Under Cover of Darkness Read Online Free

baskets and private messages and responsibility—gave her wide berth, for the most part pretending they saw nothing at all. Children—running those same errands, or simply tagging along with their parent—had no such compulsion. They pointed, asking questions. They laughed at Alleksa’s bemused expression, her eyes half-lidded, a smile curving her lips. They laughed at her rough clothing, at the scanty nature of it in spite of the taste of fall in the air.
    In the warrens, she would have been plenty warm. Here in the bright sunshine, her skin looked pale, her hair washed out, her face bleached of color aside from the spots on her cheeks and lips that looked too full, too mature on that thin face. Here, she was attracting attention. Soon enough the wrong person would see her . . . someone who was determined to do something about this spectacle.
    Alleksa , Galetia whispered, making her way around the edge of the small square within which the fountain sat. She had little hope that Alleksa could or would hear her, but it would be best for them all if she did, if she could pull herself away from that which so delighted her beleaguered mind. You are not safe. Come to me.
    Alleksa’s body gave a little shiver of denial. She turned her pale face to the sun. On it shimmered the signs of change, clear for all to see. Shadows chasing across her skin, sparks of iridescence and hints of color.
    So be it.
    Lower legs aching, pounding with the pain of too much swollen bruising inside skin too small to hold it all, Galetia did not waste any time. Not with Alleksa’s change out there for the whole of the city to see—not when some of them had already gasped and drawn back, forgetting to pretend they saw nothing at all. Galetia strode to the fountain, shaking off the grim fear of those who perceived the situation through her thoughts. All these years they’d stayed hidden . . . and now they teetered on the verge of exposure, betrayed by the strength of the change in which they’d so recently placed their hopes.
    Galetia did nothing more than put her hand on Alleksa’s arm, her voice almost hidden in the song of the fountain as she said, “ Now. ”
    Too late— Bodhan’s inner voice whispered into her mind, so close that she jerked around to find him at the edge of the square, having come in spite of her injunction against it.
    Scoria voices wailed in silence, filling her head in response to what Bodhan now showed her from his better vantage point. The constables, striding into the other side of the square with truncheons to hand, their faces holding fear beyond what any mere adolescent girl could inspire. They’d heard. Even now Galetia heard the murmurs through Bodhan’s ears, where through her own she heard only the sweet fountain. Her face! Did you see her face? and It’s her! It’s the girl from the high ground. She’s one of the cursed!
    Cursed . . . cursed . . . cursed . . .
    Galetia’s fingers dug into soft skin. Alleksa’s eyes widened, bemused by the change, by the fountain, by Galetia’s presence. She did not try to break away; even fey, she had long learned she could not evade Galetia. But the constables rounded the end of the long fountain, and Galetia needed more than that. She needed Alleksa , returned to her senses—shedding the change, or using it. With the constables bearing down on them, she needed cooperation . . . she needed help . To do this on her own . . .
    She could. Hurt, profoundly frightened for her own, for the future of the Scoria—Galetia could still do it.
    But not without giving away just how much the citties had to fear.
    She reached out to Alleksa, unable to imagine failure. She wrapped herself around that embattled mind, blanketing it, scrabbling against that smooth, polished surface that was Alleksa. And then she found her grip and she wrenched—
    Alleksa’s eyes opened wider yet as the change drained from