by Gabby Fawkes
Shadow Rising
Shadow Wars Book 1
Gabby Fawkes
Charlie Soul
Dragonfire Press
Also from Gabby
Hey! If you are after even more Urban Fantasy action and adventure, why not check out my other series - Tala Phoenix. The first two books in the series are out now and Book 3 will be out later this month. Just hit the links below to get your copies.
Book 1 - Tala Phoenix and the School of Secrets
Book 2 - Tala Phoenix and the Dragon’s Lair
Book 3 - Coming June 2019
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Also from Gabby
Stay in Touch with Gabby
1
“Stay right where you are, you furry little shit.”
I locked my gaze on the red-eyed demon-squirrel I’d been tracking through the forest. He was cornered. Time to meet the pointy end of my arrow.
Exhilaration pumped through my veins. I planted my feet and in one fluid movement, raised my bow, pulled the string all the way back to my nose, and aligned my arrow with the target.
Instead of the demon-squirrel’s face, I pictured the face of William Geiser, New York’s governor-in-waiting, Mom’s surprise new fiancé, and the man who was about to wreck my life. Because of him, I was being ripped away from everything I knew and everyone I loved. Dad had only been dead a year but Mom had wasted no time finding herself a Mage to marry.
She’d dropped the bombshell on me two days ago. Needless to say, a shit ton of demon-squirrels had met their doom this weekend.
Anger raced through me at the injustice of it all. I ground my teeth and let the arrow fly.
It whistled through the air and hit its intended target with a loud thunk. The force was so great, the demon-squirrel slammed backwards into a tree. The arrow stuck in the bark with a comical twang and the demon-squirrel dangled there, its body now limp. Blood began to stain the bark.
I smiled as I imagined William Geiser’s dead body dangling there in its place.
Suddenly, the sound of slow clapping came from behind. I swirled, grabbing a fresh arrow from my quiver and adopting a shooting stance.
My best friend Gus emerged from the undergrowth, twigs sticking out from his mussy dark blond hair.
My racing pulse subsided. Realizing there was no danger, I dropped my arm and bow to my side.
“You found me,” I said.
“Follow the trail of demon-carcasses and they’ll lead you to Theia Foxglove,” Gus replied in his usual dry manner, flicking bits of dry leaf off his shoulders.
I shrugged defensively. “I have a lot of rage to get out.”
“No shit.”
He sauntered over to the tree, snapping twigs under his heavy feet.
Gus lacked the grace and agility of your usual Elkie. He also lacked the instinct to take his anger out on furry demon-beasts. He was a tub of ice cream kind of guy and had the paunch to show for it.
He grimaced as he yanked the arrow out. The demon-squirrel carcass swung back and forth in the air. Gus held it out at arm’s length with a disgusted look on his face.
“And what is your plan for this thing?” he asked.
“Kill it,” I told him, simply. “Which I’ve now achieved. So, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find something else to kill.”
I took a step to the right but Gus moved to block me with his bulky body.
“Theia. Are you really going to waste your last hour in Harriman symbolically shooting your step-father-to-be?”
I frowned. “Don’t call him that. I’ll be a legal adult by the time that wannabe-governor marries Mom. As far as I’m concerned, that means he won’t be any kind of relation to me at all. He’ll basically be nothing.”
Gus slowly raised his eyebrows, the same dirty blond color as his hair. “Savage.” A smile twitched on his plump lips. “I love it.”
I took the arrow from him. The demon-squirrel’s blood dripped onto the mulch underfoot.
“You know, if Mom actually wanted me to like him,” I said between my teeth, “she should have told me he existed before deciding to marry him and relocate us to New York City.” I yanked the demon-squirrel off the arrow so hard, blood arced through the air like a rainbow. “And she should have waited until I’d finished senior year.”
I huffed, then noticed the blood on my hands. I dropped the demon-squirrel. It hit the forest floor with a squelch.
Gus looked like he was about to throw up. “Yes, well, Vivian’s never been the most thoughtful woman, has she?”
“You can say that again,” I muttered.
I wiped the blood off my hands and arrow before returning the arrow to its quiver.
I take great pride in my weapon. It’s a family heirloom, whittled from the wood of this very forest and passed down through the generations. According to folklore, after an Elkie dies, a part of their soul enters their bow. I’m not sure if I believe that but the thought comforts me because I inherited my bow from Dad after he died.
“Putting your entirely justified tantrum aside for one second,” Gus said, “can I remind you of the New York City aspect of your predicament? You’re moving from a small town where all five stores close at sundown to the most liberal, thriving, exciting city in the country. You’ll have your pick of bars, clubs, coffee shops, whatever you want. And their attitude toward the Twilight Curfew is so lax it may as well not exist.”
He was right.
See, there are two different types of classes a person can belong to, sun or moon. I belong to the sun-class, along with Faes and Celestials, some Mages and a couple hundred types of Demonborn. In the moon camp we had Vanpari, Weremans, Shapeshifters and a couple hundred other types of Demonborn. The moon-class are nocturnal, the sun-class diurnal, and this arbitrary difference has been used to justify two millennia worth of battles, murders and wars. Yup, all because of a difference in our sleeping patterns.
By 1885, everyone had had enough. A treaty was drawn up that gave the moon-class the right to rule during the nighttime hours and the sun-class the right to rule during the daylight ones. Since no one could agree on whether dawn and dusk belonged to day or night they decided no one could have them. This was nicknamed the Twilight Curfew.
In big cities like New York, the Twilight Curfew is so openly flouted, you wouldn’t even know there was such a thing.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” I said. “I’m being a big baby. Fine. But wouldn’t you be if you were in my position?”
Gus tapped his chin in faux ponderance. “Let me think. No!” He gripped my arms and shook me to emphasize the most important point of all. “Vanpari boys, Theia! Vanpari boys!”
Once again, Gus was right. My dating pool was about to increase exponentially. I’d already gotten bored of the sweet, sensitive Elkie boys in my hometown. I wanted something different. Vanpari.
Werewolf. Siren. I wasn’t fussy.
I shook Gus’s hands off my shoulders. “Fine. You win. Hot Vanpari boys are more important than stability and family and education. Speaking of which, did I tell you Mom wanted to enroll me at her old school? It’s called The Archangel School for Girls.” I laughed wryly. “I talked her down to a co-ed. It’s called Zenith.” I printed the word into the sky with my palms.
“Sounds like a brand of men’s deodorant,” Gus quipped.
“Or condoms,” I added.
Gus barked out a laugh. But his grin immediately faded and was replaced by an exaggerated pout. “I don’t know how I’ll cope without you,” he said. “You’re the only other person at Sunny’s who even understands the concept of sarcasm.”
Melancholy settled across my heart. I thought of Sunset High, my scuzzy, subpar school. For three years, Gus and I had been united by giving zero shits. We had all kinds of plans for senior year, from cutting class, to hanging out under the bleachers, to avoiding all organized sporting events, before finally blowing off senior prom. But tomorrow, Gus would be flouncing into Sunny High without his flame dame on his arm. Just thinking about it gave me serious FOMO.
“You know, I’ll be turning eighteen after the first semester,” I said. “No one would be able to stop me from coming home.”
Gus raised an eyebrow. “You really think you’re going to do that? That you’ll leave a mansion and an extremely expensive education and all that buzzing city life to come back to Harriman?” Again with the sarcasm.
I sighed. Gus truly was the voice of reason. I wasn’t coming back after a semester. I wasn’t going to risk flunking high school just because I was pissed about Mom remarrying. I’d be seeing out the full senior year at Zenith and we both knew it.
“I’ll be the only Elkie in a house of Mages,” I pouted. “It’ll be like living in an avery.”
Mages all had bird companions which reflected their personality. Mom’s was a downy woodpecker, which was beyond apt considering her voice sounded to me like incessant pecking.
“And I bet he’s really boring,” I continued. “I’m going to have to spend the next year of my life listening to some stuffy old man talk about policies and bills and a bunch of other crap.”
Gus laughed. “As much as I hate Vivian for doing this to you, I do like the bitch it’s unleashed.”
He meant it as a compliment but it didn’t seem like much of a consolation prize to me.
Just then, my cell phone buzzed with an incoming message. I pulled it from my pocket. It was Mom.
Where are you? The van’s here. Am I supposed to load your boxes by myself?
See, I told you. Woodpecker.
A lump formed in my throat. I swallowed hard. “The van’s here.”
Gus’s face fell. The time for joking had passed. It was really happening. I was really leaving.
We turned and trudged out of the forest, heading in the direction of home.
We’d just reached the outskirts when I felt a prickle on my neck. Something had alerted my super-sensitive Elkie senses. Gus had clearly felt something too because he stopped dead.
Standing entirely motionless, my eyes darted left and right, scanning the trees around me. I noticed something in the bushes and squinted to get a better focus.
A little gasp escaped my throat as I realized that I wasn’t looking at a demon-beast. I was staring into the unmistakable, slate-gray eyes of a Vanpari.
“What the actual heck?” Gus stammered.
Suddenly, the Vanpari leapt to his feet. The hedges rustled as he dashed away at lightning speed.
“Hey! Hey, wait!” I cried.
Without thinking, I took off after him.
Elkie speed is nothing on Vanpari speed, even when their powers are weakened by sunlight. He pelted through the undergrowth.
My legs pumped, forcing me on as fast as I could go.
Up ahead, I saw him stumble over a tree root. He tumbled to the ground.
A second later, I caught up to him.
He looked to be about my age, skinny as if half starved. He scrambled to his feet with bony, sharp limbs. He had wide, sunken eyes and mud streaked in his hollow cheeks. It looked like he’d been out in the forest for days.
Compassion made my heart lurch. “What’s wrong?”
The Vanpari shook his head wildly. “I didn’t do it…” he stammered. “What they say I did … it wasn’t me. I could never do that. It was all him.”
He wasn’t making any sense. I took a cautious step closer. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just tell me what’s wrong.”
He fixed a terrified expression on me. For a second, I thought he might open up and tell me what had scared him so much. But then he took off so fast he was nothing more than a blur in my vision.
I was about to run after him when something glittering distracted me. It was on the ground by the tree trunk he’d tripped over, right in the spot where he’d fallen.
I picked it up. It was a silver chain with a medallion.
“Hey! You dropped his!” I shouted into the distance.
But it was too late. The Vanpari had disappeared from sight. I stared into the distance, filled with confusion.
Just then, the sound of wheezing came from behind. I turned to see Gus jogging up to me. For an Elkie, he really was shockingly unfit.
“Tell me you did not… just lose… a hot Vanpari boy?” He bent forward, hands on his knees, and gasped for breath.
“I don’t know about hot,” I replied, my gaze still fixed contemplatively on the spot I’d last seen the Vanpari. “He looked like he was starving to death.”
“Theia.” Gus straightened up. “That could’ve been my soulmate.”
But I wasn’t listening. My thoughts were on the strange sighting. There were no Vanpari settlements anywhere near Harriman. New York City had the closest Vanpari community. So what was a Vanpari doing all the way in Bear Mountain? Why did he look so terrified? And what had he been rambling about?
As intrigue swirled in my mind, Gus’s brain suddenly caught up. He grabbed my arm. “Oh my God, do you think he’s that Celestial murderer on the run?”
The murder of a Celestial woman in New York City was the major news story on every website, every TV show, and everyone’s lips. Five Vanpari boys had been charged with the gruesome murder, one of whom had disappeared. The whole thing was playing out in the media like a gritty drama, and it had whipped up more than a bit of old-school, anti-Vanpari hysteria. People were increasingly pointing the finger at their Vanpari neighbors whenever there was a crime.
“We’re fifty miles from New York,” I contested. “That’s a long way to run.”
I looked down at the item he’d dropped. It looked like a talisman of sorts, a crescent moon on a chain, some kind of ode to his moon-class heritage. I slipped it into my pocket.
Then my phone pinged again. It was my mother again.
Where. Are. You?
I hurried home.
2
The moving van was idling in the driveway, spewing a cloud of fumes into the air, as Gus and I reached the row of small cottages where I lived. Mom was nowhere to be seen.
I glanced around for her, then heard a sound.
Tap-tap-tap.
I turned to its source. Mom’s woodpecker familiar was inside the van, tapping its beak against the window to get my attention. Then I noticed Mom, sitting in the driver’s seat waiting.
What the hell? Was she really just going to sit there in the van and not even get out to say goodbye to anyone? I knew she disliked Dad’s side of the family but that was pretty extreme, even for her.
Through the window, Mom tapped her watch at me. I held my hands up in the universally recognized gesture of a half-assed apology then promptly ignored her and headed toward my aunt and uncle’s house.
Mom could be as passively-aggressively impatient as she wanted. Nothing was going to stop me saying goodbye to the people I loved most in the world.
I knocked
on Uncle Salix and Aunt Shanaya’s door. Salix was Dad’s older brother, and Shanaya was the exceptionally beautiful Indian woman none of us could believe he’d convinced to marry him.
The door opened and the two of them smiled at me.
“Theia,” Shanaya said, taking me in her arms. Her perfume wafted into my nostrils. “Are you leaving already?”
I could feel tears forming, so I pressed my lips together and nodded.
“We’ll miss you,” Uncle Salix added, patting my shoulder.
“Uh huh,” was all I could manage.
My cousins Juniper and Birch appeared then. Having inherited Shanaya’s warm brown skin and dimples, and Salix’s crystal blue eyes and impish features, they were a strikingly attractive pair of siblings.
They held up a hand-made sign that read, ‘We’ll Miss You Theia!’ Then they wrapped me in a bear hug.
My throat clenched. I loved my cousins. I was going to miss them so much.
Along with Gus, they’d be walking into Sunny High tomorrow, Juniper as a senior, Birch as a sophomore. But I’d be walking into Zenith as a stranger. A newbie. I’d be walking into unfamiliar classrooms filled with unfamiliar faces. The thought filled me with dread.
“I’d better say goodbye to Gran,” I said.
Grandma Amaryllis was literally my favorite person in the entire world. Foul-mouthed and open-minded, she could drink anyone under the table. But after Dad died last year she’d lost a lot of her spark. Then she’d had a fall and it seemed to have knocked her confidence. It felt like she didn’t have the will to try anymore.
