Shadow Play: Read Online Free

changeling (willing or captive), and seek out JT. Her shadow couldn’t be hurt, but just in case, it had demonstrated (probably too well) that it could and would defend itself. Then her shadow would cross back over, at Ellie’s command.
    This was on the job training—mastering the dark part of herself and safely traversing Twilight. This was making herself useful to the people who’d taken her in and accepted her without reservation. This was making Cam proud, giving Segue a skill to work with, when she’d almost sabotaged his career. This was shadow into Shadow.
    Ms. Parson’s eyes were hard, disbelieving. “What specialist?”
    “Well, me,” Ellie said.
    “You know how to get inside the waterfall?”
    Ellie’s shadow beat against her heart like a drum.
    “It will take some doing”—Ellie sighed—“but yes, I think I can cross.” Saying so to the mother meant no going back. “Can you tell me a little about JT so I know what to expect from him?”
    Ellie was trying to get at what form his madness would take.
    Ms. Parson’s frown deepened, as if she didn’t believe but would go along anyway. “He’s tough. Thinks he can do anything. He likes Legos and Matchbox cars and superheroes. Has a lot of friends, but since the divorce he’s been more attached to Carter, his older brother. He started wetting the bed during the divorce, too. Has nightmares about big dogs.”
    Nightmares were a problem. Ellie didn’t like big dogs either.
    Cam leaned forward. “When I was a kid, my mom gave me and my sisters a code word to help distinguish friends from strangers in case of an emergency. Tiara. Pretty humiliating the day it actually got used. Do you have something like that with your sons?”
    Ms. Parson teared up and shook her head no. “I didn’t think of that. Damn it .”
    “Anything else that just you and he would know?” Ellie put in. She liked Cam’s line of thought. This could actually help. “Something he knows is safe. Something that might bring him around if he’s scared.”
    Ms. Parson was already nodding. She got it too. “Right. I just bought him some spy gizmo for completing his reading challenge. He has a turtle named Speedo. Thinks the name’s hilarious.”
    Ellie saw Ms. Parson’s eyes grow damp again.
    “I call him my knight in shining armor. It’s our thing.”
    Ellie could work with that. Knights were valiant, strong, brave. If he could be a knight, he might be able to get out.
    Cam looked at her over his shoulder, his expression filled with concern and his previous exhaustive arguments against her going.
    Ms. Parson grabbed Ellie’s hand. “But how do you get inside? How do you know where to look? I heard that place is supposed to be lethal.”
    Ellie didn’t doubt her shadow could cross. And now she had something to use— knight —if she found him. But yes, the actual finding was a big problem. Lethal, even bigger.

CHAPTER 2
     
    Cam shook his head at Ellie. “It won’t be today. The stress of our arrival has had you fighting your shadow since we boarded the airplane this morning.”
    They’d convened in a lab dedicated to the samples Dr. Grant hadn’t been able to obtain from the fae or from Twilight. Chests designed for transport and on-site utility were stacked in the corner, filled with tools and equipment. Stainless steel tables had been erected along one wall. This was unused space that smelled like plastic.
    “JT has been gone for over forty-eight hours,” Ellie said, gesturing in the direction of the falls. “He doesn’t have any more time.”
    She was pretty convincing, her stance all energy. Chin level, blue eyes direct. Almost anyone would believe she was ready to go. Anyone, that is, who hadn’t been up close and personal, to hear and feel how irregular her breath got when she was in conflict with the interests and passions of her darker, deeper self.
    In fact, she’d been doing that subtle, shallow hitch ever since the call had come in from Adam Thorne,