The Secret Shadow by Bethany Atazadeh

Author:Bethany Atazadeh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, fairytale, fairy tale, fairy tale inspired, ya fantasy, young adult fantasy, royalty, shape shifter
Publisher: Grace House Press
Published: 2023-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

11

I CAN STILL TURN her in.

That was my first thought. Followed immediately by, Could I live with myself if I betrayed my mother?

Standing there, breathing raggedly, I thought I knew the answer.

After the choices I’d made the last few months, if it was between me or her, I’d do whatever it took to survive. Especially since she’d done the same to me. She’d abandoned me to grow up alone with my father all those years ago.

But my feet didn’t move. My arms dangled limp by my sides.

Giving myself a mental shake, I reached back and drew a butcher’s knife from the wooden block on the counter. I held it out between us. “Don’t move.”

The corner of her mouth tilted up in a smile, but she didn’t protest.

Time to call for a nearby guard.

I was going to turn in my own mother.

When I opened my mouth to yell... I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t pretend she was a stranger and still turn her in.

Not when she was the only family I had left. Not when she’d finally come back, after all these years.

Her smile softened as she waited patiently.

I lowered the knife.

“Come now, Jezebel,” she said. “Let’s drop the pretense, shall we?”

My lips parted.

How does she knows it’s me?

My poisonous fingers gave away my Gift, but how did she see through my disguise? Or... did she even know it was a disguise? It occurred to me that she hadn’t seen me grow up. That she didn’t truly know what her own daughter looked like anymore.

Gripping the knife, a new fear flashed through my mind: what if my mother revealed my Gift to the Jinni Guard?

She knew it was me. And she’d seen me shift.

This was the woman who’d left me with my father without remorse, disappearing for years. I’d never gotten an apology or even an explanation. It wasn’t hard to imagine her exposing my Gift, if it’d allow her to escape.

After wavering, I decided not to trust her further and remained in my false form. At least this way, if she betrayed me and named “Jezebel” as the shifter, she’d be pointing to a kitchen serving girl.

That would lessen her credibility.

It was best to assume this was her plan. If I expected the worst, I couldn’t be surprised by it.

Still holding the knife, I made my voice cold, “What’re you doing here?”

The early dawn light illuminated her face just enough that I caught a flash of something—disappointment? “I suppose that’s fair. I shouldn’t expect you to trust me after all these years. But I’ve seen your face, darling. After my attempt to get your information from the clerk failed, I braved the dining hall, and I would’ve recognized you anywhere. You don’t need to wear this other girl’s body for my sake.”

I swallowed hard.

So much for my plans to confuse her.

She crossed her arms, waiting.

Fine.

Careful to check the windows and doors first, I shifted into my true form.

I forced my arms to stay loose at my sides, pulling my shoulders back and lifting my chin.

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