I shudder. I cannot let that happen either.
“We’ll have to take care of the soldiers too. We don’t want them to come after us until we’re safely away,” I say.
He nods. “It’s almost dawn. I can draw on the light to make bands that will keep them tied up until night falls again, while you go after Dar.”
“Will you have enough to work with?”
He squints in the direction of the dawn, and a bright smile blooms on his face. “Definitely. When the sun begins to rise, it takes over the sky quickly. It’s already lighter than it was when we left my parents between the boulders.”
One look confirms he’s right. We both should have enough material to work our craft. Lucas begins to sing, but I keep us concealed behind my shadows for good measure. A few of the guards pause in confusion, unsure where the voice is coming from. Those are the ones Lucas targets first.
The light around us condenses as Lucas crafts it into thin but sturdy bands. A guard’s mouth drops open as he watches it form in front of him. He cries out in surprise when the band swoops down to push him back, pinning him against a tree. The guard struggles, but Lucas’s work is well-crafted, and he has learned a lot about making his light tangible. The guard will not escape any time soon.
Moments later, two more are pinned against trees by the bright, golden bands. I cast my net of shadows wide and catch several of the guards Dar was toying with at once, then fasten the end to a sturdy tree branch. They hang there, struggling.
That gets Dar’s attention.
She turns her huge eyes to me, and her mouth breaks into what I believe is a grin.
“Emmeline,” she booms. “I thought I smelled you here.”
She stalks toward me, and Lucas tenses at my side. I weave my shadows in preparation. With every step, Dar’s shape changes a little more, a new ear here, a feline twist to her mouth there, spikes jutting out across her spine.
“I told you to run,” she says. “Have you come here to help me pick off the guards?” She grins, and it turns my stomach.
“No,” I say. “I know you hate the Zinnians and that you have good reason, but I cannot let you hurt them. That is not the answer.”
She tilts her head and scowls when she sees Lucas. “What is he doing here?”
Behind me, Lucas continues to prepare bands of light, keeping them spinning and waiting in case more guards show up.
“Lucas is my friend.”
She looks as though she has been slapped. “No, Emmeline, I am your friend.”
“Friends do not lie and use each other, Dar. That is not how friendship works.”
She snorts. “I beg to differ. Our arrangement worked beautifully for many years. Until he came along.” She narrows her eyes at Lucas and stalks toward him. I put myself in the path between them. “What? Are we not friends, Emmeline? We had such plans. You promised me you would never leave me, and I promised the same. I intend to keep my promise.”
“I—I do not know what to make of our promises anymore, Dar. You lied so much and so often. I can no longer decide what was true and what was made up. I don’t know that you were ever really my friend at all.”
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t know what was true, but I know I can’t let you hurt anyone else. This has to stop.”
“Your talent created me. You set me free, Emmeline. Why would I ever want to stop? I have never felt this free before!” Dar spins and takes off at a run.
I pull the big shadows first then the little ones from the saplings and ferns and bushes. Quickly, I weave them together to form a net, putting more of my power into it than ever before. It must hold, I must make them solid enough to stop this madness. The net remains small as I weave it, but it has ample shadow material to expand when I cast it.
Dar whoops and races around the glade, then begins to toy with one of the soldiers pinned to a tree by Lucas’s light bands. The man flinches and struggles against his bonds, but they hold fast. With my breath stuttering on my lips, I send the shadow net flying toward Dar. She howls when it hits her, interrupting her fun. When she realizes what I’ve done, she begins to shout and shake the tightly woven sides.
“Let me out! Let. Me. Out!” she screams, flailing inside the shadow net.
I pull the ends of the net tight, tying it off, then securing my end around a tree. Dar should not be able to wander off easily now.
“Emmeline!” howls Dar. “I thought we were friends.” Betrayal glints in her monstrous eyes, and I flinch. Sorrow squeezes my chest, making it hard to breathe.
“I thought we were too. But a friend wouldn’t have used me like that.”
“Used you? No, I loved you like a sister. I knew you, better than you know yourself.” Suddenly Dar ceases her struggles and flashes a grin that makes my stomach hit the ground. Then her hands begin to shift into treacherously sharp claws. I take a step back, and Lucas follows suit. She tears into the material, and though it reforms shortly after every attempt to slice, it isn’t fast enough. To my horror, she manages to get a grip on my shadow net and rips it apart. She steps back into the glade, looking for all the world like a cat who just swallowed a bird.
I lean close and whisper to Lucas as we back away from Dar’s slowly advancing form. “We have to trap her somehow. I bet a cage of shadows would be stronger if we added bars of your light. We’ve both done well making our shadows and light tangible, and Dar’s new form was born from shadows after all. Maybe that would hold her better than my talent alone. What do you think?”
“The two of our talents combined? Unstoppable.” He squeezes my hand, and I almost feel as unstoppable as he believes we might be together.
“Then let’s do it.” This time, we break into a run, startling Dar and making her pause. Lucas sends a burst of light at her, while my shadows snake toward her. But she evades them both, dodging like she can read our minds.
“We have to get closer,” I say. We chase her through the glade as she leaps from rock to rock and climbs from tree to tree.
But then something new sprouts from her shoulders: long, leathery wings. They grow at an alarming rate, then expand. She runs faster, wings ready to take off.
My heart climbs into my throat. If she flies away, I’ll never catch her. I may never see her again. I throw the new shadow net I’ve been pulling together wide and high, imbuing the shadows with as much self-direction and mass as I can muster.
The shadows fold around her, tangling with her wings and bringing her back down to the earth. She hits the ground with a thud and a cry, then transforms yet again. Every second she becomes smaller and shorter, and more human-like. Lucas spins his light, preparing to add it to the shadows holding her in. He gives a quick nod signaling that he is ready.
Finally, Dar stops changing and rises to her feet.
A scream strangles in my throat.
My own dark eyes gaze back at me. She is even wearing the same clothes, the purple dress Miranda bought me.
“You can’t hurt me, Emmeline. I am part of you. The voice on your shoulder. The part of you that longs to do naughty things. I am you.”
I shudder, frozen and completely unable to stop staring at her.
“You are not Emmeline!” Lucas cries, sending his light bands around the shadow net. They draw it up, bolstering and strengthening, like gleaming golden threads intertwining with my dark shadow ropes.
Dar turns a hand into a claw and reaches out to grab one but can’t tear through the combined magic. Relief spills over me, but we’re not done yet. Together Lucas and I fashion a cage from his bands of light and my ropes of shadow, one that won’t let more than a hand through. There is no lock, no door, no exit.
No escape.
Dar screams and rails against our crafted cage. This time, she cannot move it. It does not budge an inch.
She stops and tries a differe
nt tack. “Emmeline,” she pleads. “Don’t do this. Remember how I sang to you whenever you were sad? All the games we would play? All the fun we had, you and me and our shadows? The whole world could belong to us.” She lowers her voice to a whisper. “I can set it right. You know I can. That’s why you released me. You want to set things right. Everything can go back to how it used to be. Just you and me, Emmeline. Let me out, and everything will be right again.”
My mouth is useless as I’m flooded with memories. The two of us and the shadows, that was all I believed I needed.
But when Lucas slips his warm hand in mine and squeezes, I realize she’s wrong. She isn’t the only one I need, not anymore.
Dar wails in protest and begins to shrink.
Immediately, I close my web of shadows so her small size won’t allow her to slip through, and Lucas does the same with his light bands. She is trying to escape this way, but we can’t allow it.
She shrinks to the size of a doll, but even then the light and shadow combine to form an unbreakable cage around her. When she tries to grow again, she can’t. There is no space, and our shadow and light will not break or bend for her.
She screams in frustration, then sinks to the floor of the cage and begins to cry like a sad, pitiful doll.
“What are you going to do with me?” she whines. “You’re such fools. I know your conscience won’t let you abandon me here, but if you take me with you, Lady Aisling will never stop hunting you. You will never rest easy again.”
I glance at Lucas. I hadn’t thought quite that far yet. I only knew I needed to stop her.
“She can come with us,” Miranda says, startling us all. They must have come out when they could see the danger had passed. “You both can. We won’t let Lady Aisling have either of you.”
Epilogue
This morning I wake up in a new cottage, one that is white sandstone with gaily painted blue windows and trim, that overlooks the sea. Until we moved here a few days ago, I had never seen the sea before, only read about it in books. It is so vast and endless and beautiful that each morning when the sun rises over it, painting the sky in a rainbow array of colors, it warms me straight to the core.
I pull on my slippers—new ones that Miranda made just for me—and head downstairs for breakfast. I can already smell Lucas toasting croissants.
Lucas’s family moved here, the coast of Abbacho, after we finally ended Dar’s rampage and routed Lady Aisling’s soldiers. I feel more at home here than I ever did on my own parents’ estate. Someday I’ll have to go back and face them. But for now, I’m welcome to remain here as long as I’d like. Every day, Lucas and I hone our magic together on the beach below our cliffside cottage, weaving shadows and singing light, our magic swirling together and forming something new and special.
I finally know what it’s like to really have a friend. It is all I’ve ever wanted.
Lucas has just finished cooking breakfast when I reach the kitchen and take a seat, snatching a piping hot croissant for myself. Lucas nudges my foot under the table.
“After breakfast we should go to the beach and see if we can catch any fish with a light lure on one of your shadow ropes, and—”
Miranda laughs. “Just don’t forget we need to grow a new garden. I’ll need your help this afternoon, so don’t get too tuckered out before that.”
Lucas nods his agreement, but gives me a sly look across the table. I smile back. We intend to use every ounce of energy we have on our talents today. Using them freely now feels like a right, like a bit of rebellion against the Lady who would steal them from us.
“Oh, but first, I must take this upstairs.” I finish off my breakfast, grab an extra plate, and march up the stairs. This time, I do not stop on the second floor where our rooms are. I go up another flight of stairs, this one older, but less worn. At the very top is a small door. I take a key from a chain around my neck and unlock the door, the gears grinding in protest. When I open it, I breathe out in relief.
The shadow-and-light cage is still there, taking up most of the floor, and so is its occupant. The rest of the room is sparse, a few extra pieces of furniture shoved into one corner, covered by a sheet. A table in front of a window that looks out on the ocean, just waiting for someone to set a vase of flowers upon it.
Dar’s form is an unnerving one she has taken often lately: she looks just like me—same height, hair, face, and even clothes—but with a strange, unhinged glint in her eyes. Her fingers clench and unclench around an unseen object as she prowls, but when she sees me in the doorway, she launches herself at the alternating shadow and light bars forming her cage. The shadows alone, she could cut or squeeze through, but Lucas and I crafted one that filled up the spaces so she can’t squeeze through the bands. It has held for weeks, and while we’re prepared to reinforce it if necessary, I believe it will remain intact for quite some time. I test the strength of the bars every morning, and each time, they are as strong as the day we made them.
Dar watches me as I cross the room, mirroring every motion and expression I make as though she is still my shadow. It is more than unnerving. When I stop at her cage, she stops too, and stares at me unblinking. It is disconcerting to have to face myself every morning like this, but she is my responsibility.
“My pretty little friend,” she coos at me. “Let me out, please, I will be good, I promise.”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t trust you.” I slide the plate through the bars, then reseal the bonds.
Her face twists. “Cruel mistress. I thought you said you would not hurt anyone else in my name. What do you call this?” She spits at me as she talks. Her words pinch my chest, but I swallow it down.
“Enjoy your breakfast, Dar,” I say, then turn my back to her. She bangs her fists against the bars, but they do not move.
“She is coming for us, you know. And she’ll take Lucas too. If you set me free, I can protect you from her.”
I glance over my shoulder at her. “It will be a long time before Lady Aisling finds us here. Zinnia does not have a treaty with Abbacho. We are safe for now.”
A sly grin breaks over Dar’s—my—face. “Do you really believe that will stop her?”
I walk away, doing my best to stop myself from shuddering. The truth is, no, I do not believe it will stop her. But at least it buys us some time.
“Let me out! Don’t you walk away! LET. ME. OUT!” she screams after me, but I duck out of the attic room and lock the door behind me.
We can’t set her loose. She is too dangerous. Perhaps once she was a kind person who happened to have a talent. Then Lady Aisling’s siphon magic broke her into pieces. It made her vicious and unstable. But I cared for Dar once, and I’ll continue to protect her as long as I can, even from herself.
For now, we are safe, but Lady Aisling is out there, and she knows who we are. She’ll be looking for us. When she finds us again, this time, we will be ready.
Acknowledgments
I’m so grateful for the opportunity to launch my second series with Shadow Weaver and for all the people who’ve encouraged and supported this project from the very beginning. And of course, you, my readers—you’re the reason I write!
Behind every good book is an excellent team and support system, and this one is no exception. I would especially like to thank those noted below:
My editor, Annie Berger, and the entire team at Sourcebooks, for making me feel so welcome. Your enthusiasm is infectious! I’m so thrilled that I get to work with you all and that this series found such a wonderful home.
My agent, Suzie Townsend, for being my biggest cheerleader through book proposal after book proposal until I finally happened upon just the right idea. And for providing the perfect spark of inspiration about the true nature of Lady Aisling! Thank you so much for all that you do.
Mindy McGinnis, Riley Redgate, Amy Trueblood, and Rachel Simon fo
r reading early drafts of this book and challenging me to make my shadow girl shine.
The lovely folks who regularly attend the Boston Writer meet-ups—I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but the crepes and commiseration are truly invaluable. Thanks for listening during that long year of trying to sell another book.
And finally, Jason and our fur babies Tootsie, Milo, and Teddy—because I always save the best for last.
About the Author
MarcyKate Connolly is a New York Times bestselling children’s book author and nonprofit administrator living in New England with her husband and pugs. She’s also a caffeine addict and a voracious reader. You can visit her online at marcykate.com.
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Shadow Weaver Series, Book 1 Page 17