Free Hyde and Seek by Viola Grace Page A

platforms. She was glad that she had chosen unisex clothing that day or the bra she had on would have been causing her problems.
    She followed the shadow without an owner and made her way to one of the express platforms. It seemed that Herial was about to take a trip out of town.
    The train arrived and she stepped onto it, following the shadow and settling next to him as the vehicle began to move. She saw agents coming down the stairs, but her train was out of the station and they were looking down the hall in the direction of the storage room.
    She sat back in Herial’s shape and whispered as casually as she could. “I wasn’t expecting to take a trip today.”
    “I wasn’t expecting any of this, but here we are. When we head through the tunnel, can you do a quick shift and move over to the front seat on the far right?”
    “I can.” She braced herself for the coming darkness and shifted into her cousin’s form. Nola lived again as she moved through the darkness to sit in the designated seat.
    She felt the press of a thigh next to her, and she looked up with surprise when the light returned and the shadow was the image of a handsome man in a casual assemblage of clothing suitable for a day on the train in Resicor.
    Surprised, Amly stared at him.
    He looked at her and cocked his head. “The features are similar to your normal ones.”
    “My cousin’s features. She has been dead for seven years.”
    “Accident?”
    Amly swallowed. “No. No, she meant to die so she did.”
    He paused. “I see.”
    She folded her hands together in her lap as they flicked from station to station, bypassing all the stops and continuing on into the countryside, emerging out of the underground and into the light.
    “We will need to appear to be a couple out for a romantic interlude. Can you manage that?”
    “I can try.”
    “There will be agents waiting for us to leave the train. They are expecting you to be alone and so you won’t be.”
    The final stop of the express was appearing in the distance, and she linked her arm with his, resting her head on his shoulder.
    He shifted toward her and kissed her, stroking her cheek lightly as the train pulled into the station.
    She pushed aside her astonishment at the surge of loneliness that struck when he leaned back. When the train stopped, they got up, kept their arms around each other and walked out onto the platform. Her mind replayed the kiss over and over, and aside from a sly smile from an agent, they let her go on her way with her companion.
    They headed down the steps and a vehicle was waiting for them. Without a word, they were tucked into the back seat and whisked toward the hills.
    Another silent stop and she was scooted out of the transport and led up into the trees, climbing upward and into the mountains. She resumed her normal appearance and hiked with her companion until she could not see the town they had stopped in.
    She walked with complete faith that he wasn’t taking her to be experimented on, that there was hope in the direction he was leading her.
    When he ducked into a cavern and she followed, she found that her faith was being rewarded. The sleek silver ship gleamed in the darkness and he led her inside the ship.
    “We have to stay in until the meteor shower, but you are off the grid now. We have psychic scrubbers working on your trail.”
    She smiled. “The driver.”
    “You are good.”
    “I have spent a lot of time playing spot the psychic.” Amly smiled and looked around the interior of the ship.
    Her companion set some illumination around the interior of the shuttle and sat down. “We need to keep a low profile for the day. Do you have any questions?”
    She sat on a fold-down bench and kicked her feet. “One. What is your name?”
    He sat back and started to laugh. It rang in the ship and the green glow of the lamps shifted as his shadows flared around him. “Call me Shadow. I have another name, but I do not want it spoken on this world.”
    Amly