Shadowborn Royals - G. Bailey Page 0,49

the world.

I let the darkness take me, creating me into something more.

Something so much better than I already am.

My body disappears into the darkness but my mind always stays, loving the comfort as I shift into a raven and follow Sage into the skies of Blackpool.

“We should head back,” Sage suggests around a spoonful of ice cream.

I watch the sea lap at the steps beside the shore and the sandbags lined at the top of them. The skies are grey, eerily so, like they can sense what a crap day this is going to be for us. The sea smells of salt and I can almost taste it over the bubblegum lollipop I’ve just finished off. Over the sounds of the waves, the seagulls make themselves known with loud squeaks, and in the distance, some children ride bikes down the front.

“Why? I have nothing to pack and neither do you. The wardens aren’t coming until nightfall,” I remind her. She eyes me carefully and I try to pick up on her emotions. Is she as nervous as me? Unlikely. The Shadowborn Academy is our next home, starting from tonight. We both have known we would attend this year, on the year we turn eighteen, since we aren’t classed as kids anymore. The academy is meant to teach us control and endurance, to accept our new life and fit into their society of normal magics.

What if you don’t want to fit in?

I asked our warden that once, and she laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world.

“They might not come for us at all. Wouldn’t that be nice?” she replies, and I smirk at her, leaning back on the bench. I chuck the stick of my ice lolly in the bin and go back to people watching the streets.

I love people watching, and so does Sage. We have spent days on this bench, making up stories for random strangers we spot. Our stories are unlikely to be right, but it gives us an escape into a normal world—a world where our nightmares cannot reach us. We can almost pretend we’re just two teenagers skipping school instead of what we really are.

“Do you think Keeper Maddox will miss us?” Sage asks, her voice dripping with humour.

The Light Warden runs our foster home and she’s the fourth one since I came here, as all the others quit. No one likes looking after dozens of kids with shadow powers, and all of whom want their parents back. These poor wardens would literally prefer any other assignment in the magics world. It’s depressing, but Keeper Maddox isn’t the worst of the lot.

“I doubt she will even notice us leave. She prefers the younger ones,” I reply.

They’re easier to control.

As for me and Sage?

We’re damaged goods and a waste of air. Or so we’ve been told by previous wardens. Sometimes late at night, when my demons catch up with me, I almost believe them.

“And you have your book? In the name of Selena, do not forget that book, child,” Keeper Maddox warns me later that day, giving my opened trunk an assessing once over. Spotting the old, tattered book beside my trunk, she nods. “Thank the Gods. You mustn’t forget it. Always have your book with you—”

“—from the instant you enter the forest,” I tersely interject, having endured this spiel many times before now. “The book is our bible. We get it, Miss Maddox.”

We’ve had no choice but to.

I’ve read the Book of Zorya a million times already. I don’t know why she’d think we’d leave here without it. It’s practically the map to our new home. A home neither of us wants to be part of.

Well, Sage says she doesn’t, but I have a sneaky suspicion she’s excited to use magic beyond the mediocre level we were taught here. The wardens never wanted us to learn more than needed since we were supposed to be part of the mortal world.

The mortal world.

After ten years, it still feels odd to not be quite human anymore. I had human parents, lived in a human village, before I was…changed. Now I’m just a shadowborn, and I must go to this academy to learn the tricks of the trade. Part of me should at least feel excited, but I’m not. I’m more terrified than anything else. The last time I entered the Enchanted Forest, my whole world was taken from me.

“Very well, then,” Maddox starts, gesturing to my trunk. “Your luggage should arrive at the academy by