A Darker Past (Entangled Teen) (The Darker Agency) by Jus Accardo

his father stirred anger and resentment, the next one brought something else to the surface. Something far darker than mere anger. Something that reminded me of Wrath.
    I made a grab for the picture, but Lukas was too fast. He yanked it away and jumped to the left, out of my reach. The picture, one of him and Meredith, shattered in his fist. The delicate frame bent, and the glass plinked to the floor. “Don’t, Jessie. You can’t change my past, and you can’t shield me from it. Meredith existed. She condemned me to the box. Nothing will ever wipe that away.” Sighing, he tilted his head, listening. With a deep breath, he added, “Elaine is upset.”
    “She’s upset ?”
    Lukas frowned. “The arrangement with Meredith’s family is what ended our courtship.”
    “You’re dead, Lucy. It’s time to get over it,” I yelled in the direction he was looking. Because, getting all pissy over a relationship that hadn’t worked out over one hundred years ago? That was a little lame. The girl had stalker tendencies.
    I should have known better than to snap at her. Lucy—or Elaine—was harmless, but she had her destructive moments. Grandpa had documented a few of them in his journals. She didn’t like change. And, apparently, being told to get over it.
    One of the frames on the table in front of us rocketed into the air. It zoomed upward and crashed against the ceiling, raining bits of glass and metal on my head. A second later, another frame took flight, this one rushing straight for my face. I ducked and it missed me, crashing instead into the large, creepy mirror next to the Darker table. The glass exploded. The picture, along with a million shards of glass, plinked to the concrete floor.
    I cringed. “Oops…”
    Lukas laughed. “I knew you had a unique knack for angering people, but I wasn’t aware that it applied to the dead, as well.”
    “All part of my charm.”
    He rolled his eyes and bent down to pick up a piece of glass from the mirror. Rubbing it between his fingers, he said, “This is bad.”
    I shrugged and kicked at the mess. Several pieces shot across the room and bounced off the wall across from us. “It’s just a mirror.”
    He was shaking his head. “This glass…”
    “Yeah. It’s all over the place. Big deal? When they notice the Darker stuff is gone, they’ll figure whoever busted in knocked it over.”
    But Lukas didn’t hear me. At least, I didn’t think he did. He was staring over my shoulder. I assumed he was listening to his ex rant more about Meredith and the unfairness of death until his mouth dropped open. A funny smell filled the air. Sort of like bananas.
    I turned. “What’s…?”
    Then I saw what he saw. On the floor in front of the mirror, the broken shards of glass were convulsing, tiny tufts of deep purple smoke rising from them. The shard in Lukas’s hand began to smoke as well.
    He dropped the glass and grabbed my arm, pulling back hard as a tuft of the smoke curled around my ankle. “Just a mirror?” He stepped in front of me. “A mirror that wouldn’t happen to have belonged to a Darker?”
    The mirror had been next to the table, but it’d never occurred to me that it had belonged to us. I gave a nervous laugh and tensed, ready for anything. “It’s purple smoke. Purple smoke never hurt anyone. In fact, it’s pretty. Kind of like a music video or stage show. That reminds me. I should totally teach you to dance.”
    Lukas wasn’t convinced—or interested in dance lessons—and I couldn’t blame him. The smoke was getting thicker, curling upward and taking shape.
    The shape of a man.

Chapter Six
    When the smoke cleared, a man with dark hair and an angular jaw stood before us. He had a bow mouth and Roman nose and looked to be somewhere in his early twenties, wearing a simple linen tunic and matching pants. Yep. Totally normal—if he hadn’t materialized from smoke coming out of broken glass.
    “What is this place?” His voice was deep, and there was