Comet Rising

by MarcyKate Connolly

  The moon has vanished from sight, and the remaining anxiety releases my limbs.

  “Do you…do you know what happened to my family after Lady Aisling took me away?” Nova asks.

  “They were bespelled, made to believe you were at a school for talented children. But they’re safe now.”

  Pearl pipes up. “I can take you to them if you’d like.”

  Nova grins. “Yes, please.”

  My palms are sweaty as I approach Dar. She has fallen asleep on a bench, pale and wan, as though battling her sister took something vital out of her. Now that I have the full story of what happened between them and experienced Lady Aisling for myself, I understand Dar a little better. We have had our ups and downs, but I’ve seen the good in her between the darkness. Even as wrongheaded as she’s been since she escaped, she still tried to help. She even saved my life. I have to believe it is who she was meant to be. I just want to be sure she agrees.

  “Dar,” I whisper. “Wake up.”

  Slowly her eyes flutter open. “Emmeline?” she says groggily.

  I kneel next to her. “You look different now.”

  “You don’t.” Dar says, her shoulders drooping. Her talent has not returned yet. It must be eating away at her.

  My heart hurts. Once we were literally inseparable. Close as sisters. Not anymore. But maybe we can heal the rift between us. At the very least, it’s worth it to try.

  To my surprise, Dar speaks before I do. “I’m sorry Lucas got caught by Lady Aisling. I never meant for that to happen.” For once, she looks truly sincere. In fact she’s been oddly calm ever since her sister lost her talent.

  “Why did you switch places with Noah anyway? And why were those guards chasing you through the market?”

  Dar sighs. “My plan was to sneak into Lady Aisling’s estate while the rest of you were busy in the market. But I didn’t get very far before the guards recognized Noah. I hadn’t expected that.”

  I laugh. “Of course, they had captured him once, but we rescued him from their camp. You must have run into one of the guards from their search party.” So she didn’t betray us intentionally after all. That’s a relief.

  “I felt terrible that Lucas was caught. I couldn’t let Lady Aisling take you too. That’s why I took your shape.”

  “You were protecting me?”

  Dar nods. “I promised you we’d always take care of each other. I meant it.” She draws her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. “What will happen to me now?”

  “I don’t know. What do you want to do?” Revenge has been the driving force behind Dar’s every move for so long she seems a little lost now that it’s complete.

  She opens her mouth as if to speak, then shuts it again with a puzzled expression. “I never thought that far ahead before,” she says. “But now… I think I’d like to stay with you. If you’ll let me.”

  Hope dances across Dar’s features, and I can’t help but smile. “I believe we can arrange that.”

  She suddenly frowns. “But not in that cage. I need to be free. That’s what I want most.”

  “Lady Aisling did a horrible thing to you,” I say. “But now that her talent is destroyed, you have no more need for revenge. Do you want to move past this and finally be free of your sister?” I put on my best pleading look, praying that Dar agrees.

  “Yes,” she says. “I’ve been terrible to you. I couldn’t see it before. I’m so, so sorry for everything I did.”

  Then she starts to cry.

  I wrap my arms around her. She curls into my shoulder, sobbing. Dar sniffles and wipes her eyes. “I promise I’ll be better this time.”

  “I believe you,” I say and mean it.

  Everyone deserves a second chance.

  Epilogue

  We have spent the last week journeying back to Parilla—to my first home. Lucas, his parents, Noah, and Dar have all traveled with me. Before we left Zinnia, we set the network to finding the original homes of Simone and the other shells. Lady Aisling’s power over them faded when her talent disappeared, but like Dar, the damage had already been done. They are free to act on their own again, but they’ll never be the same as they once were.

  Now there is one final thing for me to put right.

  When we reach Parilla, my heart tangles in my throat. And when we finally arrive at the entrance to my parents’ estate, my chest feels like it’s been hollowed out. The mansion I once called home is so familiar, yet after all I’ve seen and done, it’s also foreign at the same time.

  It is the height of midday as we walk up the path to the front door. White brick walls rise in front of us, bleached like a skeleton in the sun. Vines creep over them, leaving restless shadows in their wake. I could grab onto them and shimmy up to my old room if I wanted to.

  But that sort of entrance would not be well received.

  Dar smiles encouragingly as we pause at the front door. Ever since her sister’s powers were destroyed, she has been trying to make amends. This is the last wrong to set right: Lord Tate.

  That fateful night when I agreed to Dar’s assistance in changing Tate’s mind and to help her become flesh in return is a bitter regret. It started everything. On the road here, she admitted she lied to me before: she cannot undo the damage done to him. She hoped to tweak something here and there to make him change his mind, but it was a foolish plan and not a thing she’d ever attempted before. As my shadow, a little of my talent bled off and left bits and pieces of shade inside him. Little did she know it would send him spiraling into a coma from which he might never awake. We searched Lady Aisling’s estate for him but found no trace. But after we caught Alden, one of Lady Aisling’s guards and Tate’s nephew, hiding out in the town, he told me Lord Tate remained here at my parents’ home. The doctors could not make heads or tails of his ailment and were too afraid to move him.

  Noah came with us, too, in the hopes he can remove the magic keeping Tate comatose.

  Miranda puts her hands on my shoulders. “We’re right here with you, Emmeline.”

  They all know I’m terrified to see my parents again. They might refuse to even let me inside the house. I won’t know until I knock.

  Lucas takes my hand and nudges me toward the door. Together we lift the knocker and strike twice. The sound clangs in my ears; I never realized how loud it was. My hands quiver, and I clasp them in front of me.

  The door opens, and one of the servants, Kendra, sees me on the steps. Her mouth drops open at the same time mine does. She recoils but doesn’t think to shut the door on us.

  Alfred speaks first. “We’re here to see the lord and lady of the house. May we have an audience?”

  Kendra manages to close her mouth and lets us enter the house.

  “Just a moment, please, while I let them know you’re here.” She ducks away, no doubt thrilled to put distance between us.

  A cold ache begins at the small of my back, worming its way up my spine. This is not the best reception. But what else can I hope for?

  A few minutes later, rustling skirts alert me to my mother hurrying down the hall. When she reaches the atrium, she lets out a small cry. My father is right behind her.

  “Emmeline! We were worried about you.” My mother eyes the rest of our little company. “Who are all these people?”

  A heady lightness washes over me. This is not at all the greeting I feared. “You were worried about me?”

  “The last few weeks…months? Everything’s been…hazy,” Father says. “We’re not sure what happened exactly.”

  “It was the Lady and the boy she brought with her,” Mother says, her pretty brow creasing. “She arrived to evaluate her emissary’s condition a few days after you ran off. She promised her guards would find you and would bring you to her school for talented children who wish to be cured. I don’t recall much more than that.”

 
“But a few days ago, everything changed,” Father says. “It was like we’d been under a fog, and it suddenly lifted. That’s when we found these strange letters in a drawer in my study. All of them exactly the same and signed by you. We knew something wasn’t right. We sent runners to all the other noble houses in Parilla and Zinnia in the hopes they had heard something. But no one had.”

  I shudder as understanding courses through me. Lady Aisling bespelled my parents, even though I’d already run away. She even sent the fake letters to ensure they would never question what had happened to me. And she’d be free to steal my talent with no one the wiser.

  “But now you’re back,” Mother says, tentatively placing a hand on my shoulder. Alfred and Miranda exchange a small smile. They know as well as I that this is more affection than my parents have shown me in years.

  “These are my friends. Some of them are talented too, like me. You’ve been under a spell cast by Lady Aisling. That was the strange woman who arrived after I left, and the boy was probably her memory stealer. You can thank Noah”—I point him out—“for freeing you from her spell. And the rest of my friends for helping to defeat her. The cure you were promised was a ruse. She wasn’t running a school, she was stealing talented children like me and taking their powers for herself. It was terrible.”

  My mother’s face is aghast. “That is horrible.” She releases her grip on me. “Emmeline, I am glad you’re home. I don’t remember much, but this big house was empty without you.”

  “I’m sorry we tried to send you away to be cured,” Father says. “We had no idea what she was really doing.”

  Tears burn in the backs of my eyes. These are words I never expected to hear my parents say. “Thank you,” I say. “I have so much to tell you. But first I must find Lord Tate. Is he in the same rooms?”

  “Yes, he is.”

  We march up the stairs and down the hall to the guest wing, the old familiar shadows gathering at the hem of my skirt. We pass gawking servants who duck into alcoves and pretend they weren’t staring as we pass. Have they been wondering what really happened to me and why my parents have seemed unconcerned? Lady Aisling’s spell certainly explains why they didn’t come after me right away. Only Lady Aisling and her hunters did.

  The familiar guest rooms with their fine wall hangings and furnishings greet us, along with a doctor who regards us as though we have three heads each.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” He blocks our path into the bedroom. Lord Tate is just visible beyond him, a wan form lying limp in the guest bed.

  “We’re here to help,” I say.

  The doctor scoffs. “What do you think you can do? You’re only children.”

  My father waves the doctor aside. “Let them try.”

  The doctor frowns, but steps aside.

  Dar, Noah, and I enter, while Lucas and his parents remain in the doorway to give us space. Noah immediately grabs hold of Tate’s hand, working his magic. He has come so far in using his talent, especially when he didn’t know he had one not that long ago. But Tate does not wake. Not one eye flickers open, not one finger twitches. He remains exactly as before, chest rising and falling in shallow breaths, face pale as death.

  Noah opens his eyes in confusion, releasing Tate’s cold hand. “I don’t understand,” he says. “It’s like I can’t find any magic in him to nullify. But there should be, shouldn’t there?”

  Dar shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m not entirely sure how I did it to begin with. All I know is that some pieces of shadow were left behind, and they’re causing the problem.”

  I consider. “Perhaps the shadows were left behind, but no magic. And if that’s the case, maybe I can help him after all.”

  I step forward, heart in my throat, clenching and unclenching my fists at my sides. I need to get this right. I’m Tate’s last chance at ever waking up. Somehow I feel this responsibility most of all. It may have been Dar who did it, but it was my fear that gave her leave to try.

  I close my eyes to focus on Tate. I call for the wayward shadows, every scrap that was left behind, to loosen their hold. Little by little, the tiny shadows respond. Soon, they whisper around my fingers like circling rings.

  I open my eyes. And find myself staring into Tate’s.

  He blinks several times as his mouth hangs open. The doctor rushes forward as he realizes it actually worked. Dar bursts into tears, but all I feel is relief.

  I may not have liked this man, I may have even feared him, but he can’t hurt me anymore. Not with Lady Aisling gone. I’m glad he’s been put right again, but I don’t feel the need to remain here and indulge in boring conversations. I slip out the door, past my mother and Lucas and his family.

  They let me go, sensing I need time alone. But Dar pads after me, knowing these halls as well as I do. Silently, we head for the kitchens, though they’re empty now in the middle of the afternoon. A tray of lemon drop cookies cools on the counter, and I grab one just like I always used to do. For the first time, Dar takes a cookie of her own. Then we sneak out the kitchen door into the backyard, as we did a hundred times as girl and shadow. The sun is high over our heads, making the shadows short and sharp, but that doesn’t matter right now. The woods beyond the field are dark and deep, and the only place we want to be.

  I smile at Dar and take her hand. Eyes glistening, she smiles back. Then we break into a run.

  Acknowledgments

  Every book is a new adventure with unique challenges and surprises, and Comet Rising is no exception. As I approached the drafting of this book, I (naively) assumed that I had it down (it is, after all, my fourth published novel—this whole writing thing should be easy now, right?). But while writing this book and promoting the first in the series, I was also experiencing being a first-time mom and working part time—all on a very tiny amount of sleep. I am infinitely grateful for the patience and flexibility of my excellent team at Sourcebooks and New Leaf as I worked through those challenges!

  Particular thanks to the following lovely people:

  My wonderful editor, Annie Berger, and the rest of the Sourcebooks team, especially Sarah Kasman, Alex Yeadon, Cassie Gutman, Stephanie Graham, Heidi Weiland, and Valerie Pierce, for making my book shine and coordinating such wonderful events—it’s a joy to work with all of you!

  Suzie Townsend and Sara Stricker at New Leaf Literary & Media, for, well, everything. These books wouldn’t have happened without you!

  My husband Jason—thank you for putting up with my crazy schedule and being so supportive while we adjusted to life with a real baby in addition to book babies.

  And last but not least, all the booksellers who have been so supportive of this series, and you, my readers. I hope you enjoyed spending time with these characters as much as I have!

  About the Author

  MarcyKate Connolly is a New York Times bestselling children’s book author who lives in New England with her family and a grumble of pugs. Like the main character in her Shadow Weaver duology, she once had an imaginary friend who did very naughty things like eating directly from the sugar bowl and playing hide-and-seek with her parents—without telling them—whenever they went to department stores. Later in life, she graduated from Hampshire College (a magical place where they don’t give you grades), where she wrote an opera sequel to Hamlet as the equivalent of a senior thesis. It was also there that she first fell in love with plotting and has been dreaming up new ways to make life difficult for her characters ever since. You can visit her online and learn more about her stories at marcykate.com.

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