Free Chaos Rises: A Veil World Urban Fantasy by Pippa DaCosta Page B

strode toward the abandoned high school grounds, expecting me to follow.
    “How—” As soon as I opened my mouth to ask how he could possibly know, I already had my answer. He was too clever to ask the Institute directly, but clearly, he’d teased indirect answers out of them.
    “Rumors are, you and your brother were taken by a Prince of Hell. Stolen from the Institute’s most secure facility in Massachusetts, never to be seen again. Presumed dead.” He tossed a smile over his shoulder.
    I trailed along behind, not wanting to think about the nightmare that had been real all along. Peeking inside the bag, I spotted a handful of jet injectors. Doctor Taylor was Allard’s source for PC34A. That was information worth holding on to.
    “Do you know which prince freed you?” Allard continued, his tone mildly enquiring, but the politeness gave him away. He was treading carefully, choosing his words with thought.
    “Who says me and Del didn’t escape and make our way here alone?”
    A few more strides passed beneath us. A breeze filtered through the palms, dislodging dust and sending it raining down as a fine mist.
    “You remember how I found you?”
    On my knees, rifling through trash like a lesser demon. It didn’t need to be said. I could hardly forget.
    I was expecting Allard to turn and flash me his smile again, but he walked on, weaving around a sapling that had taken root between paving slabs and cracked them apart. “You’re many things, Gem. But you lack real-world experience. You didn’t escape without help.”
    I clung to the grocery bag and fixed my gaze on Allard’s straight shoulders. Empty buildings loomed on either side. Something skittered across Allard’s path—a stray cat maybe, or a lesser. This close to the Promenade nw-zone, it could be either.
    I tried to think of anything but the prince, but the images dragged me down. I’d never seen anything like him before or since. Few people had. Skin like black marble veined with fire. He was my first lesson in how the Institute was unprepared to deal with beings of such immense power. Then everyone learned what real nightmares looked like when the veil fell, and they came.
    “Gem…” Allard growled, snapping me back into the moment.
    We’d stopped on the sidewalk outside the high school. The noise from the crowd inside lapped at an otherwise quiet night. The loitering groups had thinned, leaving a few stragglers discussing the fights.
    “What?” I snapped.
    “The prince?”
    “I don’t know anything.” That was true enough, but Allard was looking at me like he might at any moment decide to grab me by the neck, slam me down on the pavement, and bury me under tons of earth. Not knowing wasn’t an option. I shrugged. “I don’t remember. Something happened after he broke us out. There was a fight. Another demon grabbed us, and the next thing I knew, we were in the netherworld. I never saw the prince again.”
    I turned my face toward LA’s blanket of city lights. At least the netherworld was locked away behind the veil. That place, that world, made the leftover nw-zones here look like petting zoos. And the demons there, they were the true monsters.
    “Which other demon grabbed you?”
    I swung my attention back to Allard to find him frowning. “Does it matter?”
    “What did he look like?”
    “I don’t know. He was…” He was beautiful with dusty wings. One touch of that dust, and I’d almost lost my mind in my need to ruck with him. It was madness, that need. The human parts of my mind would have done anything to touch him, for him to touch me. I could still hear myself begging. After that, just flashes of pain, the taste of blood, and one word. More .
    I hugged my arms around me and sighed through my nose. “I don’t remember much of the netherworld. It was madness. I was demon, and I wasn’t in control of anything. Stuff just happened to me. The demon, he… I… I only saw him a few times. Then I was back here. Okay? I