Something hard and pointy jabbed my cheek. “Wake up, girl, wake up,” a cool voice said.
Another voice interjected. “Don’t stab at her like that!” A taloned hand rested on my shoulder. “She’s right though, Minnow. Wake up time.”
I mumbled sleepily and opened my eyes, peering up at the two monstrous faces above me. Miles grinned and Keely snorted delicately. She poked me once more in the shoulder, forcing me to sit up. “Get out of the boat.”
“The falls into the Fenglow are just ahead,” Miles explained. “We have to let the boat go over without us. You’d never survive the drop.”
I fumbled for my pack, noticing that we’d already pulled up on a needle-strewn bank. Dark pines loomed overhead, releasing a scent that hovered somewhere between evergreen and the night sky. “Not even if I had a big, strong arcane flying me down?”
“Nah. I’d drop you on the rocks and laugh my head off.”
Keely made an impatient sound from where she clung to the side of the boat. “Hurry up.”
“Okay!” I growled, folding up my hammock. “Gimme a break! I just woke up!” I climbed onto the bank. “There. Out of the boat. Happy?”
“No.” Grabbing the rope tied to the boat’s prow, Miss Sunshine slipped beneath the river’s dark surface and pulled the boat off into the gloom. Miles and I were left standing on the pebbly bank. He looked very nice this morning, even in the low night. He always looked nice, I realized. He was a nice-looking person. Monster. Boy.
“Um, Minnow?”
I blinked and realized I’d been staring. “Huh? Yes? What?”
He motioned downstream. “We should get going.”
“Oh-- yeah. Sorry.”
Miles turned and began floating downriver, feet a few centimeters above the stony bank. I hoisted my pack, wished life were easier, and followed.
“Holy cow pie,” I breathed. “This place is just insane.”
Miles cackled. A meter from the dusty leather of my boots the dark rocks fell away to a sheer drop-off. The cliff was so massive I couldn’t see the bottom amid the ever-present darkness and the mist from the falls. From far below the roar of water sounded like a snarling dragon.
The drop-off opened up before us into a wide, fog-filled chasm. The rend in the earth snaked through sharp mountains and ended near the black lake that shrouded the sleeping dragon. In the distance I could just barely see the Iss-Noor, liberated from the cleft, winding its way to the dark body of water.
“The canyon is the Fenglow,” Miles explained.
“It’s huge.”
“I did warn you.”
I inspected the cliff face, the smooth rocks slick with moisture from the falls. “You are flying me down, right?”
“Yes. Hold on.”
“Wait-”
The freefall was extremely uncomfortable. I wanted to scream, but my stomach had made an unfortunate migration and now blocked off my windpipe. We punched through the thickest of the clouds and I could see sharp rocks below us, reaching up as if they wanted my blood. But we were slowing. Miles gripped my waist tighter as our plummet became a gentle drift. He set my feet on a large, flat stone on the riverbank, then landed himself. He sat down heavily, panting a bit. I gave him a look to warn away any cracks about my weight, and he smiled devilishly.
While we waited for Keely to find us with our boat, I sat on the damp rocks and surveyed the Fenglow. I was not impressed. All around me rose sheer walls of blue-grey stone, curtained with mist. The sky was masked with low, pale clouds of spray. In front of me, the black river roared through the air then settled itself into the riverbed and continued on through the fog. Downstream the rock walls grew apart so the world became a pale grey blank. It was all very grey and desolate and boring.
“I dunno,” I said, my voice crushed by the waterfall’s roar and the never-ending mist, “the way you were going on made me think this place would be a lot more interesting.”
Miles grinned. “It’s only interesting at night. You’ll see.”
I frowned and narrowed my eyes. “Your idea of ‘interesting’ better not be ‘Minnow getting chomped by nasty shadow critters’.”
He shook his head. “No. That would be sad.”
“Wow.” I pressed my hand to my chest. “I’m getting warm fuzzies.”
“I’m serious! Your death would make me very sad.”
“I’m serious, too. Warm fuzzies all around. And I return the sentiment.”
He beamed. It was very sweet.
“Here is your boat. You can kiss all you want onboard.” Keely shoved the rowboat into the shallows and folded her arms impatiently.
We stared at her. Then each other. “This is awkward,” Miles said.
I stood. “Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen. C’mon, we shouldn’t keep the water demon waiting.”
As the day progressed, the canyon walls grew farther and farther apart until I couldn’t see either side through the mist. The whole world became a black river and pale fog, with our boat at the center. Keely was nowhere to be seen- I wondered if she was even still around.
Stupid Keely. Was it just her, or were all faeries total jerks?
Lunchtime passed, and I discovered that-- again-- I was low on food. “We’ll have to stop for food tomorrow,” I announced. “You don’t want to see me hangry.”
Miles cackled. Our voices were too loud in the dead quiet; each time one of us spoke it was a shock. I continuously had to remind myself that nothing was tracking us besides an unpleasant faerie. At least, I hoped.
Miles had gone back to staring at the water. My eyes traced his profile from the tips of his lynx ears to the graceful poise of his spine. He’d let his hair down, so it flowed over his shoulders in a waterfall blacker than the Iss-Noor.
He raised his eyebrows. “You’re staring at me again.”
I was? I was. And-- crap-- he’d noticed. I tried to summon a reasonable defense. “Well, you’re straight ahead.” I flapped my hand feebly. “I’m not staring-- you just happen to be, you know-- in the direction I’m looking.”
Miles pivoted so his whole body faced me. “If you say so. Don’t drop your blackbird.”
“What? Oh-” I reestablished my hold on my lunch and took a bite. “We should probably figure out how we’re going to kill the dragon,” I said once I’d swallowed. One masterful subject change.
“Well…” Miles touched the hilt of his sword. “I figured I’d cut off its head or something. It’s asleep, right? It shouldn’t be that hard.”
“I wonder what will happen after?” I said. “Will the Shadow just disappear? Maybe you’ll get all your memories back.”
“Hopefully I won’t age five hundred years and turn to dust before your grieving eyes.”
I nearly lost my hold on the blackbird again. “Oh, my God. I didn’t think of that. You don’t think that will happen, do you?”
Miles raised his hands in a comforting gesture. “Minnow, I was only joking.”
“But that could happen, couldn’t it!” I was starting to mash my lunch. “The Shadow’s keeping you alive, but with it gone maybe all those years will catch up to you and-”
“Minnow.” Miles gripped my wrists and firmly extracted the blackbird, setting it back on the paper it had been wrapped in. “Calm down. I told you, it was only a joke.”
“Miles,” I whimpered. “I don’t want you to die.”
“I know.” He gently wrapped his fingers around mine. “And I don’t want to die. It’ll be a joint effort in keeping me alive. How’s that?”
He smiled. An open, kind smile. He’d always been like that, I realized: kind and sweet. Sure, he pretended to be a jerk sometimes, but really, he was no more a monster than I was. And his joke about his death--
I sucked in a breath and nodded. I won’t let you die, you stupid monster. You don’t get to die.
I won’t let anything hurt you.
When did I start feeling this way? When we found the boat, I thought. Or maybe even at the top of the West Fang. I could feel it now, like I’d swallowed a sun. It felt good; it felt like being alive.
I leaned forward until my forehead rested against Miles’ collarbone. His breath stuttered in surprise. I heard his heartbeat against my temple, tripping at a fast pace. Fast as mine. I won’t let you die, you stupid monster, because I love you.
Miles freed one of his hands from the cage of my fingers to touch the top of my head. I tipped my head so I could look into his black eyes.
“You’re staring at me again,” he noted.
“Sorry,” I said. “I can’t help it.”
Miles blinked, his expression a little surprised but mostly just… awake. His talons caught a strand of my blond hair. “I don’t mind.”
“I’ve got something to say,” I began. “I’m kind of crazy about you.”
He beamed. “That’s a relief. I thought I was the only one.”
A warm, bubbly feeling rose up from my stomach and glowed beneath my ribs. “No,” I sighed in mock exasperation. “Honestly, use your eyes from time to time.”
“Hey- just because I’m over five hundred years old doesn’t mean I understand how girls work-” He couldn’t finish, because I’d stopped his mouth with mine.
The world fluttered away; my thoughts with it. It was so quiet in my head, the only thing remaining was the fact that he was kissing me back, one hand curled through my messy braid. I pressed against his chest, unraveling a knot of tension I’d held in my throat since I’d entered the Vale. It felt like being home.
We pulled apart, his face hovering a breath from mine. The world crept back in. “Your hair’s totally mussed,” I pointed out, happier than I’d been in ages.
“Worth it,” he said.
I smiled. “That’s all I want in a guy- for him to put me before his gorgeous hair.”
“Wait-- did you just compliment my hair--”
An irritated sigh floated up from the water. “Oh, kill me now.”
I peered over the edge of the boat at our resident toadstool. “Gladly. By the way, you did say we could kiss all we wanted on the boat. And don’t listen to our conversations; it’s creepy.”
“Exactly. Kiss. Disgusting montages were not on that list-”
Miles cackled. “You two are wonderful.”
I stuck out my tongue while Keely slipped sulkily back into the murk like the pale cave fish she was. I turned back to Miles to find him staring at me. “What?” I demanded.
“Can I kiss you again?”
I probably blushed. “Go right ahead.”
“There goes the last of my nourishment,” I announced, tossing bird bones over the side and hoping they’d hit Keely.
“Will you be alright until tomorrow?” Miles asked.
I nodded. “Yep. There’s only so much a stationary girl can eat.”
Keely’s acidic voice broke the comfortable moment. “Oh, yes. We would not want you becoming fat, after all.”
I examined Miles’ sword. “After you slay the dragon, can you kill her, too?”
“Ummm… no. Sorry.”
“Darn.”
Keely’s white head surfaced beside us. “Nightfall. It will start soon.”
Miles grinned. I sat up. “What’ll start soon? This mysterious interesting thing I’ve heard nothing about?”
She shot me a cold glare. “Yes. And you should feel lucky. Hardly any humans get to see this place. It is a sacred faerie grove.”
I was too interested (yes, Miles was right-- interesting--) to lay the sass on her. Miles climbed over so he was sitting with me in the stern, his side pressed to mine. A warm, sunny feeling spread from wherever we touched.
“How much longer now?” I ventured.
He cocked his head from side to side. “Mmm… only a few minutes, at most.”
“What am I looking for?”
He smiled, fangs gleaming in a way that no longer scared me. Ugh, this boy was turning me into such a sap. “You’ll know it when you see it.”
I clutched my chest to pantomime a heart failure. “Ouch. The cliché. It hurts.” He smacked my arm.
A minute passed in silence, the near-black mist a wall around us. Except-- the mist was thinning. “The fog-” I wondered aloud.
“It clears at night. It’s starting.”
It began so slowly I didn’t notice it until I realized I could see Miles’ face clearly, lined with blue light. The light came from below our boat, down in the water. I flopped to the edge of the boat and stared.
Little pinpricks of blue light floated through the dark water. Behind our boat stretched a path of blue. Light curled from Keely’s swimming form. “Bioluminescence,” I said, shocked with delight.
“It gets better. Watch.”
I could see the canyon walls, despite their distance, for the mist had completely cleared. Between the Iss-Noor’s banks and the sheer cliffs stood a forest of willows. Their leaves began to light up with the same blue glow as the water. Little mushroom became lanterns of ghostly light. Even the ground shone.
My mouth was hanging open. Miles reached over and closed it for me. “I told you it was amazing.”
“Fine,” I admitted. “You were right.”
He grinned. “Watch this.” Stretching out a hand, he dipped his claws in the water. Ribbons of light spooled from his talons, carving a path through the dark river. I copied him, laughing like a kid when blue stars erupted from my fingers. I flicked water at him, and the glowing beads clung to his dark skin like a constellation. He sprayed me back.
“This place is incredible,” I said, wiping my hand dry on Miles’ shoulder.
“I wonder why it’s still here. It seems like the opposite of the Shadow.”
I shrugged. “Maybe the bioluminescence is flesh-eating.”
“Yeah… or maybe-- maybe the Shadow isn’t all bad.”
I turned to look at him. “Huh. Maybe. I mean, look at you. All shadowed up and still pretty chill.”
He smiled slightly. “Ha ha. I’m just worried that killing the dragon isn’t the right answer.”
I was silent for a moment. Sure, killing was never good, but if this reptile spawned the Shadow that would one day overtake my family, I was going to stop it. “We’ll figure it out when we get there.”
Miles frowned. “Okay.”
I looked forward, at the starry path stretching before us. It was beautiful and quiet, a kind of quiet that didn’t hide monsters-- it was simply silence. I felt calm. This was the Shadow, but it was safe. “Mmm,” I said. “Maybe you’re right.”
Another voice interjected. “Don’t stab at her like that!” A taloned hand rested on my shoulder. “She’s right though, Minnow. Wake up time.”
I mumbled sleepily and opened my eyes, peering up at the two monstrous faces above me. Miles grinned and Keely snorted delicately. She poked me once more in the shoulder, forcing me to sit up. “Get out of the boat.”
“The falls into the Fenglow are just ahead,” Miles explained. “We have to let the boat go over without us. You’d never survive the drop.”
I fumbled for my pack, noticing that we’d already pulled up on a needle-strewn bank. Dark pines loomed overhead, releasing a scent that hovered somewhere between evergreen and the night sky. “Not even if I had a big, strong arcane flying me down?”
“Nah. I’d drop you on the rocks and laugh my head off.”
Keely made an impatient sound from where she clung to the side of the boat. “Hurry up.”
“Okay!” I growled, folding up my hammock. “Gimme a break! I just woke up!” I climbed onto the bank. “There. Out of the boat. Happy?”
“No.” Grabbing the rope tied to the boat’s prow, Miss Sunshine slipped beneath the river’s dark surface and pulled the boat off into the gloom. Miles and I were left standing on the pebbly bank. He looked very nice this morning, even in the low night. He always looked nice, I realized. He was a nice-looking person. Monster. Boy.
“Um, Minnow?”
I blinked and realized I’d been staring. “Huh? Yes? What?”
He motioned downstream. “We should get going.”
“Oh-- yeah. Sorry.”
Miles turned and began floating downriver, feet a few centimeters above the stony bank. I hoisted my pack, wished life were easier, and followed.
“Holy cow pie,” I breathed. “This place is just insane.”
Miles cackled. A meter from the dusty leather of my boots the dark rocks fell away to a sheer drop-off. The cliff was so massive I couldn’t see the bottom amid the ever-present darkness and the mist from the falls. From far below the roar of water sounded like a snarling dragon.
The drop-off opened up before us into a wide, fog-filled chasm. The rend in the earth snaked through sharp mountains and ended near the black lake that shrouded the sleeping dragon. In the distance I could just barely see the Iss-Noor, liberated from the cleft, winding its way to the dark body of water.
“The canyon is the Fenglow,” Miles explained.
“It’s huge.”
“I did warn you.”
I inspected the cliff face, the smooth rocks slick with moisture from the falls. “You are flying me down, right?”
“Yes. Hold on.”
“Wait-”
The freefall was extremely uncomfortable. I wanted to scream, but my stomach had made an unfortunate migration and now blocked off my windpipe. We punched through the thickest of the clouds and I could see sharp rocks below us, reaching up as if they wanted my blood. But we were slowing. Miles gripped my waist tighter as our plummet became a gentle drift. He set my feet on a large, flat stone on the riverbank, then landed himself. He sat down heavily, panting a bit. I gave him a look to warn away any cracks about my weight, and he smiled devilishly.
While we waited for Keely to find us with our boat, I sat on the damp rocks and surveyed the Fenglow. I was not impressed. All around me rose sheer walls of blue-grey stone, curtained with mist. The sky was masked with low, pale clouds of spray. In front of me, the black river roared through the air then settled itself into the riverbed and continued on through the fog. Downstream the rock walls grew apart so the world became a pale grey blank. It was all very grey and desolate and boring.
“I dunno,” I said, my voice crushed by the waterfall’s roar and the never-ending mist, “the way you were going on made me think this place would be a lot more interesting.”
Miles grinned. “It’s only interesting at night. You’ll see.”
I frowned and narrowed my eyes. “Your idea of ‘interesting’ better not be ‘Minnow getting chomped by nasty shadow critters’.”
He shook his head. “No. That would be sad.”
“Wow.” I pressed my hand to my chest. “I’m getting warm fuzzies.”
“I’m serious! Your death would make me very sad.”
“I’m serious, too. Warm fuzzies all around. And I return the sentiment.”
He beamed. It was very sweet.
“Here is your boat. You can kiss all you want onboard.” Keely shoved the rowboat into the shallows and folded her arms impatiently.
We stared at her. Then each other. “This is awkward,” Miles said.
I stood. “Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen. C’mon, we shouldn’t keep the water demon waiting.”
As the day progressed, the canyon walls grew farther and farther apart until I couldn’t see either side through the mist. The whole world became a black river and pale fog, with our boat at the center. Keely was nowhere to be seen- I wondered if she was even still around.
Stupid Keely. Was it just her, or were all faeries total jerks?
Lunchtime passed, and I discovered that-- again-- I was low on food. “We’ll have to stop for food tomorrow,” I announced. “You don’t want to see me hangry.”
Miles cackled. Our voices were too loud in the dead quiet; each time one of us spoke it was a shock. I continuously had to remind myself that nothing was tracking us besides an unpleasant faerie. At least, I hoped.
Miles had gone back to staring at the water. My eyes traced his profile from the tips of his lynx ears to the graceful poise of his spine. He’d let his hair down, so it flowed over his shoulders in a waterfall blacker than the Iss-Noor.
He raised his eyebrows. “You’re staring at me again.”
I was? I was. And-- crap-- he’d noticed. I tried to summon a reasonable defense. “Well, you’re straight ahead.” I flapped my hand feebly. “I’m not staring-- you just happen to be, you know-- in the direction I’m looking.”
Miles pivoted so his whole body faced me. “If you say so. Don’t drop your blackbird.”
“What? Oh-” I reestablished my hold on my lunch and took a bite. “We should probably figure out how we’re going to kill the dragon,” I said once I’d swallowed. One masterful subject change.
“Well…” Miles touched the hilt of his sword. “I figured I’d cut off its head or something. It’s asleep, right? It shouldn’t be that hard.”
“I wonder what will happen after?” I said. “Will the Shadow just disappear? Maybe you’ll get all your memories back.”
“Hopefully I won’t age five hundred years and turn to dust before your grieving eyes.”
I nearly lost my hold on the blackbird again. “Oh, my God. I didn’t think of that. You don’t think that will happen, do you?”
Miles raised his hands in a comforting gesture. “Minnow, I was only joking.”
“But that could happen, couldn’t it!” I was starting to mash my lunch. “The Shadow’s keeping you alive, but with it gone maybe all those years will catch up to you and-”
“Minnow.” Miles gripped my wrists and firmly extracted the blackbird, setting it back on the paper it had been wrapped in. “Calm down. I told you, it was only a joke.”
“Miles,” I whimpered. “I don’t want you to die.”
“I know.” He gently wrapped his fingers around mine. “And I don’t want to die. It’ll be a joint effort in keeping me alive. How’s that?”
He smiled. An open, kind smile. He’d always been like that, I realized: kind and sweet. Sure, he pretended to be a jerk sometimes, but really, he was no more a monster than I was. And his joke about his death--
I sucked in a breath and nodded. I won’t let you die, you stupid monster. You don’t get to die.
I won’t let anything hurt you.
When did I start feeling this way? When we found the boat, I thought. Or maybe even at the top of the West Fang. I could feel it now, like I’d swallowed a sun. It felt good; it felt like being alive.
I leaned forward until my forehead rested against Miles’ collarbone. His breath stuttered in surprise. I heard his heartbeat against my temple, tripping at a fast pace. Fast as mine. I won’t let you die, you stupid monster, because I love you.
Miles freed one of his hands from the cage of my fingers to touch the top of my head. I tipped my head so I could look into his black eyes.
“You’re staring at me again,” he noted.
“Sorry,” I said. “I can’t help it.”
Miles blinked, his expression a little surprised but mostly just… awake. His talons caught a strand of my blond hair. “I don’t mind.”
“I’ve got something to say,” I began. “I’m kind of crazy about you.”
He beamed. “That’s a relief. I thought I was the only one.”
A warm, bubbly feeling rose up from my stomach and glowed beneath my ribs. “No,” I sighed in mock exasperation. “Honestly, use your eyes from time to time.”
“Hey- just because I’m over five hundred years old doesn’t mean I understand how girls work-” He couldn’t finish, because I’d stopped his mouth with mine.
The world fluttered away; my thoughts with it. It was so quiet in my head, the only thing remaining was the fact that he was kissing me back, one hand curled through my messy braid. I pressed against his chest, unraveling a knot of tension I’d held in my throat since I’d entered the Vale. It felt like being home.
We pulled apart, his face hovering a breath from mine. The world crept back in. “Your hair’s totally mussed,” I pointed out, happier than I’d been in ages.
“Worth it,” he said.
I smiled. “That’s all I want in a guy- for him to put me before his gorgeous hair.”
“Wait-- did you just compliment my hair--”
An irritated sigh floated up from the water. “Oh, kill me now.”
I peered over the edge of the boat at our resident toadstool. “Gladly. By the way, you did say we could kiss all we wanted on the boat. And don’t listen to our conversations; it’s creepy.”
“Exactly. Kiss. Disgusting montages were not on that list-”
Miles cackled. “You two are wonderful.”
I stuck out my tongue while Keely slipped sulkily back into the murk like the pale cave fish she was. I turned back to Miles to find him staring at me. “What?” I demanded.
“Can I kiss you again?”
I probably blushed. “Go right ahead.”
“There goes the last of my nourishment,” I announced, tossing bird bones over the side and hoping they’d hit Keely.
“Will you be alright until tomorrow?” Miles asked.
I nodded. “Yep. There’s only so much a stationary girl can eat.”
Keely’s acidic voice broke the comfortable moment. “Oh, yes. We would not want you becoming fat, after all.”
I examined Miles’ sword. “After you slay the dragon, can you kill her, too?”
“Ummm… no. Sorry.”
“Darn.”
Keely’s white head surfaced beside us. “Nightfall. It will start soon.”
Miles grinned. I sat up. “What’ll start soon? This mysterious interesting thing I’ve heard nothing about?”
She shot me a cold glare. “Yes. And you should feel lucky. Hardly any humans get to see this place. It is a sacred faerie grove.”
I was too interested (yes, Miles was right-- interesting--) to lay the sass on her. Miles climbed over so he was sitting with me in the stern, his side pressed to mine. A warm, sunny feeling spread from wherever we touched.
“How much longer now?” I ventured.
He cocked his head from side to side. “Mmm… only a few minutes, at most.”
“What am I looking for?”
He smiled, fangs gleaming in a way that no longer scared me. Ugh, this boy was turning me into such a sap. “You’ll know it when you see it.”
I clutched my chest to pantomime a heart failure. “Ouch. The cliché. It hurts.” He smacked my arm.
A minute passed in silence, the near-black mist a wall around us. Except-- the mist was thinning. “The fog-” I wondered aloud.
“It clears at night. It’s starting.”
It began so slowly I didn’t notice it until I realized I could see Miles’ face clearly, lined with blue light. The light came from below our boat, down in the water. I flopped to the edge of the boat and stared.
Little pinpricks of blue light floated through the dark water. Behind our boat stretched a path of blue. Light curled from Keely’s swimming form. “Bioluminescence,” I said, shocked with delight.
“It gets better. Watch.”
I could see the canyon walls, despite their distance, for the mist had completely cleared. Between the Iss-Noor’s banks and the sheer cliffs stood a forest of willows. Their leaves began to light up with the same blue glow as the water. Little mushroom became lanterns of ghostly light. Even the ground shone.
My mouth was hanging open. Miles reached over and closed it for me. “I told you it was amazing.”
“Fine,” I admitted. “You were right.”
He grinned. “Watch this.” Stretching out a hand, he dipped his claws in the water. Ribbons of light spooled from his talons, carving a path through the dark river. I copied him, laughing like a kid when blue stars erupted from my fingers. I flicked water at him, and the glowing beads clung to his dark skin like a constellation. He sprayed me back.
“This place is incredible,” I said, wiping my hand dry on Miles’ shoulder.
“I wonder why it’s still here. It seems like the opposite of the Shadow.”
I shrugged. “Maybe the bioluminescence is flesh-eating.”
“Yeah… or maybe-- maybe the Shadow isn’t all bad.”
I turned to look at him. “Huh. Maybe. I mean, look at you. All shadowed up and still pretty chill.”
He smiled slightly. “Ha ha. I’m just worried that killing the dragon isn’t the right answer.”
I was silent for a moment. Sure, killing was never good, but if this reptile spawned the Shadow that would one day overtake my family, I was going to stop it. “We’ll figure it out when we get there.”
Miles frowned. “Okay.”
I looked forward, at the starry path stretching before us. It was beautiful and quiet, a kind of quiet that didn’t hide monsters-- it was simply silence. I felt calm. This was the Shadow, but it was safe. “Mmm,” I said. “Maybe you’re right.”
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