Shadow Kissed 03 - Shadowman

that.
    â€œLet me see your hands!” the soldier shouted at her. More soldiers in strange armor approached the vehicle from the front, angling in groups of two on either side. That was about ninety seconds, all right.
    For Pete’s sake, this was a bother.
    Her bad hand twitched. All right, all right. She’d just have to do this the hard way.
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    It was late afternoon by the time Layla led Talia around the outside of the west wing of Segue’s hulk. Once Talia had put a baby in Layla’s arms, she hadn’t wanted to give him up again. Both children, Michael and Cole, were little lumps of wonderfulness, so soft, so perfect. The fit in her arms, the sweet smell of their skin—it was its own kind of magic, and she’d been utterly caught in the spell.
    She’d spent so much time with the babies that Layla had had little more than a peek at the pile of research Talia had amassed on her behalf. At the top of the stack was a tablet labeled Jacob Andrew Thorne, wraith . And here Layla had thought Adam’s brother had died in a tragic boating accident. Interesting reading, she was sure. She’d have snatched it up if not for the little tickle of panic about the shadow on the Segue building.
    Talia. The babies. The shadow had to come first, before something else happened.
    The photo op took them outside of Segue, down the grand front steps, and to the left, along the foundation. Kev and company followed close behind as protection. Adam frowned down at them from the veranda, one baby strapped in some kind of carryall on his chest, the other in a stroller, which he rocked back and forth. Mr. Thorne Industries in the role of dad. She almost snapped a picture of him like that, for Talia.
    Layla’s neck goose-bumped with the memory of the flying wraith, but she pressed on, leader of the pack. As soon as she rounded the corner of the building’s base, the storm of darkness crowded her sight. She reeled back a few steps, cringing, while the rest of the group looked at her . . . yes, as if she were crazy.
    â€œYou don’t see it.” Obviously. Or they wouldn’t be standing so close to the shadow.
    Talia looked up, squinted, flicked her gaze around. “Where exactly am I supposed to look?”
    Hello? It was everywhere. Layla took a deep breath. “Do you see any shadows?”
    â€œLittle ones. Under the windows?” Talia’s breath came in a puff of cold air.
    â€œNo. A big, black blotch covering half the building. God, I can even feel it.”
    Talia gave her a sorry expression. Polite, but not believing.
    â€œIt’s there,” Layla said and raised the camera. It was a Nikon D40. Nice, but not as good as hers. “That shadow has been bugging me since I snuck into your woods.”
    â€œLayla, I know Shadow,” Talia said. “If there were anything unusual here, I’d see it.”
    Uh-huh. Layla would have to explain. “When I was a teenager I got into a kind of live-in prep school for disadvantaged youth. Northfield.” She found the manual mode on the Nikon and set the exposure for maximum contrast. “Took a photography class. The teacher explained about perspective. How every person has a different one. How we all see things a little differently.”
    â€œDoesn’t make sense,” Kev said. “A camera will catch whatever it’s pointed at.”
    Typical response.
    â€œPerspective is not about what’s in front of the camera. Perspective is about the eye looking through it.”
    At sixteen, that brief explanation had been a major “aha!” moment in Layla’s life. Maybe the creepy stuff she saw was just her perspective. Maybe she just had to learn to see things another way, and the frightening visions would stop. To a certain extent, it had worked until now.
    Kev frowned. Talia looked uncomfortable.
    â€œIt’s easy: I am simply going to take a picture of what I see, and I see Segue half lost in shadows. What do you want to bet I can catch it on film?”
    Layla lay down on the grass, which crunched beneath her, the cold leaching through her sweatshirt to cool her back.
    Talia crouched beside her, while Kev stepped back to talk into his earpiece.
    The framing required some light to contrast with the shadow, as well as the clear sky overhead. If she was very good, she might be able to capture a sense of castle, too. Because to her, that’s what Segue looked like. She