The Shades of Magic conclusion hits shelves February 2017
V.E.
Excerpt fromA Conjuring of LightbyV.E.
Schwab
I
Delilah Bardonce thief, current magician, and one-day pirate was running as fast as she could.
Credit: Courtesy PR
The word was an order, a plea.Im coming.
Twice before shed made this journey, but always as a passenger.
Always using Kells magic.
Chest heaving and pulse high, Lila swallowed and said the words, as boldly as she could.
She thought it was be easy, or at least,simple.
Something you either survived, or did not.
For one horrifying moment, Lila ceased to exist.
And then, just as suddenly she was staggering forward onto her hands and knees in the street.
She dragged herself back to her feet, blood dripping from her fingers, her nose.
And then she looked up.
The sky was streaked with reds and purples and golds.
It was the same, and yet entirely changed.
It had been a world of ice and ash and white stone.
And now…a man walked past her on the street, and he wassmiling.
Not the rictus grin of the starving, but the private smile of the happy, the blessed.
Four months, and in that time shed learned to sense magic, its presence, its intent.
Sweet, and strong enough that it was cloying.
The world shimmered with it.
What the hell was going on?
And where was Kell?
They stood open, winter ivy winding through the iron.
Lila dragged to a stop a second time.
The pull of him was buried behind too many walls, too much magic.
Wasnt there a finding spell?
She cursed herself for not knowing, never asking.
Kell had told her once, of finding Rhy after hed been taken.
What had he used?
Something Rhy had made.
But Lila didnt have anything of his.
Panic welled, and she fought it down.
So she didnt have a charm to guide her.
People were more than what they owned, and surely objects werent the only things that held a mark.
They were made of pieces, words…memories.
And Lila had a few of those.
The broken pieces of their lives.
And then, a new embrace.
The terrifying heat, and then, too soon, the cold.
Her collapse in the arena.
His anger hurled like a weapon before he turned away.
Before shed let him go.
But she was here to take him back.
Lila steeled herself again, jaw clenched against the expectation of the pain to come.
Torches burned in sconces along the walls, and footsteps rang in the distance.
She allowed herself the briefest moment of satisfaction, maybe even relief, before realizing Kell wasnt here.
And then beyond a door to her left, she heard a muffled scream of desperation.
Lilas blood went cold.
A scar traced the other womans cheekbone, but that was the only ordinary thing about her.
A color so vibrant it seemed to singe the air.
A color too bright for this world.
Or, at least, the world it had been.
But Lila felt the wrongness here, and it was more than vivid colors and ruined eyes.
Graceful as a bird gliding into formation.
Lila was almost impressed.
Who are you supposed to be?
Lila drew her own knives.
I am the thief.
You cannot go in.
Try and stop me.
What is your name?
Whats it to you?
She smiled, then, a wicked, murderous grin.
My king will want to know who Ive
Lila didnt wait for her to finish.
She spun, ready to slash again, only to find herself parrying another scorpion strike.
The woman moved with a disturbing grace, the fluid gestures of a dancer.
A dancer with two very sharp blades.
Lila ducked, the knife biting through the air beside her face.
Several strands of dark hair fell to the floor.
The weapons blurred with speed, drawing her attention in different directions.
It was all Lila could do to dodge the glints of silver.
Shed been in her fair share of knife fights.
Had started most of them herself.
How was she supposed to fight a woman whose knives didnt even stay in her hands?
The answer, of course, was simple: the same way she fought anyone else.
