The Shattered Dark Read Online Free PDF Page A

Aren at
     the gate north of the city.”
    “We’re going to my friend’s house first. It’ll only take a minute.” I have to be certain
     Paige is really gone.
    I’m kind of surprised when he doesn’t argue. We might be on the outskirts of Houston,
     but traffic is horrendous. It’s impossible to get through a single intersection in
     one minute. He follows my directions, though, and half an hour later we pull up in
     front of a town house that’s in the middle of a row of attached homes that all have
     the same white shutters, small balconies, and miniscule front porches. The only thing
     different is the color of the front doors. Paige’s is pink. I tell Shane to wait in
     the car as I climb out of the passenger seat.
    It takes a few steps before my muscles loosen up. They’re sore from the fight at my
     apartment, and my right leg throbs under my jeans when I put weight on it. Nothing’s
     broken, though; I think I just have a deep bruise on my thigh.
    A knot of dismay tightens in my stomach when I reach Paige’s pink door.
    “Please be home,” I whisper as I knock. After a few minutes pass with no answer, I
     step into the flower bed to the right of the porch and peek in through the window.
     Only a sliver of the living room is visible through a part in the curtains, but the
     little that I see doesn’t look good. Broken glass and something blue are scattered
     across the floor. It takes me a second to realize the latter are hundreds of tiny
     blue pebbles, the remains of Paige’s fishbowl, I think. She has a betta named Phil
     or Max or Johnny or something. She has trouble keeping them alive, so I can never
     keep track.
    “Is your friend not home?” Shane asks from the porch, not from the car where I told
     him to wait.
    “The remnants took her,” I say.
    Shane frowns. “Come again?”
    I step out of the flower bed, feeling sick. Since the fae don’t belong in this world,
     they’re able to turn their visibility on and off with a thought. Only humans who have
     the Sight are able to see them all the time; the rest of the world has no idea they
     exist. Paige won’t have any idea. I don’t know how she’d react if she was grabbed
     by invisible fae. She mightthink she’s caught in a nightmare or that she’s lost her mind or that she’s possessed
     or something. But maybe the remnants will let her see them. Maybe they’ll explain
     who they are and what’s happening.
    Or maybe they’ll just kill her.
    No,
I tell myself, pushing that thought aside. She’s more valuable alive. Alive, they
     can negotiate a trade.
    “Her purse was at my apartment,” I tell Shane, trying the doorknob. It doesn’t turn,
     of course. “I broke a ward when I picked it up. That’s why the remnants came.”
    “Hmm,” he says. He presses his lips together, but there’s no worry or sympathy in
     his expression. I clench my teeth to keep from saying anything. When I first met him,
     I had the impression he was a bit egocentric. He’s living up to that assessment.
    Stepping away from the door, I scan up and down the street. An occasional car passes
     by, but no one is outside. I can probably time a break-in so that I don’t get caught.
    I pick up one of the rocks lining the flower bed.
    “You know,” Shane says, “if the remnants do have your friend, it’s highly possible
     they know where she lives.”
    “You’re worried about them showing up?” I heft the rock in my hand. “Why? You can
     just switch allegiances. I’m sure they’d pay you whatever you ask.”
    “Ouch,” he says, sounding genuinely insulted.
    I hurt his feelings? Whatever. He’s only involved in this war because he gets paid.
     This shouldn’t be about money. Our actions have consequences. I didn’t realize just
     how dire those consequences were until a month ago. Back when I worked for the king,
     I thought the Court captured most of the fae I tracked. They didn’t. It was easier
     to kill them than to put forth the effort