Spirit of Shadows

| Chapter Three |

Em woke up to a streak of sunlight hitting her eyes. She sighed out, wanting to stay sleeping for a bit longer until she had remembered all that had happened yesterday–wait...yesterday?

Em's head shot up from the cushion of her cloak and she darted her eyes around to find the boy.

So that's why she had woken up to sunlight, the boy was over by the large window, a piece of the fabric pulled away so he could look outside.

"Hey!" Em said, a little too loudly.

Matthias jumped away from the window and hurriedly looked back at her. She tried her best not to let out a growing yawn as she stared at him.

My hair is probably a nest of knots, she thought to herself.

"Morning." He replied, letting the fabric drop and covering the warehouse in cool shadows once more.

"Why didn't you wake me up like we agreed? Aren't you tired?" Em asked, pulling her cloak up from the dirty ground and brushing it off.

Matthias shrugged before speaking. "I'm fine. Plus, you looked like you could use some extra hours of sleep."

She wasn't buying it. He wasn't tired? Not even a little? Instead of answering him, Em shrugged her cloak back on and adjusted her dagger belt, making sure Nightmare was comfortably tucked away.

Em had quickly walked towards the window Matthias stood by and peeked around the fabric covering the view. By the looks of it, it was probably nearing nine o'clock. She swore under her breath and dropped the cloth, standing in front of Matthias.

His eyes were a bit bloodshot from the lack of sleep, his hair slightly disheveled as he ran his fingers through it, and his own cloak seemed fitted wrong.

"Ready to go?" Em asked.

Matthias nodded and she watched as he re-clipped his yellow broach across his right shoulder and smoothed out the green velvet of his cloak.

"Let's get a move on. We don't have time to kill if we're going to get to your sister within the next week." Em said, braiding her hair back and pushing it into the dark hood she had draped over her head. She stood by the warehouse door waiting for Matthias to finish checking his sword belt.

"Let's do this." He replied, pulling his own hood over his head and then opening the creaky door.

...

They ended up maneuvering the streets of Dengov quite easily. There were still crowds of people rushing by to head into the Red City and marketplace but Matthias and Em were going into the opposite direction with their heads down.

It wasn't until they took a small rest near a scramble of canvas tents that she saw them. Wanted posters. A whole flurry of them tacked to wood posts and tent outlines.

Em reached out and grabbed ahold of Matthias' arm, stopping him from taking a step forward.

"Wait." She said through gritted teeth.

Matthias looked down at her, his brows scrunched up in confusion at her actions. Then, very slowly, he followed Em's gaze and saw what had made her freeze. Actual wanted posters with their faces on them.

"What..." He began, looking at one with his face on it. It seemed to be a portrait-like picture of him. Maybe from two or three years ago? His blonde hair was shorter in the photo than it was now, a black button-up shirt peeking up at the bottom of the photo. He was smiling.