Shadow Kissed 03 - Shadowman

goodness. Khan.
    But the voice that spoke was female and shattering. “Lady Amunsdale!”
    â€œShe’s mine!” the child screamed back.
    â€œShe’s mine,” Talia answered from the void. There was no mistaking the authority with which she spoke. That voice was power, awesome in its cadence.
    Darkness pounded down the corridor. It rushed over Layla, cold and slick, and finally she could see Talia. Her pale hair whipped in the dark wind of her Shadow, her skin glowing with a weird light, eyes full-black.
    Fae, Layla identified, and stopped breathing.
    Shadow grumbled over the walls, wrecking them and battering Therese in its wake. Layla felt a pang for a child harmed, though she was a mean little brat. Therese was tossed, and when she reemerged, she wasn’t a child at all, but a rag of a woman, bitterness lining her expression.
    â€œI need her!” Therese the woman called.
    Her reach was perversely long. She grabbed at Layla’s shirt with bone hands. On instinct, Layla whirled around to tear off the ghost, but gripped only air, though the ghost’s touch clawed at her still.
    Layla felt as if her soul was slipping from the moorings of her body. Felt a sudden distinction between flesh and spirit, and she knew she was grasping after the wrong thing. Her soul lifted like a balloon, and she let go of Therese and grabbed hold of herself instead. Two spirits, one body, its heartbeat stalling.
    â€œLeave her be, Lady Amunsdale.” Talia’s voice had lowered, but its power still sent currents through the warping dark. “Now!”
    And Layla slammed back into her body again.
    â€œDead man, dead man . . .” Therese chanted again, but she lost her scraping grasp on Layla’s shoulder.
    Layla looked back just in time to see Shadow harry the ghost off on the tide of its storm. The ghost reached toward her, straining in desperate misery, but was swallowed by the abyss at the end of the hallway. In a static suck of sound, the hallway was returned to its modern appearance, Layla at one end, Talia at the other, now looking more human, if very disconcerted.
    Forget Khan. What the hell was Talia? Her, uh, daughter? More like Khan’s.
    â€œLady Amunsdale is a pest,” Talia said, breathing heavily. “Don’t let her get to you.”
    Layla stammered for something to say. “She pulled me back in time. She wanted me. Why?”
    And what the hell had Talia just done? An ocean of Shadow? That bone-shattering voice? Those fae were some serious mothers.
    â€œI don’t know. Might be a complication of your reincarnation. We’ll have to ask Custo, or maybe my father. I’m more concerned about how .” Talia inclined her head toward the elevator. “Let’s get out of here, have lunch. Puzzle it out together.”
    Layla’s drying perspiration sent a chill down her back, but she boarded the elevator. Talia had to know about the mother-daughter thing. The word reincarnation hung in the air between them, but Layla had no idea what to say, so she decided to remain quiet.
    â€œI freaked you out, didn’t I?” Talia bit at her bottom lip but kept her gaze on the doors.
    â€œNo, no,” Layla lied. “We’re good. I’m surprised, but good.”
    â€œCome on now. I freak everyone out.”
    â€œWell, everyone doesn’t know Khan. And he spoke to me from a painting today.”
    Talia laughed, but it seemed forced. “I told him to go easy on you, and here I . . .”
    â€œDon’t worry.”
    â€œBut . . .”
    â€œReally. I’ve seen crazy stuff all my life and no one ever believed me.”
    The tension didn’t leave Talia’s eyes. “Lunch, then, and you can tell me about it.”
    â€œSure.” Chances were, Talia would believe every crazy thing Layla had seen.
    â€œOh, and for the immediate future,” Talia said, “it’s probably best for you to stick to the east side of Segue.”
    Layla choked a laugh. “Ya think?”
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    Khan laid a peace offering at the foot of Layla’s bed: her bag from her apartment, so she could be more comfortable, and a pile of fragrant red roses, forced into extravagant bloom. Mortal women were supposed to like those, and he was under his daughter’s instruction to court when he wanted very much to take.
    For the moment, he left Layla to Talia, who knew better how to settle her into this new life, and