Seressia Glass - Shadow Blade (Shadowchasers)

I think I have the right to know the name

ofthe person making demands of me.

The Nubians lips tightened. My name is Kevin. Kevin Lambert.

Kira snorted. I find it hard to believe that Kevin was a common name four thousand years ago.

He remained silent while their waiter brought their drinks and left. Then he leaned forward. My name is Khefar, son of Jeru, son of Natek. And yes, I was born more than four millennia ago. Now that the introductions are over, may I have my dagger back?

I need you to answer some questions first.

A muscle in his right cheek ticked. I want my blade back.

Praise for the writing of Seressia Glass,

anauthor whom Romantic Times calls phenomenal!

Hits hard and sexy with an emotional edge....

Romantic Times about In Walks Trouble in

Vegas Bites: Three of a Kind

Almost impossible to put down.

The Romance Reader about

No Commitment Required

An easy, fun, scary read.

R.A.W. Sistaz about Dream of Shadows

SERESSIA

GLASS

SHADOW

BLADE

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Copyright 2010 by Seressia Glass

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Designed by Ester Paradelo

Cover design by John Vairo Jr.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-1-4391-5679-7

ISBN 978-1-4391-6900-1 (ebook)

To Paula, my editor, and Jenny, my agent.

Thanks for believing in my story!

And to the fabulous Stacia Kaneyou rock!

And a special thanks to L.A. Banks for

your enthusiasm and encouragement.

This wouldnt have happened without any of you.

She comes like the hush and beauty of the night,

And sees too deep for laughter;

Her touch is a vibration and a light

From worlds before and after.

Edwin Markham, Poetry

Prologue

K ira sat on a rough-hewn bench with faded tapestry cushions, her back against the gray stone wall of the hall. Thick glass windows were set into the corridor walls every few feet in a vain attempt to brighten the cold, desolate passageway. She didnt know what this place was; shed stopped caring and paying attention once shed realized her parents were sending her away. Shed tried to stop caring about that too, but it was harder.

She knew they were on an island as theyd had to reach it by boat. They had then climbed a steep hill dotted with rocks and windswept grass to reach what looked like a sprawling sun-bleached castle perched atop a cliff set against a sky the same robins egg blue as the water. Now, as she sat alone in the shadowy hallway, the sun and the sky and the sea seemed to have disappeared. The castle felt more like a prison than a palace.

She huddled in the oversized navy blue all-weather coat that had become her protection from the world ever since shed hit puberty a few months before. Across the hall from her bench, a heavy wooden door separated her from the adults deciding her futurebut not from their words.

We cant do this anymore! Her adoptive father. Loud, but his deep voice shaking with anger . .. or fear. She put our daughter in the hospital. Gillys still in a coma!

Kira flinched, then focused intently on her hands, encased in thick garden gloves with cuffs secured to the ends of her shirt sleeves by duct tape. The tape had been her idea, and her father hadnt disagreed. Her jaw still hurt from when hed hit her, the one and only time hed ever touched her. Shed deserved it, though, because of Gilly.

Gilly, who was afraid of thunderstorms at nine years old. Gilly, whod been taught for the last five years not to touch her strange older sister but had come into Kiras bedroom anyway because she was more afraid of lightning than the way Kiras hands sometimes sparked blue.

Lying in bed, semicomatose after retching half the night, twelve-year-old Kira had been exhausted from reliving every painful step of how her dinner had gotten to her plate. Eating had become a nightmare. The only food she could keep down were fruits and vegetables she picked herself, everything else came with confusing flashes of emotion and life from every individual who had handled it, processed it, packaged it, stocked it, sold it... Meat was unthinkable.

But all the gardens in their community had been depleted as winter approached and Kira had been so desperately hungry shed tried to eat, despite the consequences.

Kira had been too sick that stormy night to realize her sister was there, had crept into bed with her to escape her fear of thunder and lightning. Kira hadnt known shed shifted and touched Gilly. Hadnt realized even when shed dreamed she was Gilly, thinking of how her older sister must be a magical fairy princess and would someday take them both back to fairyland. Only her mothers screams had shocked her out of sleep, her fathers hand knocking her out of bed and to the floor when shed bolted upright. Only when she saw Gillys limp form cradled in her mothers arms did she realize that something, everything, had gone totally and finally wrong.

Weve done everything we can do, her father continued, his voice thickening. But she . .. she refuses to listen to us, and her... problem... just keeps growing. Bethanys at her wits end.

Kira had tried. Tried to do what they wanted, tried to make them happy so they would keep her. For four years shed kept expecting them to change their minds, these people who had rescued her from the orphanage. Shed always thought of Gilly as her sister, from the very beginning, but it was only this year shed really begun to consider them all family. Only this year had she finally begun to believe that she belonged.

Then shed gotten her period and her life had gone to hell. Twelve years old and her life was over.