Free Soul Kissed by Erin Kellison

voice.
    “Okay.” Time to do this. She should have come as soon as she’d recovered. Fact was, she’d been scared to do it alone.
    She called upon her umbra, and Shadow sprang readily from the concrete and saturated Cari’s senses with a rough wave of awareness that rushed her blood, mind, and vision. A week ago she’d had to pull and coax the stuff to do her bidding. But now . . . so very much breathless Shadow exploding from within her. A cold sweat broke out on her skin, but she could see the dark paths of what had to be herself and Mason trailing to and from the parking lot. She wasn’t interested in them, so she pulled harder, felt herself grow somehow bigger, grow vast as she fought time, forcing it to reveal the Shadow trails that had passed before.
    Her attempt to look back in time should’ve been laborious, but today turning back the clock was easy.
    You are the Dolan now, said a strong voice in her head. Her father’s?
    I am the Dolan, she repeated, understanding that this ease of power was part of her inheritance, and how she would keep her House strong in his absence. There were so many things that she would have to work for now that her father was gone—every day seemed more difficult—but it seemed that Shadow wasn’t one of them. She hoped that it would give her the edge to survive, to honor her House and his memory.
    Starting now . . .
    No mages had walked these paths since her father’s death, so the very first silhouette to form out of magic was his own. And next to him, what had to be hers. Yes, that was her, though it was difficult to recognize herself. She seemed like a stranger.
    And there were the guards as well, who’d been following them everywhere since the May Fair Massacre. The two imprints they made were full-bodied Shadow, filled with constellations of dark light.
    She remembered a few humans, the executives, who had joined them as they crossed the courtyard to enter the big ship, but no sign of their ephemeral passage remained.
    Cari could see no one else, no killer, in their group, no mage lurking nearby, but had to witness once again the moment her father staggered. She sobbed openly as it all played out again.
    Cari-from-before lunged forward to help him up.
    Her father swiped a command at the guards to get her away. She’d missed the gesture before—that her father’s last act was to protect her.
    The guards pulled her away as she fought them. Her arms had clawed the air for purchase. Back into a car, where she’d started to shiver herself. One guard sped her away, while the other returned to kneel by her father.
    The Cari of today filled with desperation. Who had killed him? Where was the assassin?
    She demanded more Shadow, more magic.
    And it came to her. Easily.
    The Earth was thrown into darkness; a black wind scoured the ground. The ship became a wrecked vessel, foundering on the plain, as ancient trees populated its passage.
    But no killer was revealed, no tell-tale sense of person, whom she could later identify.
    Too many days had passed. She should’ve come earlier, no matter how sick or afraid she’d been.
    A sudden prickling in her mind warned her that someone was near. Now. The assassin?
    Who’s there? She whipped around, but saw only the smoking Shadow of Mason’s tall, broad-shouldered form, waiting for her nearby.
    A breath on her neck. She whipped the other way. Someone was definitely here. And not as a thumbprint left behind at the scene of the crime. Someone was here now.
    Mason shouted Cari’s name from far, far away. He sounded urgent.
    So she released her pull on Shadow. Gladly, to get away from this feeling of being watched. Stalked.
    The humid gray of the present settled back upon Cari and her vision dulled. Magic washed away from the plain before her, the ship and its wake coming back into the ordinary.
    “What happened?” Mason demanded.
     
     
    A girl! Maeve’s joy sent birds leaping upward from the branches of old trees, bowed with magic,