Read Against a Brightening Sky for Free Online

and those same people are still acting strangely. I can’t pin down exactly what I’m sensing, but it’s real and makes me extremely uncomfortable.”
    â€œWe can’t go back out there. It’s not safe.” Sadie’s eyes widened as she watched people wandering the lobby, really seeing them for the first time. She turned back to me, weary and scared, but not coming apart. Hidden under her sometimes frivolous exterior, Sadie Fitzgerald had a core of iron. “I assume you’d know if this was a ghost.”
    I shook my head. “No, it’s not a ghost. So far, whatever this is has taken no notice of us. That’s puzzling in and of itself, but I’d like to keep matters that way without wandering too far. I know you had your heart set on phoning Annie, but I think it best to wait. Gabe and Jack will still look for us here when they can. Sam too.”
    â€œI hope that’s soon. I can’t help but worry and imagine the worst.” Sadie’s eyes were bright with unshed tears. “I keep praying I’ll turn around and Jack will be standing there.”
    â€œJack and Gabe are all right, I promise.” Libby looked between me and Sadie, clearly bewildered but silent. I was grateful she didn’t ask a hundred questions. “Give me a moment to find the best place to wait.”
    I turned in a slow circle, arms beginning to ache from carrying Connor. Searching the cavernous lobby didn’t take long and I found what I’d wanted, a place to hide in plain sight. Comfortable-looking sofas, with large plush throw pillows, filled an otherwise unadorned alcove set apart from the main room by tall rattan screens and potted palms. Not a single painting or ornament to attract attention hung on the walls, a strange thing in the lavishly decorated lobby, but that made the alcove ideal for my purposes.
    The space was sheltered and less exposed, but Gabe and Jack could still find us easily. I pointed. “Over there, between the pillar and the bellboy station. It’s the perfect place. We can rest until Sam and Jack and Gabe arrive.”
    Libby brushed long strands of dark hair off her face and started for the alcove, trusting Sadie and I would follow. “You sound so sure they’ll survive, Delia. What with guns and explosions … I wish I had your faith.”
    â€œI’d know if anything happened to them. I promise you, the three of them are all right.” “Skeptical” was the kindest word I could think of for the expression on Libby’s face, but I let it pass unremarked. This wasn’t the time to explain the strangeness in my life to Libby Mills.
    I laid Connor on one of the sofas, his head cushioned by a green velvet throw pillow, and settled next to him. He’d finally fallen asleep and I chose to think of that as a good sign. Sadie settled into one corner of the second sofa with a drowsy Stella, while Libby sat in a wicker chair angled to face the lobby.
    The interior of the hotel was brightly lit, a combination of the numerous crystal chandeliers reflecting and magnifying each other’s light, and the mirrored sconces set into every wall. I was able to see people in the lobby by peering through palm fronds and the loosely woven rattan screens. Anyone looking our way would see nothing more than shadows or indistinct shapes, something that should have made me feel safer and didn’t. Huddling in the darker alcove didn’t stop the wariness grating over my skin, nor silence the voice telling me to stay still and quiet. I imagined this was what a rabbit felt while eyeing the circling hawk overhead.
    Two men came into view, visibly angry and arguing at the top of their voices. The man shouting loudest didn’t appear to care who heard or notice that none of the people wandering aimlessly through the lobby so much as looked in his direction. His disagreement might as well have been conducted in pantomime, for all the