ALSO BY DEBORAH HARKNESS
A Discovery of Witches
Shadow of Night
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published in 2014 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Deborah Harkness, 2014
All rights reserved
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 978-0-670-02559-6
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Harkness, Deborah E.
Shadow of night / Deborah Harkness.
p. cm. — (All souls trilogy ; bk. 3)
1. Witches—Fiction. 2. Vampires—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.A7436S53 2012
813’.6—dc23 2012005843
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For Karen, who knows why.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.
It is the one that is most adaptable to change.
—ELIZABETH I, PHILLIPE DE CLERMONT,
often attributed to Charles Darwin
Contents
Cover
Also by Deborah Harkness
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Sol in Cancer
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Sol in Leo
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Sol in Virgo
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Sol in Libra
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Sol in Scorpio
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Sol in Sagittarius
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Sol in Capricorn
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Sol in Aquarius
Chapter 40
Sol in Pisces
Chapter 41
Sol in Aries
Chapter 42
Sol in Taurus
Chapter 43
Sol in Gemini
Chapter 44
Acknowledgments
Sol in Cancer
The Signe of the Crabbe pertains to houses, lands, treasures, and whatever is hidden.
It is the fourth house of the Zodiak.
It signifies death and the end of thinges.
—Anonymous English Commonplace Book, c. 1590, Gonçalves MS 4890, f. 11v
1
Ghosts didn’t have much substance. All they were composed of was memories and heart. Atop one of Sept-Tours’ round towers, Emily Mather pressed a diaphanous hand against the spot in the center of her chest that even now was heavy with dread.
Does it ever get easier? Her voice, like the rest of her, was almost imperceptible.
The watching?
The waiting?
The knowing?
Not that I’ve noticed, Philippe de Clermont replied shortly. He was perched nearby, studying his own transparent fingers. Of all the things Philippe disliked about being dead—the inability to touch his wife, Ysabeau; his lack of smell or taste; the fact that he had no muscles for a good sparring match—invisibility topped the list. It was a constant reminder of how inconsequential he had become.
Emily’s face fell, and Philippe silently cursed himself. Since she’d died, the witch had been his constant companion, cutting his loneliness in two. What was he thinking, barking at her as if she were a servant?
Perhaps it will be easier when they don’t need us anymore, Philippe said in a gentler tone. He might be the more experienced ghost, but it was Emily who understood the metaphysics of their situation.
What the witch had told him went against everything Philippe believed about the afterworld. He thought the living saw the dead because they needed something from them: assistance, forgiveness, retribution.
Emily insisted these were nothing more than human myths, and it was only when the living moved on and let go that the dead could appear to them.
This information made Ysabeau’s failure to notice him somewhat easier to bear, but not much.
“I can’t wait to see Em’s reaction. She’s going to be so surprised.” Diana’s warm alto floated up to the battlements.
Diana and Matthew, Emily and Philippe said in unison, peering down to the cobbled courtyard that surrounded the château.
There, Philippe said, pointing at the drive. Even dead, he had vampire sight that was sharper than any human’s. He was also still handsomer than any man had a right to be, with his broad shoulders and devilish grin. He turned