The Book Of Shade (Shadeborn 1) (23 page)

“You must be my Lily,” the leader of the shadehunters growled.

“I’m not your anything,” Lily said, rising slowly to her feet. She stood in front of Jazzy and Novel’s body, slowly considering her options for escape against the giant before her.

“We’re family sweetheart,” Maxime crooned in his foreign rasp. “You can’t change that.”

Lily clutched her hammering heart, her hand finding the rose quartz necklace again. It was growing hot under her touch.
The shade grenade.

“I guess you’re right,” Lily answered. “You are my father, after all.”

Maxime gave a wide grin full of sharp teeth. He too wore the brown cloak of a shadehunter, though his body was adorned with other magical charms that hung from his belt and bandolier: feathers and bones and all manner of runic signs. Lily caught sight of a wolf’s teeth necklace, stretching down toward his massive chest, and her grip on her pendant tightened. She attempted a calm demeanour, hoping that her plan was enough to scrape her way to survival.

“Perhaps we’re more alike than you know,” she continued.

“How so, my sweet?” Maxime asked, amused.

“We’re both really good at running away from each other,” she replied.

Lily threw the pendant onto the grass and smashed it with her heel, sending shockwaves of wild energy out into the park. With a strong push of her shaking hands, the simultaneous blasts rushed at Maxime, months of erratic energy finding its freedom and unleashing itself upon the gargantuan man. He fell to the ground encased in waves of lightning, water, flames and air. Lily turned quickly to Jazzy, who snapped out of her terrified trance.

“Help me pick Novel up,” she barked as Jazzy scrambled to obey. “The theatre’s protected. We have to get him there fast.”

The Dream Come True

Baptiste was already waiting inside the shadows of the main doors to the Imaginique when they arrived with Novel’s comatose body. It was as though the MC’s concerned, shining eyes had already sensed that something had gone terribly wrong in Novel’s quest to bring Lily back to the theatre. Salem was called, and arrived in an instant to levitate his son down into the sitting room, laying him out on one of the sofas with a furious look in his cobalt eyes. He turned to Lily with a helpless anger.

“He was out all night, then he raced back here and woke us all,” Salem explained. “He said he had to get you, and then he’d tell us all something.”

“He spoke of a terrible danger, but he didn’t say what exactly,” Baptiste completed.

His usually-calming presence was long gone, leaving the gentleman fierce and unhinged as he loomed over Novel’s unconscious form. Lily shook her head and spared Jazzy a kind look.

“He didn’t get to tell me either,” she revealed.

“What happened?” Salem demanded.

“Maxime shot a dart at him,” Lily tried to explain. “It was purple, I didn’t really see it.”

“I did,” Jazzy replied, fumbling in her pocket. “I picked it up, in case we needed it.”

Lily gave her a grateful smile as Baptiste took the weapon from her hand. He ran his tongue along its tip gingerly, licking his lips with thought. It was strange to see that the MC had no concern whatsoever about being affected by the same magic that had rendered Novel so inert.

“A sleeping potion,” he assured, “and a potent one at that.”

“Can we wake him?” Lily pressed.

The elegant man shook his head. “Not soon, if at all.”

“We need to know what he found out!” Salem insisted. “It was vital. He said we had everything wrong.”

Lily sucked in a sob and put her hand on Novel’s hardly-moving chest, bending to kiss the side of his face. She would find a way to wake him in time, but now that she had made the first attack against her beast of a father, time may not be on their side for very long. Salem and Baptiste were staring to argue about comas and curses, but Jazzy gave a little cough.

“Excuse me,” she said, “but can anyone hear that music?”

Lily raced to the door of the sitting room, straining her ears. Somewhere upstairs were the melodious, hypnotic notes of a violin. Lily pounded out of the room, sparing a look to find Salem leaping after her as they both raced up the three flights of stairs. They followed the string of notes like a breadcrumb trail, which led them to Novel’s bedroom. In the corner, just as he’d once told Lily, was Edvard’s violin, playing itself within its case. Stepping closer, Lily reached out and unhooked its ancient fastening. The case swung open naturally, and continued to play as she and Salem stood panting and listening. Edvard’s voice emanated from within the notes, the loud melody softening into an old, familiar tune.

Requiem
[rest]

Requiem
[rest]

Somnum dilectione mea
[sleep my love]

Requiem
[rest]

Requiem
[rest]

Dormient somnum sempiternum
[sleep evermore]

“Sleep?” Salem heaved. “What has sleep got to do with anything?” But the lyrics continued as Lily listened on.

In spirit

In heart

And in thee

Spiritu
[spirit]

Corde
[heart]

Et Vos
[and you]

“Being of one mind,” Lily began, trying to remember the words of the Book of Shade, “this is about kindred souls.” She spun on her heel as she worked out the clue, her face lighting up brightly at Salem’s confused glare. “It’s about sleep… because kindred souls can meet in the Dreamstate! Novel and I did it once before! If I go to sleep, perhaps I can talk to him, find out what we need to know.”

Salem broke into the widest grin of his life, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her as the music died away.

“Brilliant!” he cried, but then he let her go again suddenly. “One problem though. Dreamstate meetings only happen over distance. You couldn’t do it within these walls.”

Lily bit her lip in thought. “I’ll go back to the dorm,” she insisted. “They may know I’m a student, but they haven’t found out where I live yet. It should give us enough time.”

Salem shook his head. “They’ll be looking for you!” he pressed. “I’m willing to bet they’re already forming a siege around this building.”

Lily gave him a smile. “I have an idea for that too.”

“Um… hello?” Jazzy called from somewhere downstairs. “Don’t mean to interrupt, but there’s more weird stuff happening down here that you ought to see.”

Lily could literally feel her feet flying with natural gravity as she descended the stairs, with Salem once more in tow. She found Jazzy and Baptiste standing in the corridor next to the big double doors of the auditorium, but before she could ask why they looked so terrified, an echoing, rasping voice called out from within the theatre.

“Lily.”

Maxime Schoonjans’s voice was calling her from backstage, louder than anything she had ever heard as it echoed deep into the echelons of the stage and stalls. Her lips began to shake as she looked to Baptiste.

“You said no-one could get in,” she whispered.

“Not unless we summon them,” Baptiste agreed.

“It isn’t real,” Salem insisted. “A shade that powerful inside these walls… I’d feel it. His body isn’t here.”

“Then where’s that voice coming from?” Jazzy asked.             

With trembling steps, Lily followed the sound of her father’s repeated call until she found herself treading down the backstage corridor where the dressing rooms were. She knew already that the voice would be coming from Room 14, but it still shocked her when she opened the door and saw Maxime’s wild face filling the space of Novel’s ornate mirror. He grinned at her and rubbed his skin, the space between his beard and his brow was coated in tiny scorches and lightning flowers.

“You’re a wicked girl,” he mused, “just like your Daddy.”

Lily steeled herself against the reflection.

“What do you want?” she demanded.

“You,” Maxime answered. “On my side, where you belong.”

“So you can wipe out the people I care about?” she accused viciously.

“So we can take our place at the top of the food chain,” he explained. “Wouldn’t you like to have the whole world at your disposal, to live exactly to your own design?”

“Perhaps,” Lily whispered, “but not with you.”

The turncoat’s expression changed to a shocking grimace, his wild hair making him look more like an animal with every snarl he gave.

“Insolent child!” he bellowed. “You have until the next sunrise to change your mind. Side with me, or die with them.” Maxime gave a little irritated shrug. “I am not always this merciful, but I give you this choice, because you are my blood.”

“Blood doesn’t do this to blood!” Lily cried, picking up Novel’s make-up box and throwing it straight at the mirror.

The glass cracked in the centre and spread out like a Lichtenberg, until all the pieces inside the brass frame fell away. Salem had been watching the scene from the door, but now he entered and forced Lily to turn and face him.

“Are you insane?” he shouted. “That’s seven years’ bad luck!”

Lily’s face dropped. “That’s a real thing?” she asked in horror.

“It is for us!” Salem retorted in a panic.

“It doesn’t matter!” Baptiste interjected. “You’re not going to live through the next twelve hours if we don’t speak to Novel. You heard what Schoonjans said. At sunrise, all of us die.”

“The Dreamstate then,” Lily said, shaking herself back into focus. “I need to get back to Novel first.”

She pushed her way determinedly through the men and raced back to the sitting room, where Jazzy was still waiting. Novel was breathing peacefully, his face slack and silent. Lily dropped to her knees beside him and gently slipped her hand inside his coat, looking for an inner pocket. She found what she was looking for, a little white business card, but as she pulled the card jerkily from Novel’s pocket, something else fell out and rolled down his chest, bouncing onto the floor with a metallic clang. Lily followed the glinting object until it stopped rolling, trapping it under her hand. When she raised it to her eye, the faint afternoon sun revealed the ring from Waite’s Jewellers.

“Your ring! Wait, he actually bought it for you?” Jazzy questioned.

Lily stared at it, tears welling again in her eyes. “It vanished weeks ago, before we ever said anything to each other about our feelings.”

Salem stepped into the room. He did not try to take the ring from Lily’s fingers, but he turned it in her grip to inspect the stones.

“Lemarick’s a Son of Garnet,” he explained. “No wonder you liked it so much.”

She pulled the ring back to her own viewpoint, watching its shining garnet and diamond stones. Looking back to Novel, Lily leant in and kissed him again, this time on his sleeping lips.

“I’m going to fix this,” she promised in a breathy tone. “I’m going to wake you up.”

She put the ring back into his pocket, right above his heart, and rose to her feet, looking again at the business card in her hand.

“Gideon Pratt?” Salem asked as she flipped it over to the runic symbol on the other side.

“He can take me right to my room,” Lily explained.

“Someone will have to go with you,” Salem insisted.

“Well I can’t,” said Baptiste sadly, glancing out of the window into the afternoon sun. “You know I can’t.”

“Then it’ll be me,” Salem added.

Lily put a hand to his chest. “No way,” she said. “I need you here to protect Novel.”

“But you’ll be asleep! Defenceless!” he protested fiercely.

“You’re going to do the right thing for once,” Lily ordered. “What all fathers ought to do. Stand by your son and, perhaps for the first time in your life, look after him a little!”

Salem cowed as her voice grew into a shout, looking back at the lifeless body of his boy. He nodded sadly and turned away, sitting himself on the arm of the sofa near Novel’s feet.

“They’re right though,” Jazzy said quietly, rubbing Lily’s arm. “You can’t just go off in a trance unprotected.”

“I know,” Lily replied, “but taking supernatural people with me is asking for too much trouble. The hunters can feel the magic, and that’s why I need you.”

“Me?” Jazzy questioned, her eyes bulging. “What can I do?”

Lily turned her head to the window. “Baptiste, run to the Row Below and find Novel’s stones.”

“Stones?” the MC repeated with a funny look.

“Rose quartz,” she explained. “They’re in a crate, and they’re all glowing with power. Don’t drop them, or you’ll blow a hole in the roof.”

“Are they like your pendant was?” Jazzy asked, catching the drift of her plan.

Lily nodded, fogging up the window glass to draw the rune and summon Gideon Pratt.

Burning Skies

Pratt the windowmaker was less cool and collected than usual, and he had declined to stay and wait for their return journey. He had promised that if Lily called him again to get back to the Imaginique, however, then he would answer. Once Jazzy was set up with the stones full of loose power, and the Book of Shade on her knee, Lily laid herself down on her dormitory bed and held the chunk of lepidolite over her chest. She willed it to quickly calm her heart and allow her to drift into sleep. Lily knew that she might not have long before Maxime and the hunters started attacking the building, so she closed her eyes and thought hard of Novel as the stone helped her leave consciousness all the quicker.

Lily found herself back in the same patch of the park where Novel had been attacked, but this time the grass was singed and black. The sky above her had some of its old pinkish glow, but vast clouds of fire had overtaken the peaceful scene, burning and raging in the heavens, as if at any moment they would break and rain down flames. Lily glanced around at the black skeletal trees that smelled like fire, searching the empty scene for any sign of life. Novel was almost camouflaged by his black suit and slim frame where he stood amongst the trees, his pale head buried in his hands.

He seemed to know before she spoke that she was there, turning with shock and racing towards her, as he had just before he was shot down.

“Lily,” he cried, reaching out for her desperately.

When they touched, neither could get a proper grip on the other, slipping out of each other’s fingers or melting right through each other like they were made of water. Lily stamped her foot and bit her lip, cursing in a low tone.

“Stupid dream physics,” she griped. “How do I wake you up, Novel? Please tell me you know how!”

The illusionist’s surprised expression retreated into sadness. “I don’t,” he confessed with a shake of his head, “this enchantment is much older than anything I’ve ever been taught. She kept it from me, all these years. I thought I knew everything.”

“She?” Lily pressed. “She who?”

“You don’t know yet?” Novel replied with wide eyes. “My mother, Lily, she’s… she’s in league with Maxime.”

Lily’s mouth dropped open as the burning world around her shifted into a darker focus.

“They’re working together?” she gasped. “So Maxime did this on your Mother’s orders?”

“To keep me out of the way,” Novel answered with a nod. From some angles in the peculiar dream, the shadows made him look as though he was made up for the stage. His eyes turned dark and hollow as he spoke. “So that she can do what needs to be done.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Lily remarked.

“She’s been spying on the theatre,” he explained. “The mirror in my dressing room, it’s a two-way mirror, one that can look from place to place. You have to take it down!”

“I smashed it,” Lily revealed with an apologetic look. “I didn’t know about the bad luck thing. I’m sorry.”

Novel gave a hollow, unsmiling laugh. “I don’t know how to stop her Lily,” he looked back to her with large, sad eyes. “She wants you dead.”

“But my father wants me alive,” she replied, “if I’ll join his side.”

“Don’t trust them,” Novel said, shaking his head so violently that his whole body blurred. Every moment that passed he became less in focus, more akin to the scenery of the dream, like he was getting less real by the minute. “Stand your ground at the theatre until Baptiste can get you out. He has my orders.”

“Orders?” Lily snapped. “No. You’re not having me kidnapped and leaving your body there defenceless. Salem’s protecting it, he-”

“My father has never once stood up for me, Lily. He won’t change now, especially not if it means saving his own skin. I’d be surprised if he’s even still there when you return.”

Novel hung his head and Lily tried to touch his shoulder, her hand passing straight through it as he flickered out of view for several seconds. When he came back, he looked more panicked than ever.

“The theatre has catacombs,” Novel explained hurriedly, “and they form a passage out of town. No-one knows but Baptiste and I. You have to-”

“I hear you,” Lily said as the burning sky closed in on them both, surrounding them in a whirl of flaming clouds. “I’ll do what’s best.”

“Don’t think of it as selfish to run,” Novel whispered, his darkened eyes fading out again. “It’s just how things happen sometimes. Perhaps I’ll see you again, if she ever lets me wake.”

Lily thought about saying more, but the clouds were closing in. Darkness coated them suddenly and Lily heard Novel give one final sigh before she was opening her eyes in her dormitory bed.