Shadow Things

XIX

The silence that followed the boy's declaration was one of the most weighted silences Hansel had ever experienced. Hansel looked between Felix and the stranger, trying to figure out what was going on between the two of them. The boy looked gloating, calculative—an invader waiting for the fortress to fall; while Felix had taken a step back unconsciously, ceding land, his face stricken.

Come to think of it, Hansel had only ever seen that look on Felix's face once before; on the day he kicked down the door to the bathroom to find Hansel dying behind it, drenched in his own blood. The same expression of alarm and bewilderment of seeing something that he never wished to see and not knowing what to do about it. But the look only lasted for a few brief seconds, then his lips curved up in a smile to match the other boy's.

"Hello monster," said Felix, his voice overly friendly. "Nice to make your acquaintance."

Then, crisply, he took another step back and slammed the door in the boy's face.

Once the door was closed though, Felix's expression reverted from fake cheer to stark anxiety in a flash. He threw his back against the door, bracing his hands flat on the wood as if he expected the other boy to barge in using force. "Quick!" he ordered. "Bring that couch here!"

Hansel could only stare. What was happening? Who was that boy outside? Why was Felix reacting like this?

When Hansel did not move Felix stopped waiting. He crooked his elbow and unfurled a bunch of shadow ribbons, wrapping them around the couch and dragging the heavy furniture across the room. The legs of the coach groaned over the floor, scratching its surface. Felix stepped away from the door and pushed the couch to fill his spot, creating a barricade.

"Bring the refrigerator," Felix told Hansel now. "And the wardrobe. Maybe the dining table."

"What are you doing?" Hansel asked him. He had never seen Felix behave like this. He treated the whole situation like an emergency. Hansel needed to know what was happening.

"We need to stop that creature from walking in through the door."

"The boy?" Hansel asked in bemusement. "Who is he?"

"Him?" Felix sounded hoarse. "He's a shadow, but a newly sentient one. He's dangerous."

New shadow ribbons spread out through the house, searching for more furniture.

Hansel still did not understand. "How is he dangerous? He seems just like you."

"That's the problem," wheezed Felix, trying to reel in the dining table from the other room. "He seems too much like me when there shouldn't be another like me. He's an aberrant. He is more powerful than any other shadow out there. He has to be, or he wouldn't have been able to imitate a human's appearance like that, or talk like one." Felix bit his lips, his back to Hansel, who in turn was watching the door vigilantly, expecting it to cave in any minute. "This is so wrong. He shouldn't exist. I think I messed up."

"Hah, I knew you were not happy to see me at all," said the boy's voice from behind them, startling them both. His words drifted silky and shrewd. "What a liar my king is."

Felix wheeled around so fast he could have given himself a whiplash. Colour leached from his face. "How-how are you inside?"

The boy looked smug, standing in the middle of the living room with his arms crossed. His eyes shone in the dark like green traffic lights, dark curls falling into them. His lips were set in a copper smile, cold and empty. "Why do you look so surprised? Can't I be here?"

"I made a rule forbidding all shadows from invading human residences. You shouldn't be able to break it."

"Do you really believe that?" the boy asked, tilting his head to a side. The locks of hair covering his right eye fell away to reveal the full circle of his electric iris. "Why?" he asked. "Because you are king?" He took several steps forward, his gait slow and deliberate. He was taller than Hansel and Felix, more graceful and domineering than either of them. He levelled his gaze on Felix with a sniper's precision. "But if a king leaves his kingdom for too long, can he still call himself a king? Who is to blame if his subjects sought for freedom in his absence? Who is to blame if they managed to succeed?"