Saul started after Olivia, hands shaking. He hated to admit her anger made sense. But it did.

  “Irene,” he said. “Look after Morrie.”

  Olivia put on her coat before Saul could catch up with her. He reached the front door just as it’s cracked wood slammed closed.

  “Nat,” he said.

  “Yes, master?” said the little art-child on his shoulder.

  “Get me my spare coat. And another oven rod. We’re going out.”

  Nat hopped away and returned with a coat still on its hangar from upstairs. Saul dressed hurriedly for the cold. By the time had the coat on, Nat arrived with the oven rod he had asked for. Irene and Morrie approached, Bantos at their backs.

  “I am not here to babysit an earth-born student, Saul Burton.”

  Morrie glared at Irene. “It’s the least you can do. That’s what I think.”

  Bantos withdrew the passage blade into his palm. Saul nodded to him. The huge art-child wrapped his arms around Irene and Morrie from behind. His frame was large enough, he restrained them both easily.

  “Stay here,” said Saul. He looked down at Nat on his shoulder. “Find me some shadows where no one is looking. We’re going after her.”

  Irene struggled against Bantos’ arm wrapped around her midsection. “Saul, you are infuriating!”

  Morrie grimaced and fought the cyclops’ arm. “I agree with her, you bastard.”

  Saul nodded again to Bantos. “I’ll be back soon. With Olivia. Nat, have you found a place?”

  “Yes, Saul.”

  “Take me there.”

  They hopped to a place just behind a hardware store. The parking spaces behind it adjoined the lot behind Basin House Coffee.

  “Good work,” Saul said. “You think she’s coming here?”

  “I think it is a good guess she’ll pass by. She lives near here. The side opposite the mansion.”

  “Right,” said Saul.

  Nat wriggled under the collar of his coat.

  “Who are you talking to?” asked the woman at the back door of the coffee shop.

  Saul turned. As he did, he reached for the oven rod in his coat pocket, but then found Kari, the barista who worked with Olivia, standing there.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “I’m fine. Have you seen Olivia?”

  “She called in sick today.”

  “I know,” Saul said. “I mean, she told me. But I lost track of her.”

  “Huh. Can’t you just call her?”

  “I don’t own a phone.”

  “You must be the only person in the country without a cell.” She produced a pink smartphone from one pocket of her apron. “Want me to call her for you?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  Kari tapped the screen a few times, then held the phone out to Saul. “I need to get back to work. Just bring that in when you’re done.”

  He heard the phone ringing. “Thanks.”

  “No problem. Talk to Olives, not me. And definitely, don’t talk to yourself.”

  “Right.” He nodded to her. “I’ll be quick.”

  She smiled. “Take as long as you have to. I won’t need it for a while.” She slipped back through the door to the coffee shop.

  Saul raised the phone to his ear. Olivia picked up.

  “Hey, Kari.” She sounded breathless, perhaps from her anger.

  “It’s Saul,” he said. “Olivia, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I didn’t realize—”

  “You didn’t realize keeping secrets for your people, then trying to order me around would make me angry? You can’t play that dumb, Saul.”

  “I know. I know I was wrong. Please, Olivia, it’s not safe to be out here on your own.”

  “I could say the same to you.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “I have Nat with me.”

  “So that’s how you got ahead of me,” she said.

  “Yeah. Look, where are you? We should meet up. Go back to my place.”

  “Look, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Saul, but give me some time. I can’t process the reality of human existence like a computer.”

  “It may not be true. If it is, it hardly matters now.”

  “It matters to me, Saul.” She hung up.

  Saul lowered the phone and looked at its dull screen, covered by a sheen of partially-melted frost. The backlight on the phone went out. His hand trembled and he almost dropped the device. “Damn it. She didn’t even tell me where she was, Nat.”

  “I can reach out to Hush. Ask him to look for her.”

  “Do it,” said Saul. “We have to get to her before Simon or his children find out we’re separated.” He took a few deep breaths to calm down. Then, he walked to the door of the coffee shop and went inside. He walked to the counter, hoping he would see Kari there so he could return the phone quickly.

  The heavyset manager looked at him as he held up the phone.

  “Hey,” he said. “Can you give this back to Kari?”

  “I wish. She just told me she needed to leave,” said the woman.

  Saul’s eyebrows knit together. Why would she leave so soon, unless… Simon.

  Who was behind Vulture’s mask? A slim woman. Could Kari be the one?

  “Which way did she go?”

  * * *

  Saul emerged from the coffee shop into the brightness of the street. He spread his free hand to cast a shadow on his chest. Not a very big shadow, but big enough.

  “Damn it, get me the glasses,” he said to Nat. “I’ll use the pigeons to find her.”

  “Good idea,” said the art-child. Nat hopped away.

  Saul looked at the cell phone in his other hand. It might as well be a rock at this point, given how the advances in Earth technology had changed since Saul had last owned one of the devices. He shoved it into one pocket. Nat hopped back to him an instant later, carrying a pair of glasses.

  He put them on and activated them with his spark. He looked through the eyes of the art-child pigeons that patrolled the town for him. His network was not complete.

  A few of the birds had been forced to flee their routes because of airborne enemies. Gern? Or flying art-children under Abigail and Simon’s command? He could not tell at the moment. He would have to review their captures in person. No time for that now.

  He used the eyes of the remaining pigeons to search for Olivia. He did not spot her on the street. But he found Kari a few streets away from him, moving toward Olivia’s apartment building. Saul grimaced.

  “Sometimes, I hate being right.”

  “It is truly your burden.”

  “Nat, what would I do without your wit?”

  “I doubt you would be bored.”

  “Not today, anyway.”

  Saul walked the few paces to the corner by the front of the coffee shop. He used his peripheral vision to navigate as best he could. Luckily there weren’t many people around to avoid. The pigeon he was looking through descended. Kari stopped by Olivia’s building, five blocks ahead of Saul by now. She still looked like herself. No sign of Simon’s art-child-possession yet, except in her actions.

  Kari turned and walked toward the doors.

  He pulled off the glasses and looked for a spot of shadow amid the bright daylight. “Nat, we need to hop.”

  “How far, Saul?

  “Five blocks to or so.” He pointed down the street. “That way.”

  “Of course. That would be in the vicinity of Olivia’s residence.”

  “Right.”

  Saul spied the shadows at the back of the building.

  “There we are.”

  He ran to the darkened spot cast by the wall of the coffee shop. “Nat, take me to the apartments five blocks from here.”

  They hopped through the shadows. Saul’s feet returned to the material world, shoes pressed to the hardwood floor of an entryway, just beside the mats left on the floor for cleaning shoes. He put on his glasses and stuck his hand out the door and waved. The pigeon that had been watching Kari saw him, confirming this was the right building.

  Saul removed the glasses and then stuffed them into his coat pocket. He retrieved both his oven rods. One weapon in each hand, he turned and walked for the stairs going up. His sense of nearby taphs did not allow him to locate earth-born, or Simon’s children, but he had a way of tracking motion.

  “Nat, feel for moving shadows, any big enough to be people.”

  Nat pressed his tiny form to Saul’s neck. “I’ll look for Olivia.”

  “Kari too. She could be under Simon’s control. If she’s not, she is in danger too.”

  “Do you know what floor she lives on?” Nat asked.

  “No.” Saul started up the stairs to the second floor.

  “I will try to search them all, then. From the bottom up,” said Nat.

  Saul’s shoes pounded up the stairs. Holding two oven rods left him no way to grip the handrail, but he did not slip on slick soles, thanks to hopping rather than walking here. He reached the second floor.

  “All empty here,” said Nat. “Two more floors to go.”

  Saul continued to climb. When he reached the second story, Nat said, “There are two shadows here. Both human, I think.”

  “Where are they?” asked Saul.

  “One is in a room, the other, in the hallway.”

  Saul looked at the door leading to the hall. He clenched his jaw and turned the knob with his fingertips. He would not put down an oven rod and risk being unprepared on the other side. He stepped into the hall with fast step. A woman walked ahead of him, moving between the doors that sat on either side of the passage. No mistake. It was Kari.

  He shoved his hands into his pockets and hoped the oven rods would not be visible.

  “Hey,” he said. “You forgot your phone.”

  She turned toward him, a questioning expression on her face. “Saul? Where am I?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Olivia’s building. You were worried about her too?”

  “I… I was working. I have to get back. I don’t know what happened.” She frowned. “I can’t remember.”

  “Listen to me, something very strange is going on here,” he said.

  “What do you mean? Does this have something to do with Olivia?”

  “Yeah, it does. But I think it involves all of us now.”

  Kari put her face in her hands. “I don’t know. I mean, I keep forgetting things—Where I’ve been—Why I went there.”

  “I can help you.” He took a step toward her, not knowing if his words were true.

  The lights above them flickered. Saul glanced up at them. Kari removed her hands from her face. Only, Vulture’s mask was beneath them. The art-child’s sword appeared in her hand. The gray cloak unfurled down her back. Saul backpedaled down the hall. Vulture glared at him with Kari’s eyes.

  “Perceptive. What a mess you’ve made.”

  “More like, you walked into trouble.” Olivia stepped into the hallway from behind Vulture. She held her cattle prod in one hand, and a taser in the other. “That makes three we know, now.” She looked past Vulture toward him. “You can apologize to me for not telling the whole truth later, Saul.”

  Vulture snarled. She charged toward Saul. And the windows on either end of the hallway shattered with a crash of glass. Eagle appeared behind Olivia. Saul could hear Crow’s heavy blade carve into the floor behind him.

  “Shit,” he said. “You planned pretty well.”

  Simon stood in the door Saul had entered through. He held a winged sword in one hand and a razor in the other.

  Saul backed way from him, toward the wall, trying to keep both Crow and Vulture in his sights at once. “Compliments to the maker.”

  “Appreciated, exile. Simon nodded to Saul. “It is my honor to carry out your sentence right here.”

  Saul raised his arms, an oven rod in each hand. “Come and get me.”