a scream. The man stood on the other side of the octagon, studying their enclosure.
“Fascinating.” He reached one long finger out toward the shimmering barrier, stopping just short of actually touching it, which showed considerably more intelligence than Emily had given any of them credit for. So far this entire kidnapping had run like a paranormal script for a Three Stooges movie. For all he knew, the magic would barbecue him. She only wished it worked that way.
Emily struggled to her feet, drawing the man’s attention again. He turned, and she got her first good look at his face. With his shock of dark hair and wide blue eyes, he looked human, as so many of the Mirus races did. But Emily felt the aura of power pulsing off him. No matter. Power would not save him now.
“You’re a fool,” she said.
“And yet here I am, inside this…thing with you. Where you cannot escape.” He began to advance on her and she edged away, circling opposite him like a boxer in a ring.
“My brother is coming.”
The man smiled, a cruel twist of lips. “We’re counting on it.”
“He’s going to kill you, moron.”
“Not if we kill him first. And we’re very, very motivated.”
Emily blinked, a sick sense of realization setting in. “This has nothing to do with using me for leverage. You want me for bait. You played me.”
The man just continued to smile.
Emily felt a cold fury ignite within her, wiping away the exhaustion and the pain. This son of a bitch was after Rab. Had used her to get to her brother. Her fists curled.
Beyond the perimeter, the Sugea and the wraith were shouting. Searching for their companion.
“I’m here!” he called.
“He won’t be able to hear you,” said Emily. “We’re hidden.” For how much longer, she didn’t know, but she’d take the time, do whatever she could to even the odds.
The ice coalesced in her belly, transmuted to heat, to flame, to power. Emily split, her double stepping to the left.
“You think to confuse me with one immaterial double?”
Emily smiled and split again. And again. Until there were eight of her surrounding her antagonist. She’d never try such a risky move outside a confined space. Her vision was split so many times, the world looked like the simulations she’d seen of a fly’s eye. But all of her doubles were focused on a single target. Him.
They moved as one, going in low, aiming for the man’s legs. He pivoted, blocking the wrong Emily as the real one took his legs out in a sweep. He crashed, rolled, coming up short at the edge of the barrier. He was on his feet before she could strike again. He looked wary now, her attack unexpected. He struck out at one of the doubles and they all dodged. As long as she could keep him from realizing which were incorporeal and which one was the real her, she stood a chance. She circled with her doubles, crossing front and back in two opposite lines, dodging, striking when she could, relying on constant motion and confusion. She wasn’t getting in any real damaging blows, but she was buying time, tiring her adversary.
Her assailant’s face reddened with effort and frustration. “Enough!” He flung his arms in a wide arc. Wind whipped and spun, a sudden tornado inside the tiny enclosure.
She had time only to register meteoric Fae before it caught her and all of her manifestations, spinning her faster and higher, above the edge of the octagon and throwing her like a rag doll against a tree. As she slammed into it, back cracking with pain, she screamed her brother’s name. Then she fell into blessed unconsciousness before her body hit the ground.