by G. Bailey
I let the darkness take me, creating me into something more.
Something so much better than I already am.
My body disappears into the darkness but my mind always stays, loving the comfort as I shift into a raven and follow Sage into the skies of Blackpool.
“We should head back,” Sage suggests around a spoonful of ice cream.
I watch the sea lap at the steps beside the shore and the sandbags lined at the top of them. The skies are grey, eerily so, like they can sense what a crap day this is going to be for us. The sea smells of salt and I can almost taste it over the bubblegum lollipop I’ve just finished off. Over the sounds of the waves, the seagulls make themselves known with loud squeaks, and in the distance, some children ride bikes down the front.
“Why? I have nothing to pack and neither do you. The wardens aren’t coming until nightfall,” I remind her. She eyes me carefully and I try to pick up on her emotions. Is she as nervous as me? Unlikely. The Shadowborn Academy is our next home, starting from tonight. We both have known we would attend this year, on the year we turn eighteen, since we aren’t classed as kids anymore. The academy is meant to teach us control and endurance, to accept our new life and fit into their society of normal magics.
What if you don’t want to fit in?
I asked our warden that once, and she laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world.
“They might not come for us at all. Wouldn’t that be nice?” she replies, and I smirk at her, leaning back on the bench. I chuck the stick of my ice lolly in the bin and go back to people watching the streets.
I love people watching, and so does Sage. We have spent days on this bench, making up stories for random strangers we spot. Our stories are unlikely to be right, but it gives us an escape into a normal world—a world where our nightmares cannot reach us. We can almost pretend we’re just two teenagers skipping school instead of what we really are.
“Do you think Keeper Maddox will miss us?” Sage asks, her voice dripping with humour.
The Light Warden runs our foster home and she’s the fourth one since I came here, as all the others quit. No one likes looking after dozens of kids with shadow powers, and all of whom want their parents back. These poor wardens would literally prefer any other assignment in the magics world. It’s depressing, but Keeper Maddox isn’t the worst of the lot.
“I doubt she will even notice us leave. She prefers the younger ones,” I reply.
They’re easier to control.
As for me and Sage?
We’re damaged goods and a waste of air. Or so we’ve been told by previous wardens. Sometimes late at night, when my demons catch up with me, I almost believe them.
“And you have your book? In the name of Selena, do not forget that book, child,” Keeper Maddox warns me later that day, giving my opened trunk an assessing once over. Spotting the old, tattered book beside my trunk, she nods. “Thank the Gods. You mustn’t forget it. Always have your book with you—”
“—from the instant you enter the forest,” I tersely interject, having endured this spiel many times before now. “The book is our bible. We get it, Miss Maddox.”
We’ve had no choice but to.
I’ve read the Book of Zorya a million times already. I don’t know why she’d think we’d leave here without it. It’s practically the map to our new home. A home neither of us wants to be part of.
Well, Sage says she doesn’t, but I have a sneaky suspicion she’s excited to use magic beyond the mediocre level we were taught here. The wardens never wanted us to learn more than needed since we were supposed to be part of the mortal world.
The mortal world.
After ten years, it still feels odd to not be quite human anymore. I had human parents, lived in a human village, before I was…changed. Now I’m just a shadowborn, and I must go to this academy to learn the tricks of the trade. Part of me should at least feel excited, but I’m not. I’m more terrified than anything else. The last time I entered the Enchanted Forest, my whole world was taken from me.
“Very well, then,” Maddox starts, gesturing to my trunk. “Your luggage should arrive at the academy by the time you arrive. Why don’t you go stand outside with the others?”
She leaves without waiting for a reply.
I look out the window above what used to be my rickety bed. Sage is sitting on her tire swing in the back garden, looking down at Little Nessa’s grave. She was a kid who used to stay here before she lost control of her power. Sage and I shared a room with her, and we always managed to calm her down when she had nightmares. But that night we went out for a fly, and when we came back, they were carrying Nessa’s small body out. I remember looking at her and thinking how peaceful she looked, as if she were just sleeping. But that’s the thing with shadowborns. Our magic feeds off the darkness residing within us, and often it takes over.
Our fears, our heartaches, our pain… anything that affects us negatively, the magic pulsing through our veins latches on to them and grows stronger with every fruitless effort we make to fight them.
Some of us learn to control our dark sides, at least for a while. Others, like Nessa, never stand a chance from the moment they were turned into a shadowborn. This is why the academy exists: to teach magics like me how to accept our demons instead of hiding from them. Running, avoiding, suppressing, all these things merely worsen our condition. I learned that a long time ago, and I managed to accept my demons.
The darkest one of all is named Pitch, and he’s also my shadow.
Speaking of the devil, which he might be for all I know, Pitch doesn’t always talk to me. I guess he doesn’t really need to. His thoughts are my fears and my fears are his thoughts now. No matter where he goes, I can always sense him without looking. It’s inherent, not because I want it to be, but because we’re soul mates.
Literally.
The night that I died, I was the only light left within his swirling darkness, and he latched on to me by tethering my soul to his so we could both stay alive. He never meant for either of us to suffer and die. Only a child himself, he merely wanted to grant my birthday wish.
I never quite bought that either in the beginning. But despite all the anger and pain I felt towards him for many years later, I’ve come to accept that without him, without his darkness nestled around my heart, my soul would be incomplete. He’s a part of me whether I want him to be or not, and any time we’re apart, a gut-wrenching longing takes over me, and it burns right through to my core.
I turn back, seeing a shadow of a figure in the corner of the room, sitting on an empty bed. Sometimes Pitch looks like a man with broad shoulders, thick black hair, and alluring amber eyes. And sometimes, like this, he is just a shadow that blinks away before I can ask why he’s even here.
Clearing my throat, I leave and head down the corridor, my navy boots announcing every footstep in the dark, dimly lit hallway. Pushing the door open, I step out into the moonlight as Sage stands and turns to me, clutching her copy of the Book of Zorya in her hands. This is how I know she’s excited to go to the academy—she’s forever reading that damn book.
“Is it time?” she asks, and I simply nod. Hooking her arm in mine, we leave the garden and head to the front of the house. We walk outside, sitting on the brick wall, watching the stars in the sky.
“They say it’s so dark in the enchanted forest, and unless you have the blessing of the sun and moon, you can’t see where you walk,” she half-jokes, but I can tell she is nervous.
I roll my eyes at her. It can’t be that bad. “You need to stop reading that book. Wait and see. We will be there soon.”
She opens her book and starts reading, ignoring me completely.
“In the beginning, Aphrodite and Persephone decided to create a magical forest for all manner of creatures. They appeared in their natural form, unearthly beautiful and fae-like, and brought with them their favourite stars—the Morning Star and the Evening Star. They each placed them in the sky, and one became
the sun and the other the moon,” she reads out, her voice being carried by the wind to poor unsuspecting humans who don’t want to hear a fairy tale like this.
A fairytale that quickly became a nightmare.
“I know, I know. Then monsters came to the forest. Blah, blah, blah,” I drone but she ignores me once more and carries on reading.
“Aphrodite became known as Danica, Goddess of the Sun, and she created the Throne of Helios where she would reign over her part of the forest. Persephone became Selena, Goddess of the Moon, and she created the Throne of Luna, again where she would rule her half of the forest. To their kingdoms, they became known as the Zorya Sisters…” She stops, turning the page and pausing in whatever she’s reading.
“I’ve heard the thrones are cursed and that’s why all the royal fae are crackers,” I whisper to her. Keeper Maddox and every keeper I’ve met talk like fae are these holy creatures and to speak badly about them is as forbidden as murder.
“Rumours, all rumours, Corvina,” she sighs, snapping the book shut. “Aren’t you excited to see a fae student? They’re meant to be very alluring and beautiful.”
Alluring and beautiful is exactly how I would describe Pitch.
But often those things just hide a person’s true nature like a cloud of smoke.
When I finally focus on Sage, her all too knowing eyes are watching me closely. “I know you’re scared. It’s okay to admit it to me, Corvina.”
“Since I became a shadowborn, I’ve been scared, Sage, but I’ve learnt that running from it only gives the fear more power. It’s better to face the darkness than run from it because one thing is for damn sure…” I pause as I see something coming down the road. “In our world, the darkness never lets you go.”
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(as mentioned in the book)
Zorya Kingdom
THRONE OF LUNA
Capital City: LUNA
Ruler: Queen Narah
DEADLANDS
Inhabits: Cimmerians, Draugers, Deserters, Bandits
THE BLACK HARBOUR
THE WISHING WELL
SKULL CAVE
aka Howling Hollow Cave, Statue of Aeon
THE GORGON LAKE
FAERIE POOLS
DEVIL’S DROP
SHADOWBORN ACADEMY
SHADOWBORN PRISON
DRACONIA
Capital City: Emeria
Ruler: King Cyrus, Naraah’s brother
Queen Valessia
Prince Drusus (triplet)
Prince Draco (triplet)
Prince Drakon (triplet)
Princess Kaida
ZORYA INN
Helios Kingdom
THRONE OF HELIOS
Capital City: VASILI
Ruler: King Ulric
Princess Evangelina
LAKE LUMEN
HELIOS ACADEMY
AURORA BAY
PEGASUS TAVERN
FAERIE POOLS
KYLLAROS
Ruler: Chiron
Prince Elias
GROUND FLOOR
Entrance/Security
Armories
Processing Room
Visiting Centre
Wardens’ Staffroom
Education
Therapist
Library
FIRST FLOOR
Girl’s Wing > showers, leisure area
Boy’s Wing > showers, leisure area
Mess Hall
SECOND FLOOR
Solitary Confinement
Training Room
Green Room
THIRD FLOOR
Blood Trials Arena
Infirmary
Morgue
Laboratory
THE TOWER
(located on the third floor, upper left)
Governor’s chamber
Izora’s new cell/room
Staff quarters
INMATES
Izora Dawn, arena trainer
Axel, trainer, chef
Memphis, arena trainer
Coen, arena pack alpha
Tyler, arena pack beta
Sharon, Blood Trials committee member
Abigail
Kenneth, Abigail’s brother, deceased
STAFF
Zavier Gold, Governor of Shadowborn Prison
Shadow Warden (Derek) Luke, Izora’s Guard
Lieutenant Warden (Nathaniel) Kyle, Blood Trials Enforcer, Luke’s uncle
Gage Michaels, Therapist, also teaches at Shadowborn Academy
Scott Mune, Education Teacher, also teaches at Shadowborn Academy
OTHERS
High Warden (Athena) Greene, Izora’s mother
High Warden (Ezekiel) Greene, Izora’s step-father
Willow Greene, Izora’s step-sister
Emma Greene, Ezekiel’s former wife, Izora’s deceased nanny
Corvina Charles, Izora’s friend, Shadowborn Academy student
GODS & GODDESSES
Selena, Goddess of the Moon, Persephone
Danica, Goddess of the Sun, Aphrodite
OTHER GODS
(not featured in this book yet)
Hades, God of Darkness
Ares, God of War
Aeon, God of Life
Eris, Goddess of Chaos and Discord
Grand Wardens—royal advisors, supreme judges, head of the High Table, the most powerful of all the wardens
High Wardens—member of the High Table that govern certain fractions of the forest and human world (like mayors)
Shadow Wardens—law enforcers, highly trained and skilled, powerful
Junior Wardens—still powerful, will advance up to a Shadow Warden
Keepers—protectors of Shadowborns and magic users, never really advance
(how the Enchanted Forest came to be)
In the beginning…
Aphrodite and Persephone decided to create a magical forest for all manners of creatures. They appeared in their natural form, unearthly beautiful and fae-like, and brought with them their favourite stars—the Morning Star and the Evening Star. They each placed them in the sky, and one became the sun and the other the moon.
Aphrodite became known as Danica, Goddess of the Sun, and she created the Throne of Helios where she would reign over her part of the forest.
Persephone became Selena, Goddess of the Moon, and she created the Throne of Luna, again where she would rule her half of the forest. To their kingdoms, they became known as the Zorya Sisters.
As the Almighty Goddess of the Moon, Selena, walked through the forest at twilight, admiring her many creations, she came across a shard of glass gleaming on the forest floor. She used this to create the Fountain of Mene which allowed her to see whatever her heart most desired, and to guide her down whichever path she sought in darkness. Selena often used it to see her husband Hades and their children.
The Dark God, Hades, used this fountain to send her a cloak of darkness on their anniversary, which Selena wove into a blanket of stars that became known as the night sky. Now the moon had stars, and Selena told her people to use them as guides and sources of light within the darkness, for neither of them should be feared since they cannot exist without the other; just like how Selena’s kingdom cannot exist without Danica’s.
Many decades later, a strange presence crept into the forest. Eris, Persphone’s half-sister, had grown envious of this Selena and Danica and she planned to spoil their New World.
First, she unleashed monsters into the forest.
Darkness.
The creatures of dark spread like wildfire, breeding chaos everywhere and anywhere they could. Danica tried to chase them back whence they came, but Selena pitied and grew to love them. Some even became her loyal servants. While she became occupied with her new settlers, Eris sent Danica the golden Apple of Discord, a feigned gift from Ares, which poisoned her.
Hearing of her sister’s illness, Selena rushed to her side. Nothing could be done to save Danica. Eris watched from the shadows as Danica’s li
ght faded and her sun waned. But then Selena ripped out her own heart and pressed it into Danica’s chest. This allowed Danica to live, but Selena faded and died in Danica’s arms, before she joined the stars in the sky, and because of her sacrifice, she became one with the Evening Star and the Moon.
When Hades learned of what happened, his anger shook the realms. He used the fountain as a portal and managed to kill Eris, but without his wife to bring out the good in him, Hades’ grief drove him to insanity. He partnered up with Ambrose, the God of Life, and they waged war on the kingdoms. Hades killed Eris, but now that Danica had her powers and her sisters, she was able to severely injure him so much that he had to retreat back to the underworld and was stripped of his ability to return.
Peace settled among the forest for a time, and Danica gave the Throne of Luna to Ares, who was quick to succumb to the allure of darkness and he became the first Dark Fae—Queen Narah’s four-times great-grandfather.
G. Bailey is a USA Today bestselling author of books that are filled with everything from dragons to pirates. Plus, fantasy worlds and breath-taking adventures. Oh, and some swoon-worthy men that no girl could forget. G. Bailey is from the very rainy U.K. where she lives with her husband, two children and three cheeky dogs. And, of course, the characters in her head that never really leave her, even as she writes them down for the world to read!