When Stars Come Out (When Stars Come Out 1)

I have been thinking real hard about it and it bothers me just as much as Anora’s absence. A shrill cry sends my heart beating in my chest, until I realize it’s my phone.

Good thing I’m not hunting darklings tonight.

Fumbling, I pull it out of my pocket and answer.

“Yes?” My voice sounds more like a hiss than anything else.

“Shy, where are you?” I can h

ear the tap, tap, tap of Jacobi’s fingers against the keyboard. It sounds like heavy rain on the window.

“Home.” I would tell him the truth, but Jacobi’s on probation, and would want to join us.

“Liar. You’re outside, 222 Foley...isn’t that the new girl’s house?”

I pause a moment. “How did you know?”

“I traced your phone.” His voice is tinged with humor. Of course. Ever the tech, ever the hacker. The tempo of his fingers continues at a steady pace. “Just in case you were wondering, hanging out outside a girl’s house is no way to make her like you.”

“Uh, first, Nat’s here with me and second, we were appointed—”

“To stalk her. I know,” he says.

“What do you want, Jacobi?” I ask quickly, annoyed.

“I thought you’d want to know, I pinged Lily’s cellphone.”

My chest feels like it’s collapsed.

“And?”

“It hasn’t been used since Sunday,” he says. That was the day before she died. “And she was all over the place that day. School, the lake, June’s...”

“You said you tracked it,” I say, growing impatient. “So where is it now?”

“The train yard.”

“What was she doing there?”

Jacobi’s still typing. “I mean, we used to hang out there when we were still friends with—”

“Thane.” Thane’s uncle, Malachi Black owns the property, but being abandoned, it became a popular hangout for death-speakers looking to perform the occult. Thane and I had actually been there one night when we happened upon a séance, which aren’t always bad...except when we were caught, the kids chased us. One caught me and punched me so hard in the face, I blacked out for a moment. When I came to, a patrolling Shadow Knight had arrived and shut everything down, and I wasn’t allowed to go back to the yard.

Lily admitted she’d been hanging out with Thane again, so the fact that her phone is at the train yard could be coincidence. I’m not so sure she wanted it in her possession when her father or the other Elites questioned her about her relationship with the human. Maybe she left it there on purpose until after she faced the Order. Still, it is worth investigating.

Jacobi continues, “I don’t know the exact location of the phone, but we can call it once we get there.”

“We? Jacobi, you’re on probation.”

“Exactly,” he says. “This isn’t patrol, so I can’t get in trouble.”

“Jacobi—” I start.

“I’ll be there in five,” he says, interrupting me, and before he hangs up the phone, I’m in the air. Natalie follows close behind.

The train yard sits against a curtain of dense wood and a stagnant reservoir makes the place smell like rotten eggs. It is connected to a network of brick and metal warehouse buildings that once housed factories. Railroad tracks twine through the property, unused. I land atop one of several skeletal locomotives. The wind rustles the grass and the trees, carrying the scent of death: distinct, raw, and strong. I turn, staring off toward the warehouse. Two streetlights pour yellow light on the ground, and one warehouse window is lit. It’s that light: ugly, orange and bright that makes me feel uneasy.

Something’s wrong. I can sense it in the air—a strong current of energy is here which means there are either a lot of souls or a few darklings about.