Magic and Shadows: A Collection of YA Fantasy and Paranormal Romances

by T. M. Franklin

  Esther Anna decided to speak with the princess, with an excuse of asking about Tibethian history, but she found the princess was not in her room. She decided to wait for her, and anticipated their conversation with anxiety churning in her stomach. She’d let herself into the empty room and decided to take a quick look around as she waited. She admired the dresses and shoes and other trinkets in sight. Esther Anna approached a drawer, drawn to it for some reason, as if some invisible force pulled her towards the small enclosure. She pulled it open and found it to be full of the princess’s personal effects. Instinctively, she reached down and tapped the bottom of the drawer, smiling to herself at the hollow sound. She removed the false bottom, and there was a book hidden within.

  When she opened the book, she felt a sense of gloom wash over her. As she skimmed through the text, she noticed that the book outlined spells and dark rituals, and she quickly closed it. Esther Anna placed it back into its spot in the drawer, already feeling unclean for having held it for a moment, as if she were corrupted somehow.

  Why did the Princess need this book? She wondered, as she made her way out of the room.

  On one hand, there was sweet, Princess Noelle. On the other hand, there was the book she’d found, a dark document by all standards. Esther Anna had heard of dark magic before, but most of its practitioners had been either killed or jailed since it was outlawed in most of the kingdoms. She realised then, that the Noelle was not as innocent as she seemed.

  What else was she hiding?

  2

  Present day: Kingdom of Tibethia. Forest.

  * * *

  Esther Anna’s thoughts were interrupted as she heard a sound from her left, and she ducked behind a tree for cover. Could they have caught up with her so soon? She remembered the instance when Noelle materialised in front of her, the first time she’d witnessed her kill someone. How far could she really run away from someone who could just suddenly appear out of thin air? Why could she suddenly remember what happened that day? The queen even recalled the Princess pressing her finger to her forehead and muttering some strange incantation.

  Did that make sense? She wondered. She wasn’t sure what to think. Her chest burned, exhausted from running for so long. She peeked from behind her hiding place and saw a deer running in the opposite direction. That must have been what she heard, she realised, as she breathed a sigh of relief.

  She sat down, realising how much she needed the rest. Her cheek burned slightly and she was aware of the pain now as the adrenaline rush died down a little. She reached up to touch her face, tracing the trail of dried blood on her face. The queen inspected the bruise on her leg, and massaged her feet. Both feet felt raw and hurt as she touched them. She listened for the sound of rushing water amidst the other forest sounds but heard nothing of the sort. With a deep sigh, she rested back against the tree as her mind again wandered back to the events that led to her present situation…

  Earlier that day: Kingdom of Tibethia. Castle grounds.

  * * *

  Esther Anna dabbed some perfume on her neck. She’d just finished a relaxing bath and got dressed, knowing that Pierre would comment about how good she smelled. It’d been three years since they wed and the love for her king had grown. He treated her well and respected her opinions, often commenting on how she was truly the one who now ran the kingdom. He always knew the right things to say.

  As she was about to leave, her eyes caught sight of the necklace that was hanging over her desk drawer. She’d taken it from Noelle’s room without asking, though she did plan to tell her. Eventually. They were like sisters, after all, and it was customary to borrow jewelry and other belongings without permission. Esther Anna figured she might not mind. She shoved aside the slight feeling of guilt and slipped it around her neck. Esther Anna was drawn to it for its beauty, and she knew her husband would admire it as well. She checked herself once more in the mirror before making her way to his room.

  As she made her way towards the room, she noticed that the guards were not at their posts. She had a rush of déjà vu and instinctively rushed towards the door. Once inside, she stopped in her tracks and gasped, petrified by this new encounter. The Queen expected to find her husband in the room, and that she did. Pierre was indeed standing there, but to her surprise, she saw him facing a woman who looked identical to Esther Anna herself. The sight made her feel so lightheaded. Before she could regain her composure, the other woman produced a knife and in one fluid motion, drove the blade into Pierre’s neck.

  Esther Anna stifled a scream, her horrified gaze moving from her husband to the woman who still had the murder weapon in her hand. His eyes widened with surprise as he grabbed his neck. It was an effort in futility however, as the blood gushed out of the wound. It wasn’t long after that King Pierre LaChance perished, slain by a woman he presumed was his own wife.

  Right before her eyes, the strange and evil woman began to shift: her hair colour lightened, her height was lessened by a couple of inches, and everything about her changed until her face and figure became someone familiar…the face of Princess Noelle.

  NO!

  Esther Anna was struck with a sharp pain in her head that made her staggered back. She barely registered Noelle as she passed by, hardly regarding her in this state, barely sparing her a glance. This headache came with memories, and Esther Anna began to recall things, like the sight of Noelle prancing around naked form of one of the maids, Talia? Was it? That was when she saw the Princess with the dagger that sliced through the girls’ flesh and the blood was gathered into the tub below. The Princess bathed in her blood and muttered something in a strange language. She remembered it all, now.

  Tonight, Noelle had taken Esther Anna’s form to kill Pierre, with every intention of framing her for it. She had to escape or she would be convicted and sentenced to death for something she didn’t do. Esther Anna held her head as the headache started to subside, as pieces came together and the thought struck her: She had to get out of the palace.

  Esther Anna quickly fled, taking the stairs in bounds as she made her way down a corridor that would take her to a seldom used exit out of the palace. It took her a moment to realise that she was barefoot, but she didn’t care, as she needed to leave the palace before they discovered the body of her beloved husband. She passed by the corridor and heard two things simultaneously: A voice that belonged to Noelle, and her name, and the princess was even sobbing.

  “The queen…Esther just killed my father! Please find her, I think she collapsed or something, she’s at the King’s quarters!” Noelle exclaimed.

  Esther Anna went down on all fours quickly before she could be spotted, and she heard the guards comply with the princess’ plea, scattering into the palace. Once it was clear, she made her way down the corridor and bounded down the stairs before arriving at the exit. It was a place Pierre had showed her before, when he first gave her a tour of the palace grounds, one he said he would use when he wanted to leave the palace unseen to mingle with the people, much like her own father would do back home. As she made her way out of the palace, Esther Anna sprinted into the forest as fast as her legs could take her, she heard the palace alarm bells sound off.

  The search was on.

  Present time: Kingdom of Tibethia. Castle grounds.

  * * *

  Noelle stared at the guards with disgust. She hated incompetence, and they knew it. What was so hard in capturing someone? Wasn’t that all they were good for? Guarding and capturing? Spineless lot. She had half a mind to flay them; after all, she was the new highest-ranking person in the Tibethia, and was effectively their new queen. She smiled at the thought.

  “What do we do, princess?” The head of the guards asked with a puzzled expression on his face as he noticed the smile. How can she smile when her father has just been killed and she’s been told that the killer is still at large?

  Defiance eh? That can be corrected, but not now. Noelle feigned her grief, “Please… you have to find her. She killed the k
ing, didn’t you see his body?”

  The guard shifted, apparently uncomfortable in the presence of the grief-stricken princess.

  “Search everywhere. My father’s killer will not go unpunished. If she’s no longer on the castle grounds, go into the forest, that’s the only other place she could have gone. Let it be known, that nobody is to harbour the queen because she killed your king! Anyone found housing her, will be subject to the same fate that awaits her.”

  The guards nodded, obediently, and they stood at high alert. The head of the guard divided his men into teams and they dispersed, with the intent of spreading news of the queen’s unthinkable act to the people of Tibethia.

  Noelle grinned. Her plan worked seamlessly. Though her smile was also there because the thought of the look on her father’s face, that look of shock as he thought he was stabbed by his wife. Stupid old man. She huffed.

  It was time to consult her book again to make sure she was on the right path.

  Once inside her room, she shut the door. The dark spell book was in sight and she felt a sense of euphoria. She picked it up, reveling in the feeling that coursed through her body, and admired the engravings on the hard cover, and the recollection of her first encounter with the book quickly came back to her.

  The princess was just seven-years-old, playing in the palace, and she slipped while running through the halls. Noelle tumbled down the stairs, suffering the aches and minor breaks of her bones but more notably, she had badly scratched her face. Pierre had hired the best healers and brought them to examine and treat her as best they could. Many of them had told them that the face wound would never be fully healed as it would most definitely leave a scar. Plenty others, however, tempted by the huge amount of coin offered, decided to try unorthodox means to make sure the wound healed and left no scar behind. Over the course of a year, Noelle underwent several procedures and had various herbs and concoctions applied to her wound. However, they only served to make her plight worse as the scar became even worse than it had been from the start. Eventually, Pierre ordered the treatment to be stopped as it was doing more harm than good. At around that time, her mother died and he’d withdrawn into himself. Noelle had felt alone and unattractive and with a determination unlike any an eight-year-old, she decided to find her own way to heal her terrible scar.

  Just a few years later, while scouring the library’s medical books, she happened on a book that didn’t quite fit in that section, assuming its former owner had stuck it between two books in a hurry, to keep it from being discovered. Noelle set it back and ran to her room in a hurry, as she knew Tibethia’s stance on practicing the dark arts. If anyone caught her with the book, it would be grounds for prosecution.

  Unbeknownst to her, from the moment she touched the book, the damage had already been done.

  For days, Noelle was unable to take her mind off the book. She even indulged in other activities to distract herself, but that that didn’t work for long. Eventually, the princess returned to the library to check on the book, compelled to see it again. It pulsed with a life of its own, beckoning her in ways she didn’t fully understand. It begged to be used, prodded her thoughts and tempted her until eventually it completely clouded her mind. The book had an immense power and with the few things she’d discovered about it, Noelle knew she had barely scratched the surface. In time, she would unveil its true power. At this rate, she would live forever, thanks to the blood spell she’d found. It would keep her young and beautiful. A blood spell that would maintain her youth.

  Immortality.

  She was determined to master all of the secrets the book had to offer. This was her destiny. She was to be more than just the Princess of Tibethia. She would rule the world.

  While she’d perused through the well-worn pages of the book, she’d discovered a flaw to her plan, a warning. The book may have promised her immeasurable power with unlimited potential, as long as she was willing to shed her humanity. There was also the matter of a person who may stand in her way, given the chance. According to the declaration, a person of pure heart would be able to stop her. At first, she’d taken this warning with a pinch of salt. It seemed so far-fetched, as if there was anyone left in the world with a pure heart. Noelle was sure there was no such thing, that everyone’s heart was tainted with sin. No heart in existence was wholly pure and true.

  Then she’d met Esther Anna.

  Noelle instantly caught on to her step-mother for what she was: a threat that needed to be removed. It came with a relief that the queen naively latched onto her kindness and generosity as a call for friendship, but Princess Noelle just felt comfortable having her in her sights as often as possible, as she plotted her downfall. Even the book felt irritated by Esther Anna’s presence, but that had only confirmed what Noelle already suspected. Esther Anna was the person of pure heart that was mentioned.

  Noelle had cursed her luck at first. What a coincidence that the very person who could destroy her plan was the very person her father had married? It amazed her and irritated her to no end. However, Noelle was quick to adapt, using all of that to her advantage and her entire attitude had adjusted. The queen had played into her hands so easily. By the end of the night, she would be gone and there would be no one left to threaten her rise to absolute power.

  Absolute power. The thought excited her.

  Noelle was pulled out of her thoughts by a sound that came from her left, and quickly, she hid the book out of sight as a guard made his way in, his armor clinking and clamoring as he walked. He bowed low and told her that she had been sent to her along with other guards for extra protection until the queen was found, to which she smiled and nodded, appeased by this declaration. The guard rose from his spot and made his exit to take up post at her door.

  Everything is going as planned… When I find Esther Anna, everything will be right on track…

  Page by page, she flipped through the book, in search of her ultimate weapon. Those incompetent guards couldn’t be trusted to carry out the task she so needed a contingency plan. She’d devised a different plan, one with a lower chance of failure. Failure was not an option.

  Aha!

  The relentless page-turning stopped when she discovered the page she’d been looking for. The creature outlined in the page was exactly what she needed. The illustration gazed back at her, seemingly aware of her plot, as if it were simply waiting for her to say the words to set him free. It was a simple summoning spell. Simple because as far as spells go, she’d carried out far tougher spells than a simple summoning. Noelle scanned the page for the necessary ingredients she would need and immediately set about locating them. Her store of dark ingredients would have wowed even the most seasoned of dark practitioners. The final ingredient had been taken care of, so she didn’t need to worry about it.

  She laid out the ingredients as instructed and then took a knife from her drawer. With a flourish, she slit her palm and squeezed the blood onto the mixture. A dark cloud of smoke slowly appeared and spread around the room. It covered every nook and cranny, before reverting into itself and then it vanished completely.

  Noelle smirked as she gazed at the subject of her summoning. The Woodsman, Damien. He stood at an impressive height, and his frightening features were only rivaled by his ghastly looking blades. His pointed ears twitched slightly as he surveyed the room, his yellow tinged eyes carefully taking in the sights. His weapons glistened wickedly even in the poorly lit room. If there was anyone who could locate her target and go about stealing her innocence, it would be him. Damien was a mysterious creature who resided in the Black Abyss and stayed there until called upon. He was an excellent tracker. He never asked questions, and always got the job done.

  The woodsman regarded her with a kind of detached awareness, though he didn’t move at all.

  Noelle studied the brooding woodsman and felt content. Her worries were over. With Damien on her tail, the queen would not get very far, and his success in stealing her innocence would mean her triumph. She ru
bbed her hands together in glee. This is going to be fun!

  “You summoned me?” Damien’s rich baritone rang out.

  “Yes, woodsman, I did. How do you fare?”

  Damien arched a mangled eyebrow at her attempt at small talk. He was clearly a straight-to-business being and found the idle chatter, humorous and yet mildly annoying. He remained silent for a short while, and then settled back to a relaxed expression, a cold and silent steel.

  “Okay, right to it then. Your target is Esther Anna Lapointe. She’s the erstwhile queen of this kingdom, as I’m sure you’re already aware. This woman is a thorn in my side and I need you to track her down. When you find her, I want you to steal her innocence.”

  He nodded quietly, his eyes fixated on her as she moved through the room.

  “I’m certain you recognise this, yes?” Noelle asked, as she raised the book, and there was a hint of recognition in his eyes.

  “She’s one of pure heart, I presume.”

  Noelle simply nodded.

  “It will be done.” Without further ado, Damien vanished in a puff of smoke.

  Now alone, that sinister smile played across her lips. She twirled in sheer delight, but cut that celebration short when a guard walked in. He looked around curiously, noting the slight mess on the floor.

  “Everything okay, princess? We heard voices…” The guard looked around the room, eyes narrowed to slits and hand resting tensely on his weapon.

  Noelle opted for a tired look when he glanced at her after searching the room. “No captain, I’m the only one here. Is there any news of Esther Anna’s capture?” She couldn’t hide the anticipation in her voice, but she knew the guard would just assume that she was expectant to see her father’s killer brought to justice.