Seeker (Shadows)

Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author except where permitted by law.

Published by

Next Door Books

Copyright January 2013

Cover photo by
PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek.

Cover art by B Designs.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the authors.

PROLOGUE

Micah

My sides hurt from laughing. The last storm passed, and despite it being hurricane season, the weather today is about perfect. The sails are full, and we’re moving along at what my boyfrie
nd, Landon, says is a good clip. If sailing weren’t still so new, I’m sure I’d complain about the snail’s pace we’re making compared to what a speedboat would do.

“Okay. Try again.” Landon holds out his hand, his smile still huge and one of our new traveling companions, Dean, takes it.

Landon frowns as he concentrates and then he jerks away laughing. “Well, that’s just
mean
!” he protests.

Dean falls to sitting on the mesh net on the front of the boat—like a trampoline between the two pontoons that house our bedrooms below.
He runs a hand through his shaggy dark hair as he relaxes back and leans onto his hands.

“Couldn’t help it.” Dean smirks. “It’s not like either one of us have been able to make you guys do anything. Though, getting you to jump off your own boat was probably a long shot.”

Addison and Dean’s talent of manipulating people doesn’t seem to work on Landon or I. It’s that I can feel the thought creeping in. I can even feel my body wanting to obey, but I don’t have to. I’m not sure it would be the same if I didn’t know it was coming—but so far, I have. And as much as I looked forward to boating with just Landon, I’ve never had a group of friends, so they’ve been a lot more than distraction—for me at least. I need distraction right now. Distraction from the unknown and the known. Being stalked by both The Middle Men, which we know almost nothing about, and the people who are smoky, moving shadows is terrifying and at times feels unreal. Then one of the shadow people will show up on the boat and it all feels way too real.

Addison sits
next to Dean leaning her head on his bare shoulder. In the few weeks they’ve been here, they’ve grown closer by the day, though I can’t imagine what it would be like to fall for someone who has the ability to manipulate the way they do. They’ve both spent their whole lives getting people to do small things for them, and I wonder if they sometimes accidentally put ideas in each others’ heads.

Their gift has gotten us out of more than one round of questions at harbors, which has helped keep us away from The Middle Men. We’re heading south along the east coast of the U.S., though we still don’t know to exactly where. All four of us feel the need to keep going and keep running, so we are. The uncertainty is what’s killing me.

Landon flops onto the trampoline next to Dean and Addison.

We’ve all be practicing blocking each other’s gifts. Landon’s a shield
, protecting us from being seen when we wish not to, and he also seems to make us all stronger. Though, with the addition of Dean and Addison, I have more control over my visions than I ever thought I’d have, so maybe it’s just the energy we all share. According to Addison’s little sister’s research, that’s exactly what it is.

“Finally good weather!” Landon yells as he throws his arms in the air laughing.

It’s been a problem since we left the Carolinas. We’ve spent as much time stopped and tied up weathering summer storms as sailing. Maybe more. It’s exhausting for Landon to use his gift to keep us hidden when we’re so still, but he does it. And so far, The Middle Men haven’t caught up since before we picked up Dean and Addie.

After seeing how we’ll be treated by them if they take us, I want no part of whatever they want to “talk” about.

Landon’s head cocks to the side as he looks at the mast.

“Is it back?” I ask as another shiver slides through my body. I will never get used to the moving shadows that follow us.

“It’s not that.” He leans further over as he squints near the rigging.

My chest tightens as wariness settles in.

“I think I see a way in,” he says as he steps up on the broad roof of the boat.

My heart hammers. “A way into where?” Even though I know.

Landon likes the shadows. Or at least doesn’t mind them nearly as much as the rest of us. He watches them move in and out of the dark line created by the mast and sometimes I swear he’s trying to communicate with them. He’ll sit there for an hour or more just watching.

They’ve chased me through the woods, chased Dean and Addison from New York, and still they follow us. And still we don’t know why.

“Keep away from there, Landon.” I tense up knowing how rash he can be.

A shadow person steps out from the shadow created by the mast
with its charcoal eyes on Landon. The edges of its shape are smoky and smudged, making them look like something out of a nightmare rather than my nearly daily life. I gasp as I almost always do because the idea of them is so foreign that it still doesn’t feel as if they could be real. The familiar fear ticks its way up my spine.

Landon glances over his shoulder. “Do you trust me?”

Oh, no. I shake my head not having any idea what he could be up to.

A corner of his mouth quirks up. “You don’t trust me? My own girl doesn’t trust me?”

“Because I know you’re about to do something stupid.” I move toward him and try to plead with my eyes. We both stand, staring, and I try to see into the future. Ahead. What will happen, but all I’m getting from him is now. It still unnerves me to “see” without touching, but just like everything else about my life with Landon on his boat, I’m getting used to it.

Hopefulness. Eagerness. My worried eyes. Anticipation.
I’m definitely seeing now.

“I think we need them. Can use them. Or help them. Or they can help us. You know I don’t think they’re bad.” He’s practically begging for my okay, and that
means that if I want him to stay, he will. But I’m not sure I can tell Landon no—especially not when I know how he feels.

Every cell in my body wants to scream. Instead I say, “I don’t think this is a good idea.” The fact that it might not work doesn’t even cross my mind. If Landon sees a way in, I believe him.

Landon takes one small step toward me, and I want to close the distance and ask him what he’s thinking, wrap my arms around him.

“We need this. The information. We’re still traveling blind. I can do this. Please trust me.”

“I trust you, Landon. It’s the shadows I don’t trust.” Worry continues to build, trying to suffocate me.

“Don’t worry.” He winks. “I got this.”

“But—”

I don’t get to finish. Landon steps sideways, and I expect nothing to happen, but instead as he moves through a door that only he can see, I see nothing. In seconds he slides through and disappears from sight.

I leap onto the top of the boat and wave my hands around where he vanished, but feel nothing. Not even the cold the shadows sometimes bring. My body goes numb as my legs go weak and my heart takes off. He just…stepped through something and completely disappeared?

“Holy shit,” Dean whispers, and Addie stands stunned.

This can’t be happening. He was just here. HERE. I wave my arms around again as if I’ll magically figure out how he moved through and squint at nothing. What did he see? How did he get through? How will he get back?

“He’ll be okay.” Dean gives my back a quick pat, and I can feel him send the thought.
Be calm.

Right now I will it to work, but it doesn’t.

“But we’re moving,” I protest. What if he’s left behind?

Dean’s face holds a brief moment of panic before he shrugs. “We’re always moving and they seem to come and go without problem.”

Addison steps up next to me as I stand, still staring at where Landon disappeared, her long dark hair blowing out behind her, and I’m still frozen to the spot.

“It’ll be okay, Micah,” she whispers, only her voice shakes as much as I’m sure mine would.

Dean’s white as a sheet, and Addie’s frozen. He takes her hand, and I know they’re talking the way only they can—without words.

Dean clears his throat. “He’ll be fine. I’m going to check our heading.” And he steps down to the steering station.

Addie gives me a careful pat on the back, which shows no vision aside from her and Dean together, and all I want to see is Landon, but I can’t. And without him here, I’m not sure I could force myself to see anything outside of the way my talent used to work—random with touch.

I stare at where he disappeared, and try to see into the shadow created by the mast and the sail. He can’t have just
gone
. And if he did, there’s a part of me that wants to join him, if for nothing else than to bring him back.

I step just under the mainsail
, and the air cools slightly. A form slowly takes shape. The eyes are a bit blurry, but it’s definitely a shadow person. Heart hammering like metal on metal, I don’t run away this time, just stand and stare. They just took Landon, and I really want them to know how much I need him back. I wonder if there’s a way to convey that without words.

“Please. I have to get him back,” I say, wondering again if they can hear anything we say.

A hand of the shadow person reaches toward me slowly.

No
… My heart drops.

“Landon?” Did they turn him into a shadow? Is that the only way in? And if so, how do you get
out
? But it’s impossible to tell. The edges of the shadows are like mist or smoke, not solid.

A hand comes up, and I can just make out the sign language on the smoky edges of his fingers. “I love you.”

Landon
.

The weight in my chest is nearly crippling. What does this mean? Is he saying goodbye or that he’s okay?

“I need more from you. Can you come back? When will you be back?” My voice is desperate, but I don’t care at the moment. I just want him here and not there.

I hold my hand to his, but all I can feel is cold. I try to grasp him, but there’s nothing to grasp, just a thin layer of smoky ash on my hand.

“Take me with you!” I yell.

Landon shakes his head and touches my cheek with a cold, smoky finger.

And just as quickly as his shadow appeared, he slides back into the darkest part of the mast’s shadow, and I follow the subtle twitching of darkness as it travels toward the water.

Dread
fills me as I wonder if the last picture in my mind I have of Landon will be the blurry, smoky edges of something that doesn’t look real. The thought tears at me. And as it hits me that he’s really not here anymore, my legs give out, and I fall to sitting on the deck wishing I’d have begged him not to go.

ONE