Shadow (Touched by the Fae 2)

Hey. I wanted a distraction, didn’t I?

“Sorry. It’s been”—Jesus, months, right? Except for the bread Nine gave me, the last thing I ate was the beef stew and the biscuit Carolina used to cover up her note and that was back in June—“...a bit since I’ve had something to eat. You don’t… you don’t have like a snack or something on you? In your car? Your bag? I’ll even take some tic-tacs at this point. Anything.”

Oh, man. The second the words are out, I realize exactly who I’m talking to. Carolina tries to hide her reaction, I’ll give her credit for doing whatever she could to cover it up, but I see her wince and I feel like a complete ass.

“If you don’t,” I say hurriedly, “that’s fine, too. I was just asking. I guess I kinda forgot...”

I can’t even finish my sentence, letting the words trail off right there. Eesh. How could I have forgotten why Carolina was at Black Pine in the first place? The fae might have been a big part of it—at least, that’s what she made it seem like—but there’s no faking her other condition.

“If you need food, I can take you to get some.”

She still wants me to leave with her. That’s… odd.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll find something somewhere eventually.”

“Let me do it. You don’t have to come with me. Just open the door for me when I come back and I can bring you whatever you want.”

Okay. That’s it. I’ve always been paranoid, looking out for myself, always expecting that anyone helping me is doing it because they want something from me. It’s a hard-earned lesson, thanks to years spent in the foster system—not to mention Nine’s lessons throughout my childhood—and it’s only gotten worse since I got committed to Black Pine.

I’d brushed off every mention of Carolina looking for me because I didn’t want to know why she was. I just wanted her to go, especially once she started bringing up the fae.

This, though? This is really weird.

“Why?” I ask. “Why do you want to help me so bad? You don’t even know me.”

My eyes have adapted to the dark. I don’t miss the pleading look that flashes across her face, or the way she folds her hands in front of her chest. “It’s because you’re my only hope.”

“Me? Why would you say that?”

Carolina shudders out a breath. “Whether you want to tell me or not, I know you’re being chased by the fae. You’ve been touched by them.” She pauses for a heartbeat, sure that I’m not going to argue before she drops another bomb: “Me, too. I’ve been claimed by a Dark Fae who will only let me free if I find the Shadow. That’s you, Riley. You can save me.”

I just about stop breathing. The way she says that, so earnest, so sure… I swear, I can hear the way she capitalizes the ‘s’ in Shadow. She isn’t just pulling that name out of thin air.

She doesn’t just know about the fae. She knows about me.

And, for some absolutely insane reason, she thinks that I can help her.

Play it cool, Riley. Don’t give it away.

Deny everything.

“The what?”

“The Shadow. From the Shadow Prophecy. It’s why I’ve been searching for you for so long, why I wanted to talk to you inside of the facility. If you were who I hoped you were, my mistress promised me freedom if you do your part.”

“My part?” I parrot back. Nine told me that my part in the prophecy boils down to offing the terrible Fae Queen. Since that’s never gonna happen, I continue to play dumb. “You sure you shouldn’t check back into the asylum, Carolina? Because you’re sure talking crazy right about now.”

It’s a low blow. I mean, we met in a psych hospital. Throwing around the c-word… that’s fucked up. I know it is. But I also know that it’ll be impossible for me to escape the burden of this stupid prophecy if I’ve got someone else putting the weight of it on my shoulders.

I just want the fae to leave me alone. Why doesn’t anyone get that?

“You don’t believe in the prophecy, do you?” Carolina’s face falls. She shakes her head, wrapping her arms around her middle. “You don’t believe you’re the Shadow they’re talking about. Either that, or you don’t know.”

She’s not entirely wrong. I don’t know all the details—because no one will tell me, and I’ve blocked a lot of what Nine did explain—and I definitely I don’t want to believe that I have anything to do with the Shadow that both Nine and Rys keep bringing up. That’s not important, though.

First the fae, then the prophecy.

How does she know?