Goose bumps crawled up my arms. Annwyl wasn’t kidding. Even though I wasn’t sensitive to magic, I could still feel the wrongness of this place. It slithered from the walls, closing in on either side. It seeped from the door in front of me, leaving an oily taint on my skin, making me feel dirty. I gripped my sword with one hand and the knob with the other.
“Stay close,” I whispered to the girls behind me and turned the handle.
The door creaked inward. Beyond the frame, darkness hovered like a ragged curtain, broken only by tiny yellow orbs that looked vaguely familiar. As I stepped cautiously into the room, I saw why.
Forgotten. The lights were the eyes of those strange, shadowy Forgotten that had appeared in City Park this morning. The ones who had killed the Oracle. I could barely make them out in the choking darkness, but there were dozens of twin glowing eyes, perched on shelves, crouched in the corners of the room. And all were suddenly fixed on us.
Behind us, the door slammed shut with a bang.
I raised my sword and put myself between the girls and the Forgotten, hoping the strange, shadowy fey wouldn’t swarm us like ants. But the Forgotten didn’t move, though I saw their glowing eyes shift focus to Annwyl, standing between me and Kenzie. I remembered what the Forgotten had done to her before; drained nearly all her glamour when she was held prisoner by their queen, and I tensed to slice them down if they tried anything like that again. But they stayed where they were, and I took a quick glance around the room.
My eyes weren’t adjusting to the clinging darkness like they should be. Even though I saw torches flickering at the corners and in brackets on posts around the room, everything remained choked in shadow, hidden and unseen. I could make out vague impressions of sofas, shelves, a desk in the corner, but the darkness seemed almost a living thing, smothering something as soon as I focused on it, hiding it from view.
“What is this place?” Kenzie whispered beside me.
Somewhere in the blackness, a door creaked open, and footsteps thumped over the ground toward us. Two redcaps, their fangs glimmering in the gloom, stalked around a corner and stopped short when they saw us.
“What the—” Beady yellow eyes peered at me, mean and challenging. “Humans? How the hell did you tidbits find this place? Ain’t nothing here for you.”
Before I could answer, the other one tapped him on the shoulder and pointed a stubby finger at Annwyl. “There’s your answer. That one’s a Fader—I’d bet my hat on it.” To me, he said, “If you’re here to see Mr. Dust, he’s busy with a customer. We’ll tell him you’re here, so stay put till then. The rest of you blighters—” he glared around at the group of silent Forgotten and bared his fangs “—stop thinking you can sneak around back and we won’t notice. You’re real enough that the arms pop right out of the sockets if we pull, so remember that. You’ll get your fix when Mr. Dust gives it to you, not before.”
The Forgotten shifted restlessly but didn’t answer. The redcap snorted and turned away, while his friend paused to eye me hungrily, running a black tongue over his teeth. I met his gaze, narrowing my eyes, daring him to try. He sneered, spat on the floor and followed the other redcap into the darkness.
“Come on,” Kenzie whispered and stepped around me, pulling Annwyl in the direction the redcaps had vanished. “There has to be a door back here somewhere.”
“Wait!” I hissed, but they weren’t listening.
Gripping my swords, I followed the faint glow of Annwyl’s hair, past the staring eyes of the Forgotten, until we came to a small black door in the corner. Kenzie carefully turned the knob and cracked it open to peer through.
“What do you see?” Annwyl asked, hovering behind her, while I glared back at the room, looking for any Forgotten coming after us. “Is Keirran in there?”
“I don’t see anything,” Kenzie replied and eased the door open. “Come on, before someone finds us.”
They slipped through the frame, and I had no choice but to follow.
This room was better lit, but I almost wished that it wasn’t. Directly in front of us was an enormous shelf full of things you’d find in a horror film. Knives and wooden baseball bats, hockey masks, clown wigs, eerie dolls, skulls and bones. A scythe leaned against the side of the shelf, huge blade glimmering in the torchlight, and a shriveled, shrunken head dangled by its hair, spinning lazily to face us. Huge, hairy spiders crawled freely over the macabre bric-a-brac, and a large snake lay coiled around a skull on the middle shelf, watching us with beady eyes.
Kenzie pressed a hand to her mouth and shrank back, trembling, but I caught the murmur of voices from the front of the room. Carefully, I eased up to the shelf, trying to ignore the awful contents, and peeked through.
A desk sat against the far wall, a pair of redcaps standing on either side. Seated in the chair was a tall, spindly man with pale skin and dark hair that writhed atop his head like shadows. His ears were pointed, his eyes completely black, and he steepled his fingers under his sharp chin, appraising the cloaked, hooded figure standing across from him.
“I apologize for the delay,” the man said, his voice a slithering whisper that reminded me of snakes and insects and other unpleasant things. “Business has been quite busy of late. I normally do not get such esteemed visitors to my humble shop. My clients are usually exiles or, more recently, the scores of fey you saw outside. I cannot imagine you would need what I offer.”
“It’s not for me,” said a quiet, instantly familiar voice, and my heart leaped to my throat. Annwyl stifled a gasp, and I put a warning hand on her arm. I almost lunged forward to grab the hooded figure myself, but something made me pause. Something about him was different. Even though it was the same calm, polite tone I recognized from before, his voice was cold, and the two redcaps near the desk were eyeing him in fear.