The Book Of Shade (Shadeborn 1)

by Finn, K. C.

  “So you’ve never heard of witch-hunts and the like?” he challenged.

  “Yeah but… we’re not witches.”

  They came close to one another again with light steps.

  “It doesn’t matter what we are: in their eyes we’re trouble.” Novel squeezed her hand harder where he held it aloft. “They aren’t likely to set foot in our town,” he said softly, “but if they do, I’ll protect you. I promise.”

  Lily looked into his eyes as the music died off, and found him still holding her whilst the other couples broke away.

  “I want more than that,” she said, gently letting go of his shoulder, “we’ve got to get serious about training. I want to know how to protect myself.”

  Novel nodded immediately. “My thoughts exactly,” he replied.

  Later, when they were gearing up to leave, Lily finally caught sight of Mother Novel standing with Pratt the windowmaker. She had already passed through the arch and returned to her usual black-veiled state, but the turn of her neck told Lily she was watching her from beneath the covering. A moment later, the dark figure disappeared out into the night with the short overalled man, perhaps to get herself home, wherever that was.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” said Ugarte, swiftly coming to stand beside Lily and the white-flowered arch.

  “You do?” Lily shivered at the cold gasp of air that had entered the space after Mother had exited.

  “You’re thinking, ‘if there are lightsiders who do great acts of good, then does the opposite also exist?’” the serene young woman supposed. Lily turned to see Ugarte’s eyes flashing from amber to orange as the smile on her lip fell away. “It does. Mother Novel is the darkest soul I’ve known in a long time.”

  Lily gulped dryly. “Is this some kind of warning?”

  Ugarte nodded gently. “Lemarick is a good man,” she began, “but his family, on both sides, are not good people. He broke away from them once, long ago, but it ended poorly and Mother Novel reeled him back into her confidences.” Ugarte put her hand on Lily’s shoulder and she felt the purest warmth radiate from the lightsider’s touch. “Stay with him, Lily. Look after him. I think you might be the one to give him courage to break away again.”

  “Are you ready to go?” Novel asked as he arrived beside the two women. He had retrieved his crimson hat and put it atop his signature sweep of white hair.

  “Almost,” Ugarte answered, “but here Lemarick, take this with you for your orchestra.”

  She crouched behind her to pick up an old violin case, battered by many years of use. Novel stared at it warily, shaking his head.

  “No, I…” he stammered. “You should have that, it was his favourite.”

  “It will never get used here,” she pleaded, putting the case into Lily’s hands. She gripped it tightly. “Please. I should like a part of him to go with you.”

  Novel nodded solemnly and leaned across to give Ugarte a kiss on her cheek. She brushed his face with a motherly touch and started to smile again.

  “Take care of yourself,” he told her.

  Ugarte’s eyes flashed back through her myriad of autumn colours, until they settled on green once more.

  “And you. Both of you.”

  She gave Lily one last smile, her head inclined ever so slightly in Novel’s direction, and then they parted ways. When she passed through the arch, Lily found that Ugarte did not transform into the blackness of funeral attire. She had been wearing the sparkling blue gown all along.

  Hunters of Shades

  Lily and Jazzy got in early after the Imaginique’s latest show, and Lily went straight to the Book of Shade for answers. Her mind had been buzzing about shadehunters all the way through the performance, and even Novel’s stunning disappearing act had only distracted her for moments at a time. She already had the crimson book in her lap whilst Jazzy was still chattering and taking off her puffy winter coat.

  “Do you think that death that Lady Eva predicted will really happen?” she asked.

  “Dunno, probably,” Lily murmured, too engrossed in the book to think about the gitano gypsy’s prophecy.

  “But she said it was someone nearby!” Jazzy pressed. “It could be someone we know!”

  “Shush will you?” Lily snapped, shaking the book until it started to respond to her will.

  It opened, shifting its blank brown pages almost reluctantly, like it didn’t really want to show her what she was looking for. Eventually the leaves settled and the curly black script began to appear.

  “What is it?” Jazzy said, sitting down beside Lily and gazing at the words she couldn’t see.

  “There are those who seek to harm the ways of the shadeborn,” Lily read, her hands trembling under the book’s cracked leather cover. “Hunters who invoke the powers of the healing earth to put paid to the elemental control that makes shades the highest form of being on the planet.”

  “I didn’t know you were a higher form of being,” Jazzy mused with a pout. “What does that make me?”

  “I’m not sure,” Lily replied without tearing her eyes from the page, “but I know you’re not as low down as vampires.”

  “That’s something I guess,” Jazzy sighed, but then she took in a breath. “Wait, did you say vampires? Actual vampires?”

  Lily’s mind was back in the text, where she could hardly hear her friend’s questions.

  “Shadehunters are usually humans who fear or covet the powers of the shadeborn,” she read. “They seek new methods to use the earth to absorb shadepowers and thereby render shades defenceless to attack, and often proceed to kill them.”

  “Kill them?” Jazzy repeated. “That hardly seems right.”

  Lily gave a growl at the book. “It’s hiding the rest of the page from me!” She sighed, throwing the ancient text down on her bed. “I want to know what methods!”

  The Book of Shade closed itself, as if in reply.

  MARCH

  Bad News Travels Fast

  Lily had practised water day and night with the book, until she could reproduce the solid wall of pale blue liquid that she’d accidentally made in Novel’s dressing room on that January night. When Novel tested his powers against it, and the waterwall dowsed all flames and absorbed his electricity, which only seemed to make it stronger. Lily could move it to and fro like a shield to deflect his shots of elemental energy, and the only power that disturbed it was when he forced a gale of air to separate the falling water, making a hole in the middle of it like the parting of curtains. Lily fought hard to try and close the gap, but she could only manage it a little, realising more strength would be needed to complete the move.

  “Thanks heavens you’re a natural at something,” Novel said, breathless after his efforts to break her shield.

  Lily knew he was actually referring to her disastrous progress with fire and lightning in the guise of praise for her water skills. He was tactful in not saying things that would destroy her confidence, especially after some of their previous altercations, and Lily was grateful enough for his help not to pick at the real meaning behind his words.

  “Yeah, I really don’t want to frizz my hair up with static tonight, if that’s all right?” she said as she sat down on a crate for a rest. “I’ve got a day out with Michael tomorrow and the weather’s supposed to pick up.”

  “I don’t know how you put up with him,” Novel observed. “I find humans so tiresome when one can’t use one’s powers around them.”

  It was somewhat true that Lily was constantly nervous that she would let something weird slip in front of her boyfriend, but Michael had been good fun to have around in the last eight weeks. He was certainly a welcome change from the pressures of learning (and often failing) to improve her skills. Though she had, admittedly, only been seeing him a couple of nights a week after stepping up her training with Novel, but the idea of shadehunters had spooked her into a much more disciplined routine of late.

  “Shall we go up to the roof for a bit?” Lily said brightly in
an effort to shift the topic. “Jazzy’s not expecting me ‘til midnight-ish.”

  “I could do with a starbathe,” Novel admitted, stretching his arms to the rafters. “I’m not used to all this water business.”

  Lily took his tiredness as a compliment and they collected some crystals on their way outside. Lily held onto the blocks of clear quartz whilst Novel levitated them both up the storeys, until her feet touched the security of the roof space. Lily laid Novel’s crystals out for him and they began to glow in the starlight, as she settled down in their usual spot.

  “It’s a good clear night,” Novel remarked as he came to lie beside her.

  Lily took a deep breath, feeling the feather-light tingle of the starlight as it glowed around her, lapping against her like waves on a shore. When she exhaled she found Novel in the middle of his own breath, his pale face lit blue by the energy humming above it.

  “I hope you’re not overdoing this when I’m not around,” he said gently. “It’s the same as the dangers of sunbathing, you know. Shades have been known to turn blue.”

  Lily looked at his face very carefully as the glow died. His mouth was as level and unmoving as ever, and he had his eyes closed, but something in his energy gave her an instinct.

  “You’re having me on, aren’t you?”

  “Damn.”

  She laughed out loud, and the giggle echoed through the stone architecture that surrounded them. Sitting up to survey the night, Lily found that the creepy bat that lived on the TV aerial was nowhere to be seen.

  “I think we’ll leave fire and lightning off for a while,” Novel said as he finally opened his eyes again. He too sat up and hugged his knees for a moment, until Lily caught his eye.

  “Hallelujah,” she sighed.

  “We’ll try something else instead,” he added, getting to his feet. Lily made to follow but he put out a hand. “No, no. Lie back down.”

  She did so, looking up at his angular jaw lit by the moonlight. She broke into a sheepish grin.

  “So… what did you have in mind?”

  Novel held out a hand that was about three feet above her stomach.

  “A little work with gravity,” he replied. “Levitation, specifically.”

  “Okay,” she answered, squaring her shoulders as much as one possibly could whilst lying down. “What’s the process?”

  “It involves imagining the absence of weight,” Novel said.

  Lily let out a laugh. “We girls are well equipped to imagine that,” she scoffed.

  “Be serious for a moment,” he added sharply. “I hardly want to be scraping you off the pavement if this goes wrong.”

  Her mirth fell away. “Should we be doing this on the roof, in that case?”

  “It’s how I learned from Mother,” he said, looking up into the night. “I found it easy to imagine drifting up towards the stars, and now I remember that feeling wherever I am and whatever the circumstances.”

  “Okay,” Lily said, gathering her focus. “Weightlessness.”

  She didn’t particularly want to drift towards the stars, especially now that Novel’s words were ringing like an alarm bell in her head. She shut her eyes to the night and tried to imagine other things with a lack of weight – feathers, birds, aeroplanes. But they were moving things, and they required physical motion to get where they were going. And here she was just lying still. Then it hit her.

  Swimming.

  When she was a child, she’d had swimming lessons with primary school, but every time the instructor turned his back, Lily lay out flat in the water and floated like a starfish. She had always been amazed by the way the water knew how to spread out and carry her weight, never sinking any part of her below the surface. She could remember the exact sensation of the gentle ebb and flow of the Colchester Baths under her body, which was only disturbed when she suddenly felt a warm, flat hand resting on her stomach. She opened her eyes to find herself almost level with Novel’s chest.

  “A bit wobbly on the ascent, but quite good,” he observed.

  “Thanks,” Lily said, grinning again. She could feel his hand pressing quite hard against her to stop her from rising any farther into the air. “Um… how I do stop exactly?” she asked.

  There was a loud screech somewhere behind them, and a sudden thump, then a smooth but urgent voice cut through the silent night.

  “Lemarick!”

  Lily fell hard, some four feet back to the roof and hit her head on the concrete. Well that’s one way to stop… She sat up again groggily to see Baptiste Du Nord’s cloaked frame swishing towards them both in the darkness. Where he had come from, she could hardly imagine.

  “I thought you might like to know that your father is on his way here,” Baptiste said calmly. “He’s tearing through the park as we speak.”

  Novel gave a loud groan.

  “Imbecile,” he said to the sky. “What does he want, interrupting my night like this? He was supposed to be renting in Moscow.”

  “That appears to have changed,” Baptiste remarked. “Should I take Lily home for you?”

  “No,” Novel said loudly and immediately. “I mean, no… I mean, she ought to stay, in case he has news that concerns us.”

  Baptiste looked, for the first time, rather unhappy about the suggestion.

  “See you downstairs then,” the MC added.

  He passed Lily by and helped her to her feet with a strong arm as he went, doffing his hat without his usual grin. At that, he slipped away and, rather unceremoniously, leapt off the edge of the roof. Baptiste didn’t levitate, he just fell, but by the time Lily had reached the roof’s edge, he was standing down at ground level as though nothing remarkable had happened at all.

  “What is he?” she asked Novel as he too came to the roof’s edge.

  He wrapped his arm around her waist to take her back down gently, a thoughtful look on his face.

  “How do you feel around him?” he countered as they began to float.

  “I don’t know,” Lily said with a frown. “Relaxed, I guess.”

  “Safe?” Novel pressed.

  “No, not safe,” Lily added, remembering that odd little something that had stopped her from finding Baptiste attractive the other day.

  “Good,” Novel answered. “Remember that.”

  He hadn’t answered her question, and as they stepped back into the theatre Lily had to accept that he wasn’t going to. She trailed behind him as he reached the kitchen, feeling a lot less light and jovial than she had when they were alone beneath the stars. It was mere moments before Salem Cross arrived. He had let himself in, despite the locked theatre doors, and seemed to know exactly where he would find his son. All the elements of the elegant gentleman Lily had met were still present in Salem, but they were jumbled into a frenzy as he sat down at the huge table, letting his gemstone-topped cane skitter across it and land with a bang on the floor.

  “Those bastards,” he breathed, his handsome face soaked with a sheen of sweat. “I’ve walked all night to get them off my trail!”

  Salem dropped his heavy black coat off his shoulders to reveal a silver suit beneath. He took off the suit jacket and the waistcoat of that too, before he was satisfied enough to sit back and heave out a few more breaths. Novel was staring daggers at him across the table.

  “Lily,” he growled, “could you leave us for just a moment?”

  She saw the wayward sparks starting to emanate from Novel’s hands and gave a little nod, slipping out of the kitchen quickly and shutting the door behind her.

  “Psst.”

  She glanced down the corridor to see Baptiste poking his head out of the sitting room. He beckoned her towards him, one finger curled in the half-light. Lily walked slowly in his direction, wary of Novel’s words, but desperately intrigued by his glittering look. Once Lily was in the sitting room, Baptiste closed the door behind them both and directed her to the corner of the room that backed onto the kitchen. There was a grate in the wall which he slid open with an elegant ha
nd.

  “Listen,” he mouthed.

  Lily leaned in, hearing Novel’s most irritated tone, clear as a bell through the opening.

  “Do you mean to say that you’ve led a pack of shadehunters into Lancashire?”

  “I had to find somewhere to hide, son,” Salem protested, “somewhere protected. You know as well as I do that these old walls have seen a battle or two.”

  “Don’t call me ‘son’,” Novel spat, clearly furious. “Blood doesn’t do this to blood! You’ve led the wolves to my door to save your own hide, you shameless coward!”

  “What do you care if I have?” Salem asked, totally unabashed. “We both know your powers far exceed mine. Who better to face them than you?”

  “That’s not the point,” Novel growled like a hunting hound. “You’ve led them to Lily.”

  Lily froze at the sound of her own name. She shared a look with Baptiste, who was also listening intently, so silent that Lily would swear he wasn’t breathing. The MC looked as serious and displeased as he had on the roof, and the warmth that usually emanated from him was nowhere to be found.

  “The orphaned shade?” Salem scoffed. “Don’t tell me my son’s stone heart has crumbled at last?”

  There was a loud blast, as though all the glassware in the kitchen had exploded. A few long, tense moments passed before Novel spoke again.

  “She’s not strong,” he said quietly. “Not yet, at least. She’s not ready for this kind of assault. There’s only so much training she can take at a time and… if anything happens to her, I-”

  “I know, I know,” Salem drawled. “You’ll never forgive me.”

  “Oh you’re well past that stage, father mine,” Novel spat. “If a shadehunter hurts so much as one hair on her head…”

  Lily felt the very air hum with Novel’s rage.

  “I’ll kill you,” he snarled.

  And he meant it.

  The Trouble With Humans

  “You’re so jittery today,” Michael said as he clutched Lily’s hand tighter. “Did you have too much espresso this morning or something?”