Shadowborn Royals - G. Bailey Page 0,50

the time you arrive. Why don’t you go stand outside with the others?”

She leaves without waiting for a reply.

I look out the window above what used to be my rickety bed. Sage is sitting on her tire swing in the back garden, looking down at Little Nessa’s grave. She was a kid who used to stay here before she lost control of her power. Sage and I shared a room with her, and we always managed to calm her down when she had nightmares. But that night we went out for a fly, and when we came back, they were carrying Nessa’s small body out. I remember looking at her and thinking how peaceful she looked, as if she were just sleeping. But that’s the thing with shadowborns. Our magic feeds off the darkness residing within us, and often it takes over.

Our fears, our heartaches, our pain… anything that affects us negatively, the magic pulsing through our veins latches on to them and grows stronger with every fruitless effort we make to fight them.

Some of us learn to control our dark sides, at least for a while. Others, like Nessa, never stand a chance from the moment they were turned into a shadowborn. This is why the academy exists: to teach magics like me how to accept our demons instead of hiding from them. Running, avoiding, suppressing, all these things merely worsen our condition. I learned that a long time ago, and I managed to accept my demons.

The darkest one of all is named Pitch, and he’s also my shadow.

Speaking of the devil, which he might be for all I know, Pitch doesn’t always talk to me. I guess he doesn’t really need to. His thoughts are my fears and my fears are his thoughts now. No matter where he goes, I can always sense him without looking. It’s inherent, not because I want it to be, but because we’re soul mates.

Literally.

The night that I died, I was the only light left within his swirling darkness, and he latched on to me by tethering my soul to his so we could both stay alive. He never meant for either of us to suffer and die. Only a child himself, he merely wanted to grant my birthday wish.

I never quite bought that either in the beginning. But despite all the anger and pain I felt towards him for many years later, I’ve come to accept that without him, without his darkness nestled around my heart, my soul would be incomplete. He’s a part of me whether I want him to be or not, and any time we’re apart, a gut-wrenching longing takes over me, and it burns right through to my core.

I turn back, seeing a shadow of a figure in the corner of the room, sitting on an empty bed. Sometimes Pitch looks like a man with broad shoulders, thick black hair, and alluring amber eyes. And sometimes, like this, he is just a shadow that blinks away before I can ask why he’s even here.

Clearing my throat, I leave and head down the corridor, my navy boots announcing every footstep in the dark, dimly lit hallway. Pushing the door open, I step out into the moonlight as Sage stands and turns to me, clutching her copy of the Book of Zorya in her hands. This is how I know she’s excited to go to the academy—she’s forever reading that damn book.

“Is it time?” she asks, and I simply nod. Hooking her arm in mine, we leave the garden and head to the front of the house. We walk outside, sitting on the brick wall, watching the stars in the sky.

“They say it’s so dark in the enchanted forest, and unless you have the blessing of the sun and moon, you can’t see where you walk,” she half-jokes, but I can tell she is nervous.

I roll my eyes at her. It can’t be that bad. “You need to stop reading that book. Wait and see. We will be there soon.”

She opens her book and starts reading, ignoring me completely.

“In the beginning, Aphrodite and Persephone decided to create a magical forest for all manner of creatures. They appeared in their natural form, unearthly beautiful and fae-like, and brought with them their favourite stars—the Morning Star and the Evening Star. They each placed them in the sky, and one became the sun and the other the moon,” she reads out, her voice being carried by the wind to poor unsuspecting humans who