Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller

ear, and disappear into the crowd.
    The note was quickly passed to Sidonia, her friend practically drooling with excitement.
    â€œSomeone just gave this to me. She said it’s some juicy information about Squidie here.”
    Sidonia hastily unfolded the note and held it up for both of us to read. “Let’s take a look, shall we?”
    Written on the page were three terse sentences.
    You’re wasting your time. She’s not the one you’re after.
Have a look in your best friend’s handbag.
    Sidonia’s jaw dropped and her precious dimples fled. Her professionally manicured hand crumpled the note into a tight ball.
    â€œWho wrote this?” she shrieked.
    â€œThat girl over there,” stammered her frightened friend, pointing to an empty spot in the crowd. The sea of girls parted to avoid the finger. “I mean. She was there. She gave that to me.”
    â€œ
Who
was there?” demanded Sidonia.
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, you don’t know? Are you blind
and
stupid? What did she look like?”
    â€œI didn’t get a good look at her, Sidonia, but I think she might have been really short.”
    â€œJust shut up. You’re completely worthless,” snarled the Princess as she pushed the girl aside. “Naomi! Get over here now!”
    The Princess snatched Naomi’s handbag and dumped everything inside it onto the grass. She spread the contents around with her foot, and then bent down to pick up a coin purse. There, inside, was the pink diamond ring.
    â€œI—I have no idea how it got there, Sidonia,” stammered Naomi, a hot red flush spreading across her entire body. “That weird-looking girl must have slipped it into my bag.”
    The Princess’s eyes narrowed, and she spoke in a carefully controlled voice. “What do you mean, ‘weird-looking’?”
    â€œShe’s got white hair, and she’s as pale as a ghost. I think I’ve seen her before. She’s really creepy.”
    â€œLet’s go,” Sidonia said, jerking Naomi roughly by the arm. “I’m not done with you yet!” she stopped to shout in my face before forcing her way through the crowd to asilver Bentley that was waiting for her outside the school gates.
    After the Princess’s departure, the crowd splintered into a dozen little groups as girls turned to their friends to marvel over what had happened. Thankfully, I was no longer the main attraction—everyone was taking guesses at the contents of the note and the identity of its mysterious author. I passed through the chattering mob and made my way to the safety of the street. I walked for blocks before I could think clearly. All I knew was that something miraculous had happened—and that Kiki Strike was responsible.
    â€¢ • •
    Night fell long before I reached Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a few blocks north of my home. True darkness is rare in Manhattan, which at night remains in a state of permanent twilight. But set back from the street, away from the lights of passing cars, the cathedral squatted in the shadow of a massive wall that circled both the church and its graveyard. The entire block had the appearance of a medieval fortress, its upper reaches barely visible against the starless sky.
    Whenever I passed by on my way home from school, the gates of the cathedral were always locked, allowing only a tantalizing glimpse of a cemetery teeming with moss-covered tombstones and marble monuments to the dead. As usual, I slowed my stride, and tried to peer through the gloom. What looked like a ghostly face peeked out from behind a tall tree just to the left of the entrance. I almost shrieked and started to run, but it onlytook a few steps before my curiosity conquered my fear of the dark. I turned back toward the church, trying to convince myself that I hadn’t seen anything that couldn’t be explained by an eighth-grade science