I try to scoff, act like I think she’s making it all up. At the same time, my fingers start to tremble inside my leather gloves.
“You’re right. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. And, honestly? I don’t really care. You can go now, alright? I told you I was tired. Unless you’re gonna call the cops or, shit, the doctors on me, just leave me alone. I can’t help you. I can’t even help myself.”
“But you can. Don’t you understand? You’re the Shadow, Riley. I wasn’t sure, but the way the darkness is drawn to you—”
“What? Why would you say that?”
“Look.” She points toward the floor.
I gasp. It’s dark in the kitchen. I know that. Without electricity, the empty room seems darker than even outside. But from my knees down, there’s a patch of darkness willowing around my jeans, almost vanishing the bottom of my legs in the inky black smoke.
“What the fuck?” I kick out one of my legs, the wisps clinging to it dissipating like cotton candy hitting your tongue. It’s like they melt away from my body. As soon as my slipper is back on the floor, another strand wraps immediately around my ankle. “What’s happening? Who’s doing that?”
“You are. I told you. You’re the Shadow. You’re the halfling—half-human, half-fae,” she adds, raising her hand, gesturing to her ear. “You’re the only they talk about in the prophecy.”
“The prophecy,” I snap. I’m hopping in place, trying to get rid of the shadows that are undeniably following every move I make. I don’t like it and I can’t get rid of it, and the way she just puts it out there—just calls me a halfling—makes my stomach sink as if I swallowed a bellyful of rocks. “I don’t know anything about a damn prophecy.”
At the anger in my voice, Carolina backs up. She doesn’t go too far, though. “Would you… would you like to?”
I stop hopping. The shadows are, well, not forgotten, but suddenly not as important. “What are you saying now?”
“Okay. Hang on. I got something for you—for the Shadow. I’ve been holding onto this for a while, hoping that I could show it to you. I almost memorized it, but I don’t want to get it wrong. Are you… you gonna stay here?”
“You sat through community group with me. You knew about Acorn Falls. Black Pine is out,” I add uselessly. “Where else do you think I can go?”
Carolina is kind enough not to point out that I’m right. Instead, she gestures for me to stay where I am before turning toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“It’s in my car. I’ll be right back.”
Car, huh? I guess that’s just another difference between Carolina and me. I spent the last six years inside the asylum. Now that Nine admitted that it was as much as a “safe” place to stick me to keep me off the Fae Queen’s radar as it was a psych hospital—sorry, facility for wayward juveniles—to convince me that the fae aren’t a threat, I’m even more jealous of the experiences I missed.
Driving? Nope. I was fifteen when I got tossed inside. No learner’s permit, even if I might have taken a joyride or two. A license? Forget it. It’s why walking all over Acorn Falls almost seems natural to me. It’s not like I could do anything else.
I don’t have a phone. No ID. No money.
No food.
And Carolina has it all. The expensive clothes. The freedom to come and go from the asylum as she pleases. Now a car?
Damn it. I should hate her.
She knows more about the fae than I do, too. Now she knows that, thanks to my weird ears, I have something to do with them. And, for whatever reason, she’s actually willing to help me understand what’s going on. She actually seems desperate.
I should hate her.
I can’t.
That’s not hate that twists my gut when I look at her bony frame, her sunken-in cheeks, and the haunted look in her eyes. That’s pity.
“Fine.” I nod. “I’ll be waiting.”
Girl’s fast. I don’t know exactly where she left her car, but she’s gone and back in a couple of minutes. She knocks on the back door, obviously expecting that I might have locked it behind her, then slinks back in slightly out of breath.
A hesitant yet almost triumphant grin stretches her lips as she holds out a folded piece of paper.
“Here you go. The Shadow Prophecy.”