Without a Shadow by H. J. Reynolds

Author:H. J. Reynolds [Reynolds, H. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CamCat Publishing

Adlai slammed open her uncle’s front door, her breathing heavy as she waited for him to appear.

But the house was dark and quiet. He wasn’t home. Again.

He claimed he left for the protection of the island, or to help with supplies or some other noble thing. Now she wondered if any of that was true. What was her uncle really getting up to when he wasn’t here?

She headed for his study, squinting suspiciously around every inch of it, but it was all so tidy and orderly. Handwritten notes contained day-to-day demands from other casters, scheduled meetings, and planned supply runs.

She crumpled one of the notes in frustration and moved on. Every room was more of the same nothingness.

Except there was one room she hadn’t looked in.

Adlai spun around and went to the door that was next to her uncle’s bedroom.

She bent down; the lock didn’t seem too complex. A hairpin might do for it, she thought, and was moving away when she was startled by the noise of her uncle returning home.

“Adlai?” He called out. He hadn’t seen where she was and she quickly rushed away from the door, out into the hallway.

Luth looked tired, his pale skin so much paler under layers of black clothing, as if he were wrapping himself in shadow. For a moment she felt pity for him, but then she remembered Nadir’s words and it was a twist in the stomach. Her uncle was keeping secrets from her.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Arbil?” she said sharply.

His eyes narrowed. Alert suddenly.

“Who have you been talking to?”

“Does it matter?” she asked. “Are my parents there? Is that where we’re taken if a trapper gets us?” Her breathing was coming out in bursts and she clenched her hands into fists, afraid of the answers he might give.

Her uncle blinked at her questions. He sat on the edge of the woven sofa and his hands coiled around the wooden trellises. “It’s where trappers train. And, yes, it’s where our bodies are taken as well as our shadows.”

“But why?” She drew toward him. Saw the lines on his face become more pronounced. “What do they need with our bodies?”

He shifted in his seat. His eyes flickered momentarily out to the hallway as if he was lost in some thought. When he spoke again, his voice was distant. “When you died, when any of us die, our bodies don’t decay; they heal.”

Her heart raced. She remembered having no wound on her neck after she’d come back to life. That was because of her shadow powers. And both her parents had shadows. Both of them had been taken by trappers.

“My parents . . . does that mean that they’re not . . . that they can come back, like I did?”

“Their souls are in the shadow world, while their bodies and shadows are in Arbil. It is possible that they can return to the living.” He sighed. “My priority is to keep everyone here safe. But my hope is that we’ll one day bring our loved ones home.

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