The Book Of Shade (Shadeborn 1)

by Finn, K. C.

“I do a bit of nails, a bit of lippy, but none of that Oompa Loompa spray-tan crap,” Lily promised.

  “So if I find orange fingerprints on my kettle, it wasn’t you?”

  “Right.”

  They laughed together as Lily relaxed back onto her new bed, finding the mattress surprisingly thick. It wouldn’t take her long to settle in, or to unpack for that matter, so she made up her mind to help Jazzy with all the kitchen stuff instead.

  “Are you not going to that club tonight?” Jazzy asked when they were trying to repair her fallen-apart toaster.

  Lily shook her head. “I actually bothered to read my schedule,” she began proudly, “and there’s a welcome meeting for Modern History first thing tomorrow morning. I don’t fancy meeting my new prof with a hangover, especially since it’s probably going to be my favourite part of the course.”

  “Good thinking,” Jazzy replied. It was hard to see that she was visibly relieved. “What about the Illustrious Minds? It sounds really cool, all the stuff they do on that flyer.”

  Lily scooped up the lime leaflet that Michael had made such a show of handing to her, scanning it for details, but not really taking them in. She could feel Jazzy’s hopefulness a mile off.

  “I suppose I could come with you to the first one, just to see.”

  “Yeah, just to see Michael.”

  Jazzy grinned a dazzling grin, refocusing on the toaster. Lily flipped the flyer over to see if there was more on the back, only to find a scrawled note in black Sharpie. It read CALL ME, and there a mobile number etched underneath.

  “Cheeky git!” Lily said aloud. Jazzy’s eyes found the number and she nudged her friend with a look of triumph.

  “I told you!” she exclaimed. “He was so into you!”

  “Yeah,” Lily said with a curled lip, “and I wonder how many other girls got one of these from the bottom of the pile?”

  Welcome To Modern History

  Lily sat in the very centre of the seminar room, watching the bright morning sun filter in through the half drawn blinds. It was five minutes before the welcome was due to begin, and the room contained less people than Lily had fingers and toes. A few more dragged their feet in slowly as the minutes ticked away, some more enthused than others, but all with a general first-day gloom. A guy with black-as-coal skin edged in uncertainly and seated himself right at the front. Lily watched him tapping his pen against his leg repeatedly, until she realised that someone was speaking to her. A registration form and a welcome letter were being passed around. Lily took her copy and scanned the letter first.

  On paper, the professor was everything Lily had hoped she would be. Victoria Havers: MEd, PhD, resident expert on nineteenth century architecture, culture and literature. Her credentials and pursuits gave Lily a tingle of hope as she examined the letter more carefully, until the creak of a door caught her ears. Lily looked up, towards a private door down at the front of the lecture theatre, just in time to see a smartly-dressed woman entering and carrying a huge stack of books.

  Professor Havers was a worse-for-wear fortysomething with a curly mass of auburn frizz atop her head. She was petite, even from the distance where her students were seated, and Lily marvelled inwardly at how such a little woman had the strength to carry the twenty-odd textbooks she had deposited on her huge desk. The professor pinched the bridge of her long, thin nose for a moment, then she looked up into the theatre to survey the amount of students collected thus far. Lily watched her release a disappointed little sigh, but then she broke into an enthusiastic grin all the same.

  “Thank you for bothering to show up for the welcome and early registration everyone,” she began, her accent suitably clear and posh. “I am Professor Victoria Havers. Call me Vicky, and you won’t be the first student I’ve burned alive.”

  Lily and few other people laughed quietly.

  “You have a form each to complete so I know what degree path you’re following and such, but don’t bother with it just yet.”

  The guy at the very front of the room stopped filling in his, looking up to catch the professor’s wry look in his direction.

  “Instead, take a look at this.”

  Havers fired up a projector, and the whiteboard came to the life with a picture that slowly grew in focus. The professor scuttled off to shut the blinds, blocking the daylight as the room suddenly fell into silence. A corpse stared at the students from the display. It was a very old sepia photograph of a dead body, propped up on a chair like it was supposed to still be living. It was only the slack expression and the soulless eyes that really gave the scene away. The body was that of a woman, wearing all the finery of her time, but on the side of her neck she had a very dark bruise that was circular in shape.

  “Does anyone know what we call this?” Professor Havers asked.

  There was no response. Now’s your chance to shine, Coltrane. Lily slowly raised her hand. Havers found her and pointed expectantly.

  “Memento Mori,” Lily explained with a suddenly dry mouth. “The Victorians took photographs of their dead to have a lasting memory of them before they got buried.”

  Other people had started to look away from the projection now that they knew what it was. The boy at the front held his gaze without so much as a hesitation.

  “Very good,” Havers said with a little smile. “So here’s a mystery for you. This picture was taken the day after this lovely young lady passed on. Her husband claimed that she was struck by lightning at the side of her neck, where you see this mark.”

  Another click of the projector zoomed in on the neck section of the old photo. The dark circle on the woman’s throat was now in far better focus, making it look much more like a burn than a bruise. Lily wondered idly how long it would have taken the lightning to kill her, then tried to force the thought back out, like she was spitting a sour taste from her tongue. It was the last thing she needed to get stuck in her mind with the kind of nightmares she was prone to.

  “Her husband was lying,” Havers revealed. “This woman was most definitely electrocuted, but she was murdered by the hand of man.”

  The room was caught in silent fascination. Lily leaned forward in her seat, watching the professor give her new subjects an almost regal, satisfied smile.

  “Your task, before I see you next, is to tell me how I know that, just from looking at this picture.”

  Lily made a scribbling note on the side of her welcome letter.

  “When I have your completed forms, I’ll be putting you into smaller study groups,” the professor continued, flicking off the projection screen again, “so check your email for a date and time. We’ll have some little tutorials so I can get to know you better before classes begin. They’re mandatory, just in case you were thinking of asking.”

  And so began the process of actually filling in the boring registration forms. A little while later Lily handed hers in, eager to get back to her laptop and take a look at electrocution wounds online. She’d have to remember to pre-warn Jazzy that it was homework before she ran the risk of looking like a psycho on their second day of living together. At the professor’s desk, she was turning to leave when she smashed into an impossibly tall figure.

  “I’m so sorry Miss,” said the giant, stumbling back to reveal that he was the boy who’d been sat at the front on his own for the whole session. He smiled apologetically with bright teeth and big hazel eyes that reminded Lily of those of a faithful puppy.

  “It’s cool, don’t worry,” Lily said, taken aback by his politeness.

  The boy dropped his own form onto the desk and sloped off, with Lily watching him go. He wore old brown sandals at the ends of his jeans and, as he exited the room, Lily was surprised to see that they encased a pair of tattooed feet.

  The Illustrious Minds Literary Society

  The Newbie Meet had promised a free late lunch, so Lily and Jazzy were happy to see a buffet table as they entered the meeting room for the IMLS, at the top of the Tower Block. A few people were seated at tables, eatin
g and chatting so casually that they couldn’t possibly be new, so Lily guided Jazzy to the food and tried to disguise her awkwardness by filling up a plate with various sandwiches. They sat down in imitation of the other more relaxed people, who Lily now noticed were all girls. Michael was nowhere to be seen.

  “Do you think he’s just the bait to trick us into joining?” Lily whispered.

  “I think the fact that you like books is supposed to make you join,” Jazzy answered quite sincerely.

  Lily gave her a dark look, tucking into a slice of coronation chicken. “At least the food’s good,” she mumbled.

  Jazzy nodded her agreement, turning her attention to a girl that had stood up at front of the room. She looked a little older than Lily, with red hair that had probably come out of a bottle, and she cleared her throat several times before she was actually ready to speak.

  “Well, um, since the senior members aren’t here yet,” she said with a stammer, “I, um… As Vice President of the society, I welcome you to-”

  A noisy group of people suddenly entering the room drowned the poor girl out. Six highly enthused girls and one familiar, shaggy-haired blonde guy piled into the space and headed straight for the buffet. The shy redhead sank down into her seat again amid the din. The new group were loud and animated, all apparently on the same topic.

  “That bride thing was freaksville!”

  “What about the acrobats? Those guys have, like, no bones at all I swear.”

  “I think he must have had his feet tied to that tightrope, you know.”

  “Oh you’ve got an answer for everything Bianca!”

  “Almost everything. Bet you can’t explain the Monsieur.”

  “Nobody can explain the Monsieur!”

  Lily’s eyes fell on Michael as he loaded up a plateful of food, spinning to focus his pretty gaze on a girl nearby.

  “Yo! Yo!” Michael mocked as he sauntered through the tables. “What up Molly G? You have a good summer in da hood?”

  The girl he was talking to looked anything but ghetto. She was a tall, slim blonde who seemed like she would favour heading out for a run over cracking the spine of a book, and her track pants and sports vest were new and expensive-looking. She turned her head, a blonde pony-tail flicking over her shoulder, and rolled her eyes at Michael with a little grin.

  “I’ll bet it was cooler than yours, Mikey,” she retorted, balancing on the back two legs of her chair. She started pulling wayward tresses back towards her pony-tail, until her blue eyes found Lily watching her. “Oh hi,” she began in a much happier tone, “Are you girls looking to join up?”

  Michael followed Molly’s gaze, his eyes lighting up when he caught Lily’s vision flicker to him for a moment.

  “Probably,” Jazzy replied. “I’m Jazzy, this is Lily.”

  “Molly,” the girl said, patting her chest, “and this idiot is Michael Sampson. Avoid him at all costs.”

  “Too late,” Michael replied, sidling through the tables to sit on one just opposite Lily. “We’ve already met.” He grinned at her and offered his plate. “Sausage roll?”

  “I’m good thanks.” Lily suppressed the urge to giggle at the way he was trying to make baked goods into a flirting device.

  Molly brought her plate over and sat down next to Jazzy with a warm smile.

  “What are they all going on about over there?” Jazzy asked her, nodding towards the other girls who were still crowded at the buffet.

  “Oh, it’s the monthly theatre trip,” Molly said with a wave of her hand. “It was last night. I didn’t go.”

  “Aw you should have Molls,” Michael interjected with a sandwich halfway to his lips. “It was freaking sick. They had these holograms of dead bodies and they were, like, dancing whilst this crazy old gypsy conducted them. The effects were wicked.”

  Lily listened with a frown. “How is that literary?” she asked.

  Michael gave her another cheeky smile. “We have to use up the budget somehow. If you join you’ll get a free ticket every month. It’s awesome.” He leapt off the table and started fumbling in his jeans pockets, affording Lily a pretty nice view of his taught backside as he turned and searched his jacket. “Here, this is next time’s.”

  He handed her a crumpled playbill, and she had barely opened it before she felt Jazzy invading her space. Even as her eyes roved over the venue name’s the others around her were already consumed by conversation.

  “The Theatre Imaginique?” Jazzy read over her shoulder.

  “One show a month, by invitation only,” Molly said, pointing at the small print on the page. “It sounds like I missed a good one.”

  “I reckon this one’ll be better,” Michael added with an eager nod. “I remember the Bladeplay act last year; they nearly cut each other’s heads off.”

  He leaned down towards Lily until she could smell spice of the Lynx Africa deodorant seeping out of his shirt. His eyes crashed like ocean waves, glittering at her as he flashed another perfect smile.

  “What do you think Lils? Are you in?”

  It couldn’t hurt to try it.

  SEPTEMBER

  Study Buddies

  The term started with a bang no sooner than the Freshers’ Fair was over. Lily had met a few other people on her floor that were pretty friendly, but she seemed to have spent most of her time getting lost on the campus with Jazzy as they searched for their various classes. They had managed to get singed up and meet most of the different lecturers, techs and professors that they needed to get to know. Under Jazzy’s persuasion they had both emailed their details to the Illustrious Minds to make themselves official members, which meant they were obligated to attend a meeting every week if they wanted to get their free theatre tickets and discounts in the local coffee shop. When she thought of Michael’s cute little smile, Lily didn’t really mind the idea of giving up an hour or two of her Tuesday nights.

  As the proper business of actually studying and learning things loomed on the horizon, Lily got an email from Professor Havers for her first tutorial meeting. There was just one other person in her study group, a boy named Lawrence Seward, and they were scheduled for an evening slot one hour before the IMLS were due to meet. Promising to find Jazzy there as soon as she could, Lily took off with her trusty map and found the lecture hall once again. The private door behind the teacher’s desk was open, so Lily made a beeline for it, craning her head around the frame to peek inside.

  “Ah Miss Coltrane,” the professor said with an approving smile. “We’re just getting started.”

  Lawrence was already at the table. He was the impossibly tall guy Lily had crashed into, the polite one with tattoos on his feet. Today he wore trainers to cover them up, but where his long shirt sleeves ended, she caught sight of yet more lines of black ink tracing up his darker-than-coffee skin. Lily took the chair beside him and they exchanged mutually awkward smiles before both turning back to Professor Havers.

  “Now then,” she began, “You two kids have got the best academic records coming into my module, so I think it would be sensible for you to get to know each other.”

  Lily nodded, relieved that she hadn’t been bundled in with a moron at least. The professor gave them each an assignment schedule and went through a few particulars of the course that Lily tried not to tune out on. There was a lot of work, but the course was worth half her overall mark for the year. She nodded and smiled as much as possible, hoping to keep on-side with the professor, who would decide whether she actually survived the academic year or not. With this amount of work ahead, the final exams in June seemed a very long way away indeed.

  Just when they were wrapping things up, Lawrence cleared his throat. His deep voice had only been used thus far for saying ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in half whispers, but now he spoke in a louder tone.

  “Excuse me Professor,” he said, “but I think I’ve solved your electrocution mystery.”

  Havers leaned forward on her desk, pushing her fingers together at the tips and placing t
hem over the bridge of her nose. Her eyes glowed with curiosity at him.

  “Oh yes? Go ahead then Lawrence. Unless you too have a theory, Lily?”

  The quiver of defeat settled in Lily’s stomach. “Oh no,” she said regretfully. “I tried to look up some stuff online but I didn’t find much. Turns out it’s actually not a good idea to google ‘death by electrocution’ with the SafeSearch set to low.”

  Lawrence let out a soft, throaty chuckle.

  “It relies on knowing what to look for,” he explained. He turned his gaze back to the professor with a shadow of a smile on his lips. “The natural electricity in lightning and the current in an electric wire are two very different things,” he said. “A person struck by lightning has a different kind of mark on their skin. I, uh, I drew it-”

  Lawrence delved into the bag hanging off his chair arm and pulled out a notebook, turning to a page of scribbled information. He laid the book flat on the table for the others to see the pattern he had drawn in the corner. It looked like a plant, specifically a fern, starting with a thick core of lines at the centre and then fanning out into all sorts of little offshoots.

  “That’s a lightning flower,” Professor Havers explained, “or a Lichtenberg Figure, to give it its proper name. I’m impressed.”

  “So people who get hit by lightning get scarred like this?” Lily asked, pulling the book a bit nearer to see the perfect pattern again.

  “No,” Lawrence said, shaking his head. “These marks are temporary. The electricity sort of fries the blood capillaries and makes them visible under the skin. It fades after a few days, when the circulation comes back.”

  “Freaky,” she observed. “So that means the woman in the memento mori had a live wire shoved onto her neck on purpose? Because she certainly didn’t have one of these.”

  “Precisely,” Havers answered, still smiling.

  “That’s sick,” Lily replied.

  The professor just shrugged. “That’s the whole of human history, I’m afraid. If you’re going to study the relatively modern stuff, it’s important to remember that human nature didn’t change just because people became a bit more prim and proper.” Her eyes were hooded and serious as she became impassioned with her own words. “All the evils of the human world were right there amongst the stiff petticoats and the modest glances, it’s just that people had to get a tad cleverer about disguising them.”