Ink Exchange

To all the people who've been in the abyss and found

(Or are finding) a way to reach solid ground---

You're proof that the seemingly impossible can happen.

And to A.S., who shared his shadows with me---

I hope you found what you needed.

Prologue

Fall

Itachi watched the girl stroll up the street: she was a bundle of terror and fury. He stayed in the shadows of the alley outside the tattoo parlor, but his gaze didn't waver from her as he finished his cigarette.

He stepped out just as she passed.

Her pulse beat too fast under her skin when she saw him. She straightened her shoulders---not fleeing or backing away, bold despite the shadows that clung to her--- and motioned to his arm where name and lineage is were spelled out in an ogham inscription surrounded by spirals and knots that morphed into stylized hounds. "That's gorgeous. Gaara's work?"

He nodded and walked the remaining few steps to the tattoo parlor. The girl kept pace with him.

"I'm thinking of getting something soon. I just don't know what yet." She looked defiant as she said this. When he didn't reply, she added, "I'm Sakura."

"Itachi." He watched her struggle and fail to find more words, to make him want to notice her. She was starving for something. If he took mortals for playthings, shed be good fun, but he was here for business, not collecting trinkets, so he kept silent as he opened the door of Pins and Needles for her.

Inside tattoo shop, Sakura wandered away to talk to a sandy blond-haired girl who was watching them warily. There were others in the shop, but only she mattered.

Because he'd made the curse that had bound summer so many centuries ago, Itachi knew exactly who she was: the missing Summer Queen, the problem. She would change everything.

And soon.

Itachi had felt the moment kakashi had chosen her, had stolen her mortality. It was why Itachi had come to Gaara: change was coming. Now that the Summer King would be un bound---and able to strike out at those who'd trapped him---true war was a possibility for the first time in centuries. Unfortunately, so was too much order.

"Spare a moment, Rabbit?" Itachi asked but it was a formality more than a question. Gaara might not be wholly fey, but he wouldn't turn down the king of the Dark Court, not now, not ever.

"Come on back," Gaara said.

Itachi trailed his hands over one of the steel-framed jewelry cabinets as he passed, well aware that Sakura's attention was still on him. He closed the door and handed Gaara the brown glass vials---blood and tears of the Dark Court. "I need the ink exchanges to work sooner than we'd planned. We're out of time."

" The fey might"---Gaara paused and rephrased it---"it could kill them, and the mortals aren't recovering well."

"So find a way to make it work. Now." Itachi tried a smile, softening his expression as he rarely did for the dark fey.

Then he faded to invisibility and followed Gaara back into the main room of the shop. Unhealthy curiosity made him pause beside Sakura. The others were gone, but she stood looking at the flash on the wall, lesser images than what Gaara could draw on her skin given a chance.

"Dream of me, Sakura," Itachi whispered, letting his wings wrap around them both, enclosing them. Maybe the girl would get strong enough to withstand an ink exchange with one of the weaker fey. It seemed a shame to waste a lovely broken toy.