Shadow Weaver Series, Book 1

by MarcyKate Connolly

  Dar settles on the floor next to me. They’re fools, she says. They don’t see how perfect you are, just as you are.

  I sniffle and wrap my arms around my knees. “I don’t want to be cured. I don’t want to lose my shadows. And I don’t want to lose you.”

  Dar slithers up onto the window seat. You’ll never lose me.

  Tears sting my eyes, and the scene outside my window blurs. “Do you think it’s true? Do you think this Lady Aisling can actually cure someone of magic?”

  No. My shadow turns so dark I can no longer see through her. Tate is nothing but a liar. There was still something very not normal about Simone.

  “What do you think they did to her?” I shiver at the memory of Simone’s strange gaze.

  Nothing good. There’s a difference between breaking and curing.

  Before I can respond, someone knocks on my door, startling me to my feet. “Emmeline? Are you in there?”

  “Yes, Father,” I say, quickly grabbing a book and curling up in the nearest chair. He opens the door and regards me steadily. No trace of regret in his eyes. Just finality. My heart sinks into my toes.

  He pulls up a chair and sits across from me. “Emmeline, you have been offered a wonderful opportunity, and your mother and I have decided you will take it.”

  Opportunity? Is that what he calls it? Dar huffs.

  “What kind of opportunity?” I ask warily, already knowing the answer all too well.

  “Our guest, Lord Tate, feels for your…predicament, and he wants to help. He and his patroness Lady Aisling have taken many children just like you under their wings in Zinnia, and they’ve given them a chance for a wonderful life. All the advantages and education you could want.”

  Because that is just what every child wants, Dar says. I try to stifle my smile, but my father sees it and misunderstands.

  “Good, I’m glad to see you smile. You will be leaving with him tomorrow. We will miss you, but you may come home on holidays. I know it will be the best thing for you.” He stands, looking more relieved than he has a right to be.

  “Wait.” I grab his hand as panic boils over inside my chest. “What if I don’t want to go? I want to stay here. I love it here. This is my home, my woods, my family. I don’t need to go anywhere else.”

  His face settles into a stern expression. “Don’t you want to learn how to be a proper young lady?”

  My face blanches. “Well, of course, but—”

  “Someday, you will inherit this estate. You cannot run it with your magic, and the servants will not continue to work here if they fear you. You have to learn some self-control. It is for the best.”

  “Please, don’t make me go. I’ll—” I swallow the lump in my throat. “I’ll never use my shadows anywhere but in my own room or the woods again. I won’t talk to Dar when anyone else is around. I’ll—”

  “Stop, Emmeline.” Father pulls his hand out of my grasp. “This is not up for debate. Too much damage has already been done. Someday you will thank us.” With that, he leaves and doesn’t look back to see how his words affect his only child. When the door closes, it is like a death knell on the life I’ve loved.

  “I don’t want to go.” My tears begin in earnest now. All the things I love would be left behind. The bottom shelf of the bookcase stuffed full of shadow toys inspired by the characters from my storybooks. The woods where I can run free and play with the shadows that live between the trees. My family, my home—everything I know is here. “What will I do?”

  My shadow flares red for a brief moment, then curls around me. I can help you, Emmeline. I can ensure you will never have to go anywhere with that man. But you must agree to help me in return.

  Hope kindles in my heart. I can always count on Dar. “Yes! Please! I’ll do anything.”

  A darker patch of shadow curves into a smile. You are too good for them. They don’t deserve you. I will take care of it tonight. You needn’t worry about a thing.

  My hope tempers. “Will I have to sneak out to the guest quarters?”

  You won’t have to do anything. I can stretch myself thin as a string while you sleep.

  “I could hug you, Dar. Thank you,” I say. “But what do you need my help with?”

  Dar hesitates. There is something I have never told you, Emmeline.

  “What do you mean?” A warm, prickly feeling crawls over my back.

  I was not always a shadow.

  My jaw drops. I have often wondered where Dar came from, but she has always sidestepped my curious hints. Is she a creature born from my magic or did she exist before I came along?

  “How is that possible?” I ask.

  I was once human, but now I am only a lost soul. I want to become flesh again. I want to live. Only a person like you, a shadow weaver, can help me. Then we’ll never be alone and we can always take care of each other.

  “But how did you become a lost soul?”

  My shadow unravels and spreads out under my feet. I do not like to remember all that I have lost. Not when I have gained you.

  “I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wish to.”

  Dar is silent for a few moments as she glides to the other side of the floor. But when she circles back, she speaks. I—I died in a horrible accident. It was painful and sudden and cursed me to wander as a lost soul.

  “Oh Dar,” I say. “Why didn’t you tell me this before? If I’d known sooner, I would have done anything to help you become whole again.”

  My shadow shrugs. It is asking a lot. I did not wish to be a burden. But this situation threatens us both.

  “Don’t be silly. You’re my best friend. What can I do?” The idea of Dar being flesh and blood, a real human girl, is utterly thrilling, despite the otherwise grave circumstances.

  It is a ritual, and there is much preparation to be done. It must be performed at the height of the blood moon, a rare event that will occur during this lunar cycle. But those details can wait. First, I will take care of Tate.

  “How?” I ask, suddenly curious.

  Change his mind, of course. I will alter his mind completely.

  I frown, a whisper of apprehension brushing over me. “You won’t do anything that will hurt him, though, right?”

  Of course not. I can fix everything without a single drop of blood or ounce of pain.

  Dar seems to grow, gathering more shadow to her. And when I lie down in my bed and pull the covers over me, she stretches herself under the door and slinks down the hall, until all I can see is the thin line of darkness that tethers her to my feet.

  Chapter Five

  Screams wake me the next morning. Instinct has me reaching for Dar and gathering all the shadows in the room around me before I realize I’m not in any danger.

  The screams come from the guest wing of the mansion. Fear pricks at the back of my brain. “What could have happened?” I wonder aloud, and for once, Dar has no response.

  I fling off the covers and throw on my robe and slippers, then open my door. It is silent now, nary a servant in sight. Strange for the family quarters at this time of day. Curiosity carries me on light feet to the other end of the house.

  An army of servants mutter and wring their hands outside the guest rooms. The ones belonging to Lord Tate.

  Dread slides over my skin. Kendra notices me, then quickly drops her eyes and limps back to the wall, her pale hair falling over her face. A fear I somehow never truly saw before last night spreads through the crowd like wildfire. They draw back, some running off down the opposite corridor. All have faces twisted with the same slate of emotions: fear, suspicion. Even hate.

  Dar winds around my ankles. They are stupid. They don’t know any better than to fear what they don’t understand.

  That is why I need Dar. She understands, like no one ever has nor ever will. Unexpected tears brim in my eyes.
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  You’ve done no wrong. Hold your head up, and pay them no mind.

  Drawing strength from my shadow, I do as she suggests, and march forward to the now unguarded door. Something must have happened to Lord Tate. “Was he all right when you left him?” I whisper to Dar.

  He was perfect.

  For some reason, I don’t find that as comforting as I’d hoped. I step into the room to find my parents and Tate’s entourage surrounding the bed. My parents say nothing upon my arrival, only giving me a stern glance. Tate’s servants show me the same fear and disgust as my own. It rolls off them in hot waves. Only that strange little girl, Simone, seems oblivious to my presence. She stands by the foot of the bed, staring wide-eyed at her master.

  He is terribly still. The bedclothes are so pristine that the bed hardly seems slept in. I cannot tell whether he even breathes. Last night his skin was tanned from a life spent in a sun-kissed land; today his face is as pale as the little girl’s. The doctor at his bedside is saying something about a coma, a deep sleep. No one can wake him.

  And then everyone looks at me.

  I should have stayed in my rooms this morning.

  Run, Dar says. I ignore her this time even though instinct says the same. Something tells me that would be the worst possible thing I could do right now.

  “Emmeline,” my father says. “What did you do?”

  Shock roots me to the floor. “What? I did nothing. I was asleep in my room last night.”

  “This is not one of your games?” Mother says, suspicion dancing across her features.

  How could they believe I would do this? “Of course not. I’d never hurt anyone.”

  I swallow a twinge of guilt as I think of Kendra’s twisted ankle and the last guest’s broken arm.

  Tate’s nephew Alden speaks up. “I saw what you did last night. We know you can work with shadows.”

  “So?” I fold my arms over my chest.

  Run, Emmeline, Dar says again, with more urgency this time. But now the servants have closed the door behind me, and I can feel the hum of their presence on the other side. I wouldn’t get far.

  “There was a witness.”

  “Good, then they can tell you it wasn’t me,” I say. My bold words mask the uncertainty I feel inside. The witness must be one of the servants. Would they lie just to spite me? Has everyone in this house turned against me and Dar?

  The man scowls. “All the witness saw was a long shadow with no one nearby to cast it. They chalked it up to a trick of the light until Lord Tate was found this morning.”

  Horror sinks into my skin like oil. Dar said she’d make sure I didn’t have to go with Tate…and now this. But she claims Tate was fine when she left him. She said that she was just going to change his mind and yet…

  I don’t know what to think anymore. All I know is Dar was the only shadow I sent into that room. If she did something, the fault is mine.

  Dar perches on my shoulder and whispers in my ear. You are not to blame, Emmeline. I told you, it is easy for them to lash out at what they do not understand.

  The man addresses my father. “She must not be allowed to harm anyone else. I have sent for the best Zinnian physicians to heal Lord Tate. But if he dies, she must return with us to Zinnia for punishment.”

  My father steps forward and grabs my arm, ushering me out of the room and back down the hall before I can recover my wits enough to object.

  • • •

  The servants do not spare me their sidelong glances as my father drags me back to my chambers.

  “We have had enough, your mother and I,” Father says. “We can take no more of this behavior of yours. For years, we have protected you, even after—” He swallows hard instead of finishing his sentence, but I hear what he does not say.

  “I didn’t do anything to Lord Tate. I swear it,” I say, but he pays me no mind. When we reach my rooms, he flings the door open and drops me unceremoniously on my bed. Dar is ruby red by now and spreads over half the floor.

  My father faces me with a resigned expression. “This is too much, Emmeline. You and your shadow weaving, all the strange tricks you play. We have lost nearly all the friends we ever had since…since what happened with Rose. Our very place in society is threatened, and this was a chance to redeem ourselves. The Zinnian nobles are powerful and would have made strong allies.”

  I wrap my arms around my middle to stop them from shaking. I had no idea that was the case, let alone that my parents blamed me for the incident all this time. It was just an accident.

  “All we asked was for you to give the cure a chance. It could have allowed all of us to have a better life.” Father shakes his head. “But you couldn’t do it. You couldn’t just go with him and try. You had to do this.”

  “I was asleep in my rooms the whole time—”

  My father holds up his hand. “Stop. Enough lies, Emmeline. The doctors aren’t sure what you did, but who else could cause a shadow to enter a room without being there to cast it?”

  I wish I had a good response, something—anything—with which to deny that one troubling fact. I glance at Dar, who has been strangely silent during this exchange with my father. What did she do? Did she go too far? Was this how she planned to keep me from having to go away to Zinnia? Dar is loyal to a fault, that I know. But would she do this? And if so, how? She is only a shadow.

  A thousand questions tumble through my brain, but no answers follow. My father takes my hands and his expression softens.

  “Emmeline, if you did something accidentally and didn’t mean to, tell us what happened and the doctors might be able to fix it. You can make this right.”

  It’s a trick, Dar whispers. He wants you to admit to harming Lord Tate. Then they’ll have to give you up to the Zinnians for punishment and be rid of you for good. Even the cure they offered before would be better than that.

  I hardly know what to think. If I tell him I sent Dar into Tate’s room, I may as well be sentencing myself to be punished by the Zinnians. But if I don’t, then I’m lying. A gulf yawns at my feet, and it’s up to me to decide whether to leap across.

  I twist my fingers together in my lap, then stare into my father’s eyes and shake my head. “It wasn’t me.”

  He straightens up and releases my hands. “I thought we raised you better than this.” He leaves my room, the lock in the door clicking loudly behind him.

  Even to me, my words taste like lies.

  Chapter Six

  I sit in stunned silence on the edge of my bed, unable to fully comprehend what this means for me. Dar slides over and settles onto the ivory lace bedspread.

  “Dar, what happened when you visited Tate last night?” My voice trembles.

  I told you, I changed his mind. It’s not my fault his mind is weak.

  I stare at her, fear creeping over me like a long shadow. It has always been Dar by my side. How can I doubt my only friend?

  You cannot remain here, she says, interrupting my thoughts. You must flee.

  “I can’t,” I say, twisting my hands in the blanket.

  Staying would be infinitely worse. Trust me, you do not want to feel the Zinnians’ wrath. They are more dangerous than you know, and Lord Tate was only the tip of the iceberg.

  I frown. “You know the Zinnians? But how?”

  Dar turns a shade so dark she looks like a blotch of ink spilled on my bed. I grew up in Zinnia. It is a terrible place. Oh, it is sunny, and the rolling green hills are lovely to be sure, but the people are bred with evil in their bones.

  I shudder. “What happened to you, Dar? I know you said there was an accident, but how did you become a lost soul?”

  She hesitates, like she isn’t sure she should tell me. My parents were poor, and I was put to work when I was a little older than you. I was in training to be a seamstress. I loved it, making pretty things from bolt
s of cloth. Perhaps that’s what drew me to you. Your shadow weaving reminds me of it. Dar slides off my bed and onto the floor again. One day a haughty young noblewoman, Lady Aisling, paid a visit to the shop.

  A lump wells in my throat. “Lady Aisling? The same woman Lord Tate works for?”

  Yes, the very one.

  I shudder.

  Lady Aisling’s visit began as usual. We took her measurements and helped her select rich fabrics and colors and bows for an array of clothing. But when my mistress told her it would be a whole week until her massive order was completed, everything fell apart.

  Dar pauses and her edges redden. “What happened?” I ask, unable to contain my curiosity.

  She threw a fit. Screaming and cursing at us, insisting we were the laziest dressmakers she’d ever known. All while she tore through the shop, upending boxes and throwing around anything that wasn’t pinned down to the floor. The fit was so violent that it knocked an entire wall of heavy bolts of fabric down on my head. I did not survive it.

  “How did your soul get lost?” I have to admit, it seems very unusual to me.

  I am not entirely sure. One minute, the bolts were falling, and the next I was floating through a haze, only able to see bits and scraps of the human world. I have been wandering these lands ever since.

  “I am so sorry. That is awful.”

  All the nobles in Zinnia are just like Lady Aisling. Haughty, selfish, and cruel. When they are angered, they’re terrifying. I cannot bear the thought of you being on the receiving end of it too.

  My breath catches in my throat. I know it would be foolish to run, but would it really be worse to stay? Could Dar be right?

  “But I love it here. I don’t want to leave my home.” That is the crux of the problem. I don’t want to go, which is why I agreed to the deal with Dar in the first place. So I could stay.

  Dar runs her cool, shadowy fingers through my hair. I know you do. We both do. But if you remain, the Zinnians will take you away anyway.

  A chill slithers over me. “To punish me, you mean?”