Also by MarcyKate Connolly
Shadow Weaver
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Books. Change. Lives.
Copyright © 2019 by MarcyKate Connolly
Cover and internal design © 2019 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Cover art by Zdenko Basic
Cover design by Nicole Hower/Sourcebooks, Inc.
Internal images © carlacdesign/Getty Images
Internal design by Danielle McNaughton/Sourcebooks, Inc.
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
Fax: (630) 961-2168
sourcebooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Connolly, MarcyKate, author.
Title: Comet rising / MarcyKate Connolly.
Description: Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, [2019] | Sequel to: Shadow weaver. | Summary: Emmeline and her best friend Lucas, a light singer, must try to use their powers to stop evil Lady Aisling, the magic eater, once and for all.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018010652 | (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: | CYAC: Magic--Fiction. | Shadows--Fiction. | Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C64685 Com 2019 | DDC [Fic]--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010652
Contents
Front Cover
Also by MarcyKate Connolly
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Back Cover
For my family.
Chapter One
I have not cast a shadow in two months, three days, and eleven hours. There is nothing tethered to my feet, no one imitating my every move, no one whispering in my ear. Everything else around me does cast one, and I can scoop them up and mold them with my shadowcraft. It is only me who has to go without her constant companion. I never fully understood what it was like to be alone until now.
My shadow, Dar, resides upstairs, locked in the attic in a cage of shadow and light. It is safer that way.
This morning, my best friend Lucas and I have been practicing our talents on the beach below our cliff-side cottage while his parents tend to their garden. Talents like Lucas’s light singing and my shadow weaving are rare and only bless children once every twenty-five years when the Cerelia Comet soars through the night sky. We were hunted in our previous home in Parilla, but here in Abbacho, Lady Aisling—the woman who wishes to steal our magic and my shadow—cannot reach us.
At least, not yet.
A few weeks ago, we mastered fishing with light hooks and shadow ropes. Lucas’s parents let us catch all the fish now and our icebox is already full, though it’s not even midday. So, Lucas is practicing skipping light over the water, turning it into discs that move like stones but never sink. I sit in the sand with my legs outstretched and ankles crossed, laughing while he makes the light shimmy and dance with his song. There are not as many shadows here in Abbacho compared to where I grew up. My first home was filled with trees and hidden nooks, but here, next to the ocean, the sun is always high overhead and the trees are thinner.
I have learned to improvise.
The ocean contains more shadows than one might think. Those cast by reefs and seaweed and even the little shadows cast by fish braving the shallows are mine for the taking. This morning I’ve exhausted myself trying to pull them from deeper waters. The ocean is vast, and I can feel the darkness lurking under the waves like someone breathing down my neck. Something about the water seems to dull my call too, so practicing takes more out of me than pulling shadows through the air. But every day I get a little better.
“Lucas! Emmeline!” Miranda calls from the top of the cliff. “You’d better bring in your catch. It’s almost time for lunch.”
Together, we lift the icebox and carry it up the winding footpath to the cottage. When we walk in the door, Miranda already has the fixings for sandwiches set out on the table, just waiting for Lucas to arrive and toast the bread. But before we’ve even set down our catch, a terrible scream echoes through the house, rattling my bones.
“What on earth is Dar up to now?” Miranda says, glancing uneasily at the ceiling.
I quickly put together a sandwich and trudge up the stairs. The wailing continues, growing more piercing by the minute.
I pause to take a deep breath before opening the attic door. It’s always best to brace myself before facing Dar. At least we have no neighbors to complain about the noise. Sometimes I wonder what my parents would think if they could see Dar now. They never did believe she was real when she was just my shadow.
When I enter the little attic room, I nearly drop the tray with Dar’s sandwich. It’s the same as I left it this morning—plain and sparse, with fresh daffodils in a vase on the table by the window that looks out on the sea. But Dar is different. Usually, she plays coy and mimics me as I enter, then begs and pleads to be released.
But I did not expect this.
Dar is wearing my shape today, as she often does, but something is off. She has worn her fingernails to the nub scratching at the bars of her shadow-and-light cage. Her hair is disheveled, and a thin line of blood trickles down her forehead onto her right cheek, almost like she’s been banging her head against the bars. Now she sits in one corner of the cage, clutching her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth, wailing like something out of a nightmare.
“Dar.” I keep my voice as steady as possible while I slip the
sandwich tray through the bars. “What happened?”
She stops her wailing and stares at me like she’s seen a ghost. Fear slithers down my neck, but I shake it off. Dar lunges, tears streaming unchecked, and I step back. She has tried every argument possible to convince me to release her from the cage. Could this be another trick? She seems truly distressed. But she deceived me for so long I can’t trust myself to tell for certain.
It’s unnerving to see her behave like this while wearing my face. Some days she shifts into Miranda, Lucas, Alfred, or one of the strange creature shapes she loved when she was a shadow. But she always returns to me, my shape. I suspect it feels a little like home.
“Emmeline,” Dar says hoarsely. “It’s happening.” She scratches at her face and then shudders.
“What do you mean? What is happening?”
Her brow creases and more tears spill over her cheeks. “Can’t you feel it? The shiver in your bones, creeping into your skin, tingling with power?” She scratches her forearm, and I realize scrapes cover her hands, neck, and face. “It makes me itchy.”
“I’m sorry, Dar, but I don’t feel anything like that.” My former shadow has been a handful ever since I made her flesh again. Guilt twinges in my chest. Being locked in the attic may have something to do with that, but it is too risky to set her loose. If free, she will take her revenge on Lady Aisling—her sister—without any care for the destruction she might leave in her wake.
“Oh, but you will. And soon. It’s coming.” Clutching the bars, Dar gazes out the window as if she fears someone is sitting just outside waiting to pounce.
She’s baiting me, but I can’t deny I’m curious. “What is coming, Dar?”
“The comet,” she whispers.
I frown. “The comet? Not the—”
“Yes! The Cerelia Comet.”
“That’s impossible. It passes by once every twenty-five years. It’s only been thirteen since the last time.”
Fear flashes in Dar’s eyes. “It’s Lady Aisling. It has to be. It is the only explanation.” She scratches at her neck. “She did something. She brought it back early to have more children to plant in her garden and harvest at her leisure.”
I recoil. Lady Aisling is pure evil. She is a magic eater. From her estate in Zinnia, she sends out hunters to gather up talented children under the guise of curing them. Then she transforms them into flowers, keeping them alive in her Garden of Souls so she can steal their powers whenever she pleases. She’s the reason Lucas’s family and I are in hiding. She wants my talent and Lucas’s too. And she wants her sister back.
She is the one thing that scares me more than Dar being set free, and Dar knows it. This must be a trick. A big one. Dar must have been planning it for some time.
I fold my arms across my chest. “That is impossible, and you know it. No one can change a comet’s path.”
“Are you sure?” Dar says. “What if there’s a talent out there that could?”
I shiver, but my glare doesn’t waver. “I highly doubt that.”
Dar pushes her face against the shadow-and-light bars. “You must let me out. Please, Emmeline. This is too important. I know Lady Aisling, and I am the only one who can stop her. You must set me free right now.”
And there it is. That is all she wants. Everything else she says or does is just a lie. Well, she fooled me for years. I won’t let her do it again. I’m no longer the naive girl who ran away from home so many months ago.
“Nice try, Dar.” I head for the door. “Keep it down in here, all right?”
“No! Emmeline, you must listen. The comet is coming tonight! I swear I’m telling the truth. I felt it before when I was just a shadow. Now that I’m human again, it’s even stronger.”
I shake my head. She looks pitiful in that cage. If I didn’t know better, I might believe her.
“I’m not letting you out, and that’s final.”
I close the door behind me, and Dar’s shrieks follow me down the stairs. “It’s coming! It’s coming!”
Even though I know it is not true, I pull all the shadows in the stairway around me like a cloak for comfort. Just in case.
Chapter Two
Later that evening, when dusk begins to fall, I linger outside longer than usual, soaking up the shadows. Dar’s words have stuck with me all day, tiny barbs I cannot pluck off. After I told Lucas and his parents what she said, Lucas offered to bring Dar her supper tonight in my place. Now, I’m out here enjoying my shadows, thin wisps of smoke circling my arms and weaving through my hair like ribbons. They dodge and twirl at my command, always playful and pleased to have some of my attention. The day may belong to Lucas, but the night is all mine.
Lucas opens the front door and shakes his golden head at me. I sigh. “I take it her dinner went well?”
“About as well as you’d expect.” He shrugs. “She was mad I wasn’t you at first, but then she tried the same story on me.”
We make our way down to the beach. The moon is rising in the sky, and it lights our path. When we hit the sand, we break into a run, the sea breeze whipping my hair as I collect shadows around me. Lucas pulls bits of starlight into an orb that hovers over our heads to complement the moonlight.
Where the cliff meets the ocean, the water retreats at low tide, revealing a strip of sand and rocks that leads to ocean caves usually hidden by the waves. We make our way quickly, knowing the tide will come in faster than we’d like. It isn’t long before the caves appear. We have yet to explore them all, but one is our favorite: it’s more of a nook, but it has sides worn smooth and provides the perfect spot for us to sit and watch the stars at night or the gulls swoop and play during the day.
We scramble inside our cave and sit, tucking our legs beneath us. Lucas’s orb floats to the back and settles. He pulls out a handful of taffies and offers one to me. I savor it while we watch the rest of the stars come out. The darkness under the waves is stronger at night, and the pull here is magnetic. I cannot help but stare, mesmerized by the ocean crashing a few yards away from us.
“Do you think she’s right?” Lucas says after a while. Something tickles my arm, and I scratch it absentmindedly.
“Of course not. It’s just another lie.” I sigh, glancing with a pang of jealousy at Lucas’s shadow. “Everything she says is a lie.”
“Something seemed different this time.” Lucas rubs his ear.
“No. She never changes. I don’t think she ever will.” And that is the trouble with Dar. We had hoped she might calm down after spending some time locked up, but it has only made her wilder. We have yet to decide what to do about her, though I know Miranda and Alfred discuss the subject when they think we’re asleep. Even without Dar by my side, I haven’t fully shed my habit of eavesdropping. It really is the best way to find out important things the adults don’t want you to know.
My cheek twinges and I scratch it. I call more shadows to me and craft them into a soft cushion. We settle onto it and fall into a reassuring silence as we watch the waves and the stars together. It’s peaceful here, and after the spectacle of the afternoon, it’s what I need most. Lucas senses it.
Another itch pinches my calf, and I scratch that too. I frown.
“Emmeline!” Lucas cries. I look in the direction he points, sucking my breath in sharply enough that my chest aches.
Something brilliant sails across the night sky—pure white light, almost like one of Lucas’s orbs, with a long tail that sparkles like stardust trailing after it. As it passes over, tiny specks of light fall to the earth, dusting the ocean and the forest far beyond.
I cannot move even though my entire body is on fire, like a thousand mosquitoes have bitten me all at once.
The Cerelia Comet has returned.
Chapter Three
Miranda and Alfred insist Lucas and I go to bed immediately after we run back inside, shaking like leaves. Dar h
owls upstairs, but after Miranda gives her a stern talking-to, she settles down. I don’t know whether they believe us, but I lay in my bed while curiosity consumes me from the inside out.
In the past, Dar would wrap her shadowed form around me and whisper in my ear, goading me to sneak about and find out more.
Don’t you want to know, Emmeline? Just listen for a few minutes and then we can go back to bed…
I can’t help it. I slide the covers off and set my feet on the cool floor. The shadows lurking in the room flock to me as I make my way out into the hall. This is not the first time I have done this without Dar, but I can’t help feeling like something is missing. I tiptoe to the door of the kitchen and peek around the corner, my shadows camouflaging me in the dark. Miranda and Alfred stand over the kitchen table, which is littered with papers. Miranda’s hair has slipped out of her usual braid and floats around her face, twisting with every gesture she makes. Alfred frowns so hard his glasses keep sliding down the bridge of his nose.
“If the comet has truly returned early, it can only be a bad omen,” Miranda says. “Something powerful had to have pulled it from its usual path to make this happen.”
Alfred pushes his glasses back up his nose. “That should be impossible.”
Miranda slaps her hand on the table and the papers jump. “No, it isn’t, and you know it.” She picks a scroll off the table and holds it up. “See? Right here.”
“That was two hundred years ago. There haven’t been any reports of a sky shaker in our lifetime.”
Miranda huffs. “Well, there haven’t been shadow weavers and light singers in a long time either, but here they are under our roof.”
Alfred looks like he just swallowed something unpleasant. “That’s a fair point. But a sky shaker would know better. The risks of moving something like a comet into a new path are too great.”
“A sky shaker might know better, but not Lady Aisling. Not if she stood to benefit,” Miranda says.
“We need to inform the rest of the network immediately. We should go to the village tomorrow. The others need to know. This change in the comet’s path could mean danger for us all.”
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