The Shadow Stealer

by Melissa Giorgio

  “I want to go home,” I said to no one in particular.

  Mom opened her mouth to protest, but then Jared burst into the conference room, his voice tight with panic. “Morgan! There are hunters outside!”

  She jumped to her feet, already barking out orders. My friends got up and surrounded me. “Looks like you’re getting your wish, Gabi,” Evan said. “Time to go home.”

  “But who is it? Is it Charles, or someone else?” I turned around and pressed my face to the window, squinting down at the people on the street. This high up, they were too small to see clearly, but I swear one man looked up the moment my eyes fell on him. I jerked back with a startled gasp. Had he seen me? Between the distance and the glare on the windows from the sun, I didn’t think so, but I kept away from the window, all the same.

  “Did you tell your dad where we were?” Rafe was asking Philip.

  My brother shook his head. “I just told him we were okay, and we’d found Kain, but I didn’t mention the sorcerers or that we were in Midtown.”

  “Could they have done a tracking spell?”

  Both Kain and Evan shook their heads, Evan scowling when he realized he was in agreement with his mortal enemy. “This building is covered in cloaking spells,” Kain explained, “which explains why Silver Moon never knew of its location.”

  “So then how did they find it?” Alexandra asked as she pulled out a dagger and began nervously twirling it.

  “The how doesn’t matter right now,” Philip said. “We need to get out of here. If they find us, they’ll ask questions.”

  Like, why were we fraternizing with the enemy? If they realized Mom was still alive, and began connecting the dots, it would only be a matter of time before they discovered the truth.

  If Silver Moon killed a person for summoning a demon, what did they do to someone possessed by one?

  I started shaking. “We have to go,” I told Rafe, desperate. “Now, before they see us.”

  Nodding in agreement, he walked over to Mom, practically shoving Jared out of the way so he could speak with her. Looming over her, Rafe looked very imposing. My scary boyfriend is back, I thought. And I was incredibly grateful for that. “Is there a back entrance we can escape from, without Silver Moon seeing us?” he asked Mom.

  “I have something better,” she answered. “I can teleport—”

  “You can what?” Evan interrupted while Kain stared at Mom in shock.

  “I told you, my aunt dabbled in dark magic. I have a circle set up in preparation for a breach like this. But the spell takes a few minutes to cast, so I need some of you to act as diversions.”

  “No!” I cried, horrified. She wanted to use my friends as bait? No way!

  “Fine,” Philip said at the same time. “I would never be able to survive the trip anyway.”

  “I can’t take all of you,” Mom said. “It’ll just be me and Gabi.”

  “No.” Rafe stared Mom down, which wasn’t very difficult since he was so tall. “You either take me, too, or you’re not taking her at all. We’ll find another way out of here.”

  “I’m not strong enough to send three people—”

  “Use me,” Evan spoke up suddenly. “Combine our magic for the spell. That should work, right?”

  I couldn’t believe we were even having this conversation. “I’m not leaving without the rest of you! No!”

  “Gabi.” Philip put his hands on my shoulders. “Listen to me. We’re all Silver Moon members. They have no reason to distrust us. We’ll tell them we tracked Kain here. They don’t need to know that we actually found him by HQ. We can’t risk them seeing you here; they’ll ask questions.” Philip hugged me quickly before shoving me toward Rafe. “Get her out of here.”

  “Phil—”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I can,” Philip promised. “We’ll be fine. Now go!”

  “No!” I struggled against Rafe’s powerful grip, and he half-carried me out of the room, following Mom as she rushed down the hallway. Evan and Alexandra were right behind us, their faces set in grim determination.

  “In here,” Mom said, turning left into a large, empty room. She held up a hand to stop Rafe from walking any farther and he stumbled to a halt. We looked down at the plain white tiled floor, where symbols had been scrawled in what I hoped was red paint.

  Evan let out a low whistle, his hands in his pockets as he rocked back on his heels. “This is some serious magic here. You guys go teleporting for fun, or what?”

  “You can’t do something like this?” I asked him, curious despite the serious situation.

  He cocked an eyebrow. “I’m flattered you think I’m that strong. Maybe in twenty years. But right now? No way. If I tried, only half of you would make it to your destination.”

  I shuddered at that unpleasant image.

  Mom ignored us as she raced around the large circle, lighting candles with her fingers. “Okay, Gabi and Rafe, inside the circle.”

  I still wasn’t onboard with the whole leave-my-friends-to-face-who-knows-what plan they’d come up with. “I don’t like this,” I whispered to Rafe, wondering if that was enough to change his mind.

  “Neither do I, but Phil was right, Gabi. You can’t stay here. Especially if Collins is one of the hunters outside. I don’t want you anywhere near him.”

  Alexandra put a hand on Mom’s shoulder and spun her around, refusing to relinquish her death grip even when Mom winced. “This spell is safe, right?”

  “Yes, Gabi and Rafe will be fine.”

  She shook her head, her sleek ponytail swishing back and forth like a cat’s tail. “Good, but that’s not what I meant.” Alexandra pointed to Evan, who looked surprised. “Is he going to be okay? Because if you do this spell and something happens to him when you borrow his magic, I swear to god I will hunt you down and kill you.”

  Evan’s look of surprise transformed to something similar to pure amazement, mixed with a sense of longing. He wisely kept his mouth shut, though, which was unusual for Evan. He was probably afraid of ruining this very rare moment with her. I wished the situation was better, so I could cheer for him, but maybe this dangerous situation was what Alexandra needed to realize how much Evan meant to her.

  “He’ll be fine,” Mom snapped, obviously not giving a damn about whatever was happening between Alexandra and Evan. When she saw me and Rafe still standing outside the circle, she pointed to it. “Gabi, we don’t have any time! Please get inside before Silver Moon finds you!”

  I marched myself into the circle, Rafe practically glued to my side. Once we were situated, Mom knelt down and placed her hands on the floor. Immediately, the symbols began glowing—a sharp, white light that made my eyes water.

  “You should probably knock me out,” Alexandra was telling Evan. “To make this more believable. We’ll say some of the sorcerers attacked us.”

  A look of horror flashed across Evan’s face. “I’m not going to hit you!”

  “You are such a wuss!” Alexandra pulled a knife from her belt and held it over her side. “Fine, I’ll just stab myself—”

  “No!” Evan yanked it out of her hand. “Are you insane! I just got you back in one piece! I’m not going to let you get hurt again!”

  Their eyes met, and I swore I heard a score of sweeping romance music playing in the background. Next to me, Rafe coughed, and when I glanced at him, he rolled his eyes. It was nice to know that even in the middle of all this crap, those two could find a way to work things out.

  Just—what horrible timing.

  With a huff, Alexandra sat down by the door, her hawkeyed gaze glued on Evan as he knelt on the floor, mimicking Mom’s pose. He sucked in a deep breath, met Rafe’s eye, and said, “Keep her safe, man.”

  “You know I will.”

  “And Gabi?” The corner of Evan’s mouth twitched. “Don’t let Rafe do anything stupid. You know how he can get.”

  “I know what you mean,” I agreed.

  “Excuse me—” Rafe sputtered.

 
“Enough!” Mom slapped her hands on the floor. “Stop speaking! I need to concentrate!”

  Everyone fell silent. Rafe put his arm around me, pulling me against his chest. I squeezed my eyes shut, listening to his heart race.

  Please let them be safe. I don’t care about what happens to me—just keep my friends alive.

  The lights from the symbols burned brighter; I could see the sudden sharp flare through my closed lids. There was a dizzying sensation, like being on an elevator that was shooting up into the sky at warp speed, followed by a loud pop.

  And then I was screaming as the world twisted upside-down and inside out and I was certain Mom had sent us to our deaths.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  I landed hard on my right shoulder, jarring it, and stars of pain danced behind my closed lids. My entire arm felt like it was on fire, and I rolled onto my back, clutching my shoulder. “Dammit,” I hissed through clenched teeth, opening my eyes to see a blue cloudless sky above me. “What the hell?”

  Slowly, I sat up, and while the world below me did spin lazily, I at least didn’t feel the need to throw up. Still holding onto my throbbing shoulder, I glanced around.

  I was lying in the middle of a dirt field. There were trees to my right, and open fields everywhere else. But the weirdest thing was the fact that snow coated everything except for a large circle I was sitting smack dab in the middle of. Did the spell melt the snow? Before I could waste any more energy worrying about that, I saw Rafe sprawled at the edge of the circle, and my stomach dropped when I realized he wasn’t moving.

  “Rafe!” I jumped to my feet, staggering sideways. Dammit, the world needed to stop moving! I was like a sailor after spending months aboard a ship. Snarling with frustration, I forced my feet toward my boyfriend, dropping to my knees and rolling him over so he was on his back. “Rafe! Wake up! Please!”

  He groaned in response, his face pale and sweaty. No, no, no. I was not going to go through this again. “Mom!” She needed to get over here right now and take this damn seal off of me so I could help Rafe! “Rafe, come on, tell me what’s wrong—”

  His eyes fluttered open, and I nearly wept with relief. “It’s my side,” he gasped, pulling up his shirt.

  It was bleeding again.

  Horrified, I placed my hands over the wound, but nothing happened. Spitting out a curse, I screamed Mom’s name again.

  “Here, I’m here.” She staggered over to us, her face heavily lined with exhaustion. At that moment, she didn’t look like a woman in her late thirties. The spell had taken its toll on her, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. The only thing that mattered was Rafe.

  “I need to help him,” I told her.

  Her eyes widened when she saw his wound. “What—who did that to you?”

  “A hunter named Nina,” I said bitterly. “She was trying to kill me because she thought I had demon blood inside of me, and Rafe got hurt because he was protecting me. I wasn’t able to heal him, and it’s been hurting him ever since. For two months now! He got hit before, when we were fighting your friends, and now your spell must have reopened the wound or something—”

  “The spell was never fully vanquished.” Mom held a hand over Rafe’s abdomen, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “It’s mostly gone, but a small part is still there. That’s what’s causing him this pain.”

  “Can you get rid of it?” I held my breath.

  “Yes, but not right now.” Mom dropped her hand. “I’ve exhausted myself with the spell. I need to recover first.”

  I barely resisted the urge to grab her by the shoulders and start shaking. “But he needs you now!”

  “Gabi.” Rafe struggled into a sitting position, and all of my rage transformed into worry as I helped him up. “It’s fine. I’ve lived with the pain for two months. What’s a few more days?”

  “Tomorrow,” Mom said. “I’ll have it fixed by tomorrow. I promise.”

  He nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Rafe,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me about this? About how much you’ve been suffering? I knew it still hurt you, but I never imagined it was this bad!”

  “Because I didn’t want to bother you with this, on top of everything else.” He glanced away, like he was ashamed. Ashamed of what? Being human and bleeding and hurting?

  “I want you to tell me about this stuff.” I grabbed a hold of his hand and squeezed it. “Do you hear me? This is the sort of stuff we share with one another. I’m always crying on your shoulder; why do you think you can’t do the same with me?”

  He finally met my eye, his lips twitching slightly. “Wouldn’t that scare you? If I started bawling?”

  “It might.” Now I was the one fighting a smile. I couldn’t believe it. Despite everything that had happened, we could still find a way to laugh. “Anyway, I think I have a Band-Aid in my bag, which somehow survived this crazy trip. Do you want it?”

  Chuckling quietly, he said, “Sure.”

  It was ridiculous, the Band-Aid was so small and barely covered the wound, but Rafe had a small smile on his face as I worked, using tissues to wipe all the blood (it had thankfully stopped bleeding, although it still looked badly infected), and I swore he was enjoying having me take care of him. Realizing that Mom was watching the entire exchange, I started blushing and forced my fingers to move faster. Finally done, I yanked his shirt down and opened my bag again, looking for my bottle of aspirin so I could avoid eye contact with everyone.

  Usually I was the one making Rafe blush; I wondered if he was doing this on purpose, as a form of payback. I made a mental note to get him back later, when life finally calmed down.

  If life calmed down.

  I managed to dig up a couple of aspirins, which Rafe dry swallowed with some difficulty. Blanching, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Yum.”

  “Sorry.”

  He gave me another smile, which made my heart skip a beat. “Don’t be.” As he settled into a more comfortable position on the ground, the long, mournful blast of a train blowing its horn sounded in the distance.

  I glanced up in surprise and asked Mom, “Where are we, exactly?”

  Her lips turned up in a small smile. “Home, of course. Well, your home,” she amended after seeing my frown.

  “Are we near the train station?” Rafe scanned the field. “My car is parked there.”

  “We’re not far at all.” Mom rose slowly, wincing with the effort. I remained where I was, on the ground next to Rafe. “We’ll walk there, and then you can drive us home.”

  “Seriously?” I asked, making no effort to mask the disbelief that coated my words heavily. “Us? Home? And how do you expect that to turn out, Mom? Especially since the last time I talked to Dad, I told him you were dead!”

  Her eyebrows rose, hiding behind her bangs. “That is a problem.”

  I snorted. “You think? I don’t know what he’s going to do first when he sees us. Go after Rafe with his kitchen knives, ground me for the rest of my life, or—” I cut off, staring at Mom. What would Dad do if he saw her? “Maybe you should stay here?” I suggested weakly.

  She gave me a dour look. It was heartbreaking, how familiar that look was. “I’m going home with you, Gabi. Your father deserves an explanation.” She sighed heavily. “I just need to come up with one, first.”

  While she stared out into the distance, frowning, I checked my phone to make sure Philip hadn’t texted me, but besides a zillion more missed calls from Dad (I was so dead. Again.), there was nothing.

  That doesn’t mean anything, I told myself. He’s fine. He’s probably too busy dealing with Silver Moon jerks to text you.

  “They’ll be fine,” Rafe said, watching me scowl at my phone. “I’m just glad we got away before Collins could see you.”

  I stuffed my phone back into my bag. “Even though you got hurt? Again?”

  Rafe smiled, the skin around his eyes crinkling. “It was worth it. I like having you take care of me.”

  “
Oh, is that so?” I leaned in to kiss him, when Mom cleared her throat. We yanked apart, the two of us blushing, and I scrambled to my feet. Rafe slowly stood up, putting about two feet of distance between us. Noticing, Mom smirked and said, “Shall we?”

  As we walked to Rafe’s car, my boyfriend and I holding hands as we stepped carefully through the snow, Mom talked quietly. About how proud she’d been to find out that Philip was highly skilled with magic, and how devastated she’d been when he was attacked. “And angry,” she said. “So angry that Charles let something like that happen to our son. And I knew he’d never even consider summoning a demon to save Phil. It was up to me to get my hands dirty, and I did it without a second thought. I may have left Phil as a baby, but I never stopped loving him.” She walked alongside me, catching my eye. “And the same goes for you and your sister, Gabi. It killed me to leave you, but after Charles saw me, I had to. I was so afraid he’d make the connection and see that you were cursed. And I knew he’d send Silver Moon straight to your doorstep and kill you for what I’d done. That’s why I had to fool him into thinking I’d died that day. Let him believe it ended there. But when he found you in December, I knew it was only a matter of time before he made the connection.”

  “He did,” I said. “He knew from when I told him my full name. But he didn’t say anything, Mom. In fact, after everything that happened he decided to help me by hiding me from Silver Moon.” I couldn’t believe I was defending Charles to my mother, but it was true. He could have easily turned me in, but he didn’t. “But he didn’t know about the demon cursing me. No one did. Surprise.” I tried to laugh, but it came out sounding more like a sob.

  “Honey, that demon is not going to touch you,” Mom said. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. What you said earlier… It’s true. I am a coward. I didn’t know what to say to you.” She shook her head. “I still don’t know what to say. But I’m trying. Will you let me?”

  I hesitated. On the one hand, she was saying everything I’d wanted to hear for the past seven years. But on the other hand, she left. And I was so, so afraid that I was going to let her back into my life, only to have her disappear again. How could I survive something like that again? And how could I do that to both Dad and Chloe? I was fiercely protective of them, and I’d rather spare them the heartbreak if I could. Maybe it was better if I was the only one who knew she was back.