Camera Obscura (A Novel of Shadows Book 1) by Christina Quinn

Author:Christina Quinn [Quinn, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magic, Conspiracy, Monster Hunter, gun-violence, Strong Female Character, urban fantasy
Published: 2017-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

IN MY DREAM, there was only darkness, an inky expanse that consumed everything before me. Slowly, a room started to take shape from wisps of shadow slightly more solid than the rest. Once I could barely make out the outline of the empty chamber, light was projected onto the bare wall before me, and an image formed, but it was inverted, flipped on the vertical axis. It took a few moments of squinting, but I recognized it as the aftermath of fundraiser massacre. I was treated to a slide show of everything that happened since meeting Thorn, but the slides were upside down and backward. The images disappeared and the walls started closing in around me until I was crushed by them and swallowed whole by the hungry dark.

****

That was when I woke up, panting, exhausted, and absolutely confused. A thought stuck in my mind as I sat cocooned in the warmth of my blankets. I was clearly looking at the cases all wrong, and my subconscious was trying to tell me something it thought was glaringly obvious that I had missed. I hated trying to understand my dreams. More often than not, they were just garbled nonsense, but occasionally they contained the rare gem of insight.

I rubbed my shoulder, my fingers trailing over the ridges of the stitches as I went back through every scrap of the case I had access to. Nothing stood out to me. I felt no closer to what was going on than I had been before. I stared at the water spots on the ceiling, they had an almost pleasing pattern to them. Taking a deep breath, I thought all the way back to the beginning.

I jumped as a knock on the door jarred me away from my thoughts.

“Hey, do you want lunch?” Thorn’s voice sounded through the thick wood.

“No thanks, I’m probably going to head out soon anyway.”

“Oh, okay,” he sulked.

I rolled my eyes and decided it was time to get up and attempt that whole adulting thing for the day. I showered, dressed, and smeared on some makeup before slipping my Glock 19 into the inner-pants holster and heading downstairs. Thorn was in front of the television watching some crime drama. I didn’t say I’d be back in a few hours, I didn’t say goodbye, I just left. Before I had even stepped foot on the stoop, I had made up my mind not to come back. He needed time away from me.

“Audrey will be by tomorrow to take you to your new job,” I yelled inside before heading to the car. I was sure I could get him something working for Nate, Abby, or Tabs, even if it was just for a few days.

****

Thirty minutes later found me at Merlin’s Beard, and it was actually busy for a change. Clearly, her new Golem was having a positive effect on business. I meandered the shelves eating my fast food cheeseburger with one hand as Tabs finished helping a group of people.

“If I find an oil spot on anything you’re buying it,” Tabs chided as she stepped beside me.

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