Free Shadowed (Fated) by Sarah Alderson Page A

distance Evie could feel Margaret, that
familiar buzzing sensation hitting her right in the solar plexus. The three of
them hesitated for a moment in front of the door before Ash knocked
tentatively.
    ‘Mrs Locke?’ he called out. ‘It’s me, Ash. We’ve
come to talk to you. Can we come in?’ he asked.
    They heard footsteps dragging towards the door, a
shuffling sound as the key was turned in the lock. Finally the door fell open
and Evie did an immediate double take.
    The woman standing in the doorway was a spectre, as
hollow-eyed as a skeleton, unrecognisable from the woman she’d been just two
months before. Margaret’s clothes hung off jutting bones and her short,
honey-coloured hair was greasy and uncombed. She stared glassy-eyed at Ash
before her gaze roved over Evie. She blinked then and Evie saw a trace of the
old Margaret in the flare of anger that gripped her face in the second before
her fingers curled around the door and she slammed it in their faces.
    Ash slid his foot into the crack just in time.
    ‘Mrs Locke,’ he said, wedging his shoulder against
the door and speaking through the gap, ‘we just came to ask you one thing and
then we’ll go. I promise. We’re not here to cause you any more grief.’
    Margaret didn’t move her weight from the door.
    ‘Please?’ Ash tried again,. ‘It will only take a
moment.’
    There was a pause and then the door flew suddenly
open, sending Ash stumbling into the room. Vero and Evie stepped gingerly over
the threshold.
    Margaret had crossed to the window and was standing
there with her back to them. Her shoulders were stiff, her head held high. Evie
scanned the room quickly. Piles of books were spread across the desk and
stacked up on the surrounding floor area. She couldn’t read the titles from
where she was standing but they looked old and dusty, not exactly the latest Stephen
Kings and Jodi Picoults. The sight of all those books reminded Evie that
Margaret had once upon a time been researching the Hunter family tree. Evie
wondered what she was now studying and why she was even bothering.
    ‘What is it?’ Margaret asked in a hoarse voice as
if she’d spent the last two months crying. ‘What do you want?’
    ‘We think maybe you have something we could use,’
Vero said.
    Evie watched Margaret’s shoulders tense as Vero
pressed on. ‘A shadow blade?’
    Margaret whipped around, her eyes now bright and
alert. ‘Why do you want a shadow blade?’ she demanded.
    ‘Because we’re finishing what Cyrus started,’ Ash
answered calmly. ‘We’re going after the unhumans left in this realm. The ones
that came through before the gateway closed. There are more Originals than the
one we killed in the Bradbury and we can’t fight them with normal weapons. We
need shadow blades.’
    Margaret’s expression darkened. ‘Why are you still
fighting them?’ she asked.
    Ash shrugged. ‘Someone’s got to.’
    ‘And if we don’t, then won’t Cyrus have died for
nothing?’ Vero added. ‘He died to end this thing. The least we can do is make
sure it really has ended.’
    At the mention of Cyrus’s name, Margaret collapsed
backwards against the desk, grief taking over, her shoulders slumping in
defeat. Evie fought the instinct to reach forward and place her hand on the
woman’s shoulder and … and she didn’t know what exactly. She just knew that she
felt something of this woman’s pain and wanted her to know that she understood
it.
    She kept her hands glued to her sides though,
knowing that the last thing Margaret would want was her sympathy.
    ‘I know you wish it had been me,’ Evie said
quietly.
    Margaret’s head instantly flew up.
    ‘I wish it had been me too,’ Evie continued,
faltering over the words. ‘And I want you to know that I’m going to kill Victor
once this is over. I promise you that.’
    Margaret frowned at her for a moment before the
tension evaporated from her body. She hung her head. ‘I’m sorry I handed you
over to Victor,’