The Book Of Shade (Shadeborn 1) (24 page)

A
UGUST

One Down

“You do not have my permission to converse with my son in this manner.”

Lily rubbed the sleep from her eyes in the dark dorm room, sitting up in shock to find Mother Novel standing in the doorway. Jazzy was stood in front of Lily’s bed with her arms extended protectively, one foot resting firmly on the Book of Shade. Lily looked around in sudden panic for the energy-fuelled crystals, horrified to realise they were gathered in a floating wall behind the veiled shade’s head. Mother Novel had control of their only defence.

“You may have caught your father with these petty tricks, girl,” Mother rasped, “but I am a different matter altogether.”

“Oh, you’re a case all right,” Lily stammered. “Tell me Mother, do you think your son would be standing on your side of the room, or mine right now?”

The crystals began to tremble violently. Lily felt as though her heart was actually beating in her throat as a low, animal growl emitted from beneath Mother Novel’s thin lace veil.

“How dare you!” she spat, a bolt of furious flame illuminating the dark room, hanging in the air around the three occupants.

“Lily, don’t,” Jazzy breathed, shaking with terror but still holding her ground, holding onto the book.

“What does it matter Jaz?” Lily asked, trying to step past her friend. “She’s going to kill me anyway! Isn’t that right Mother dear?”

“I can’t deny it,” the old shade answered with a vicious laugh.

“I won’t let you!” Jazzy screamed, stepping back and putting her body right against Lily’s, preventing her from advancing.

“Oh?” Mother said, approaching with dainty little steps, “and how will you stop me, little human?”

Slowly, Jazzy began to rise into the air in front of Lily. She watched in horror as Mother Novel’s bony white hand directed the course of her friend’s motion. Lily shook her head repeatedly, her fists clenching as they illuminated with the first flickers of flame.

“Now, now,” Mother chided, “let’s not resort to violence quite yet.”

She flicked her other hand and Lily went flying into the wall, pinned by gravity and helpless as she watched Jazzy rotate in the air in a terrified stance. Lily struggled to be free, but she could hardly move a muscle against the power of the senior shade.

“Hmm,” Mother Novel hummed. “What’s for the best here? What would be… effective?”

She clicked her fingers on the hand that was controlling Jazzy. Her friend’s defenceless form snapped into an ungodly convex. Lily felt her stomach leap into her throat as Jazzy’s back bent a terrifying one-eighty, her black curly hair intermeshing with the heels of her boots. She cried out in the most horrific agony Lily had ever heard, and Mother Novel swayed her long black skirts like the howling was music to her ears. Jazzy dropped to the ground in her broken form, crying out and heaving, struggling to breathe. Lily too was released from her hold against the wall, stepping up to Mother Novel with tears streaming from her eyes.

“You see?” Mother said calmly. “Your last memory will be of her suffering, and now she gets to watch you die. Most effective.”

Without any warning, the senior shade expanded her arms sharply, sending all the explosive crystals right at Lily. She could do nothing but shield her head, praying to whoever would listen that this moment would not be her last. In her desperate fear, Lily cried out for Jazzy and Novel, but as the crystals neared her, no impact came.

“What is this?” Mother Novel whispered.

Lily opened her eyes and watched as every crystal evaporated against an invisible wall that had formed between the two girls and the old shade. Mother Novel shot blast after blast of her own insurmountable power at the wall, but it took every bolt of energy in and forced it to vanish. Mother’s veiled head sank to look at Jazzy again, then at the Book of Shade lying on Lily’s floor. Lily was certain that the old shade would see the writing on the open page just as well as she could, most especially the bold title of the chapter.

“Sacrificial protection,” Mother Novel spat. “Foolish human; it won’t last long.” She pointed a bony finger at Lily, a wind whipping up around her as she prepared to disappear. “Your hours are numbered, girl. Come sunrise, you die whichever side you choose.”

The violent black storm hit the walls of the protection charm, rebounding against Mother Novel as she tried to keep control of it to vanish herself. The wind hit up her monstrous veil and. in the few seconds where she remained within the cyclone, Lily saw her face for the first time. Her ghastly eyes were shrivelled black pits, sunken into a visage far older than shade biology would have allowed. Mother Novel’s darkness had made her thin and spindly, wrinkles upon wrinkles crushing and destroying her features to unrecognisable proportions. Lily felt as though she was looking at a withered, decaying corpse, one whose black eyes caught her gaze, just before the horrid vision disappeared.

In the calm that followed, Lily rushed to Jazzy’s side, relieved to find her still breathing, but barely conscious. She dialled an ambulance rapidly, hardly drawing breath herself until she had given the information to the receiver and been assured that help was on its way.

“They told me not to move you,” Lily whimpered in a panic, focusing hard on Jazzy’s face rather than observing her distorted spine.

“The book,” Jazzy whispered painfully, “it opened. It gave me a choice.”

“You shouldn’t have made it,” Lily said, shaking tears all over the ground, “not for me.”

“You have to go,” Jazzy added, her eyes fluttering as she tried to keep them open. “Make a plan. Stop her.”

“I can’t leave you!” Lily answered, leaping back as a new shadow entered the doorway from the quiet dorm corridor.

It was Molly, in her best running gear. She wretched at the sight of Jazzy’s mangled body, heaving out huge breaths as she held her mouth, her eyes wide with horror.

“Jazzy called me, and I drove here as quickly as I could,” Molly explained in a shrill, shocked tone. “She said you were in danger.”

Lily leapt to her feet and grabbed Molly’s shoulders.

“An ambulance is on its way,” she urged, “so keep her talking. Don’t let her pass out.”

Despite everything, Lily was heartbroken to find Jazzy giving her a tiny smile. She burst out of the corridor with Molly sticking her head out after her.

“Hey wait!” she cried in panic. “Where are you going?”

Lily marched on down the dark hall, her fists enflamed as the invisible breeze shot all around her.

“I’m going to give the bitch who did this what’s coming to her.”

The Somnolent State

Gideon Pratt kept his word and helped Lily back into the Theatre Imaginique, but again his fears for his own safety meant that he left her alone in the foyer when she arrived. Instantly, a hand crept over her mouth from behind, another following to grip her about the waist. She elbowed the attacker in the ribs and a gust of wind emanated on impact, knocking him back into the wall with a masculine grunt. Lily spun on her heel to find Baptiste staring at her from the floor, his eyes momentarily glowing blood red.

“You’re not taking me anywhere,” Lily insisted. “I’ve spoken to Novel, and you can forget the escape plan.”

The elegant man rose to his feet as his eyes faded back to their usual dark hue.

“I thought as much, but it was worth a try,” Baptiste said with a shrug. “It’s been a while since I’ve fought a shade. Apparently I’m out of practice.”

“If you want to get out via the catacombs, you can,” Lily offered, keeping her distance from the tall figure, “but take the others with you when you do. This is my battle, mine and Novel’s, and we’ll see it through.”

Baptiste shook his head. “I’ll show them the way should they choose to take it, but I’m indebted to your soul mate. I will defend you both with all I have.”

Soul mate.
The words gave Lily strength. She clutched the Book of Shade tightly in her hand and gave Baptiste a nod.

“Take me to Novel and Salem,” she instructed.

They started to walk to the sitting room, but as they went Baptiste pursed his lips and gave a sigh.

“I’m afraid Salem left not long after you’d gone,” Baptiste revealed.

“Just like Novel said,” Lily snapped bitterly. “The rotten coward. It doesn’t matter. I don’t expect he would have helped if he’d stayed.”

Novel was still laid out on the sofa where she’d left him, peaceful as ever, but now that Lily knew of the burning skies and fiery clouds haunting his consciousness, his still state was more unnerving that it had been before. She kissed him again on the cheek as she settled beside him and opened the Book of Shade across her knees.

“Come on,” she encouraged it. “Give me something. What do you know about this curse?”

The Somnolent State

The black words curled onto the newly-leafed pages instantly.

A powerful curse divined by potioneers, who mix ingredients as yet unknown to the shadeborn. The somnolent state creates a psychic injury in the soul of the victim and only after the healing process has been completed will the sleeper wake.

“Healing,” Lily mused. “He needs healing.” She turned to Baptiste with a bright grin. “Starlight heals shades,” she exclaimed. “He told me so!”

Baptiste gave her a sad look and shook his head.

“We cannot risk putting him on the roof,” he said. “Everything outside of the walls is exposed beyond the protective spells.”

Lily threw the book down in frustration, rubbing her jaw. She breathed heavily for a few tense moments, looking again at Novel’s pale face as he lay so still. She could imagine him lying on the roof absorbing the light of the stars, as they had done so often over the course of the last few months. She slowly began to smile once more.

“The starlight stones,” she said with a half-laugh. “Baptiste, get the others.” She scrambled to her feet as he helped her up. “We have to collect all the clear quartz in the building. Novel’s been filling them up with starlight.”

“You think it will wake him up?” the elegant man asked, a new brightness in his expression.

“It’s all I have to hope for right now, so yes,” Lily replied.

She wasn’t surprised by the utter dedication of the troupe as they rushed from their beds to help heal Novel. Even Dharma collected a series of stones from his room, and carried them in the skirt of her tiny nightdress to show willing. Lily lined up all the stones no matter how full or empty they were, forming a circle around Novel on the sofa, letting the crystals lie against the sides of his body everywhere she could find a space. Slowly, a blue glow formed around him as more and more starlight stones gathered and shared their power.

His supine body hummed with the light of the stars, reflecting on his face to turn him a faint shade of blue. Novel lay perfectly still amid the healing powers, but he did not stir. Lady Eva approached and ran her hand over the space above him, closing her heavy-lidded eyes as she assessed the air.

“Something is happening,” she confirmed. “You were right Lily, there is good magic at work here.”

Lily smiled a little, but the sight of Novel, still motionless, sank her heart.

“But he’s not waking,” she said softly.

“Not yet,” Baptiste said, resting a hand on her shoulder. He was cold as the grave. The elegant man took a deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly through his mouth. The others watched him with an interest that Lily didn’t understand. “It’s five hours to sunrise,” he continued, though how he knew this from just breathing, Lily had no idea. “I’ll circle the building and let you know when they arrive to lay siege.”

“You’re going outside?” Lily protested, “but you just said it was exposed?”

Baptiste gave her a sharp-toothed grin. “You have your ways, shadegirl, and I have mine.”

“What are you?” she asked him.

“If Novel has not yet told you, then it is not the time now,” he explained. “Get some sleep. You’ll need it.”

Baptiste stalked from the room with purpose, and Lily turned to the assembled group who were mostly watching Novel. Dharma tangled her long hair in her fingertips with one hand as she nervously bit her red nails on the other. Zita wrapped her peignoir around her like she was struck by an impossible coldness, and the Slovak Twins moved to stand either side and keep her warm. She patted their hands with sad, languid affection. Lady Eva was still riveted, studying the air above Novel as the starlight healed him, and Lawrence and Poppa Seward stood over at the window, watching intently, waiting to see when the hunters would appear.

“You can run, you know,” Lily told them. “There’s a passage under the theatre that leads right out of town. You don’t have to be endangered by these monsters.”

Lawrence gave a little laugh. “If the Monsieur thinks we haven’t all figured out about the catacombs by now, then he’s sorely mistaken.”

“In fact, I have a confession,” Dharma added with a half grimace. “I told Salem about them the other day. That’s how he got out.”

“He was probably more of a hindrance here anyway,” Poppa offered, though it was clear that the loss of their second most powerful ally was weighing heavy on his thoughts.

“Novel made this place into our home,” Zita said, in a much stronger tone than her usual airy whisper, “and we will defend it in his honour.”

Lily smiled at them all and thanked them before they slowly began to disperse and wait for Baptiste’s return. Lady Eva was the last to go, putting a hand on Lily’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze before she left and shut the door. Lily sat on the armrest beside Novel’s head and ran a hand through his bright white hair, feeling his strong body and its warm blue glow. She had no way to know how deep the injury to his soul was, or whether these stones alone would be enough to heal it, but she made a tiny wish that he would be awake before her when the sun began to rise. She settled down on the other sofa opposite him and curled up in a ball, watching his peaceful face and repeating her wish to herself, until she gently fell asleep.