“Listen, I don’t know how to tell you this, but Smith’s not the guy you think he is and—” The beeping started again.
“Jesus. Is that Walker calling every thirty seconds?”
“Uh, yeah, actually.”
“Wow. Stalker much?” Susan asked, but there was genuine worry in her voice.
“It’s not that . . . ” A thread of defensiveness stitched an edge into Keira’s voice. “We’re sorting some things out.”
“Oh. Well. Whenever you’re finished dealing with him, let me know. If you want to come over here, where he can’t get ahold of you, that’d be okay. I’m leaving in a while to meet Smith, but you can come with me. We can all hang out.”
Every cell in Keira’s body felt too heavy too move. “I guess I need to answer him.”
“Fine. Call me when you shake him off.”
Keira switched calls, punching the button ferociously. “Hello?”
“Keira, thank God. Listen, I’m sorry about how things went in the park. I feel terrible. I understand why you’re scared and pissed, and you have every right to feel that way. But there’s more you need to know and—”
“You have five minutes,” Keira snapped, willing herself not to melt under his apology. “Talk fast. And if I think you’re screwing with my head, I’m hanging up.” She paced in front of the window.
“So you know that you—we—aren’t completely human. And obviously, you’ve started to see Darkside. The one thing we have going for us is that it doesn’t seem like they’ve sent any Seekers after you. But that’s not going to last long. When they realize what I’ve done, they’ll—”
The glass windowpane next to Keira shimmered, and a black-gloved hand reached into the living room, grabbing the air less than an inch from her arm. She could hear the quiet slap as the fingers curled into a frustrated fist.
For the second time that day, Keira screamed. She leapt away from the window, and the hand blurred into nothingness. The water-spotted glass looked utterly normal. The evening outside was undisturbed and calm as a prestorm sea. But her heart rattled in her chest.
Walker begged her to tell him what happened.
“Someone tried to grab me. Someone reached through the window, right through the goddamn glass, and tried to grab me!” Keira edged out of the living room, her eyes scanning the yard for some sign of her attacker. “Oh, my God. I need to call the police. What if they come back?”
A door slammed on Walker’s end of the line. “Damn. They know. Listen to me, Keira. The police can’t do anything,” he growled. “And whoever tried to grab you is coming back. I will be there in five minutes. Five minutes.” She heard the purr of his car starting. “Keep moving. Don’t stand still. And whatever you do, you stay focused on the human world. Think about your dad. Your piano. I’ll be right there.” The line went dead.
Keira backed into the corner of the kitchen table and bit back a shriek of surprise. Her eyes darted over the room. There was no part of her that doubted what Walker had told her earlier. She still didn’t want to believe it, but ignoring this other world wasn’t going to make it go away.
It would just make it easier for them to come for her.
She edged her way around the table, crossing her arms. The light from the hanging lamp poured over her. Her forearms were bumpy with gooseflesh and marred by a series of black dots and dashes, like some kind of dark-matter Morse code.
The insides of her cheeks filled with the sour taste of bile and she squeezed her eyes shut against the marks. The second her kitchen was out of sight, terror blazed through her. With her eyes closed, she didn’t know where she was. If she wasn’t looking, she couldn’t see them coming for her.
Her eyes snapped open and she stared resolutely at the glowing numbers on the microwave clock. Four minutes until Walker would be there.
The silence of the house pressed in on her.
Three minutes.
Her skin quivered, feeling a breeze that shouldn’t have been blowing through the kitchen. Instinctively, she hurried over to the counter and grabbed a stray T-shirt her father had left on the counter, clutching it like a security blanket.
Two minutes.
How was she supposed to survive this? Walker had said “they” would come for her again. But who were “they”? What did they want with her? And how the hell was she supposed to hide from them if she couldn’t even see where they came from?
One minute.
Outside, she heard the squeal of tires and a thump as Walker took the high curb into their driveway too fast. He was early.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
WALKER THREW OPEN THE door before Keira made it across the foyer. He strode past her, staring around the living room. A guttural roar of frustration ripped through his throat, startling Keira.
“There’s no one in this part of Darkside but the Reformers’ guards and Record Keepers. None of them can cross over. I don’t get it!” He smacked the back of the couch before he spun to face Keira, who was too stunned to move.