Evangeline's Shadow

Chapter One

Evangeline's POV

I huffed in annoyance as I crossed the street, careful not to bump into anyone else. My hair was bundled up carefully into my hat, and silver is so rare that everyone would know immediately what family I'm from if they saw it.

Then everything would be ruined.

I stepped back up onto the sidewalk and continued down the street, passing shop after shop as I went. The place was bustling with activity, which made me smile. It was so very different here in the Barony. Everything in the Marquisate was so stiff, so...

Stifling.

I knew I was born and raised until my awakening here, but I barely remembered it. The thought brought out more bitterness than I could handle, so I shoved it away, just as I stepped up the address my uncle gave me.

When I was removed against my will - and my family's - to go live at the Marquis's mansion with my father and his family, everything crumbled down. I was immediately placed on house arrest, forbidden from leaving the mostly abandoned west wing of the mansion. My father stayed there with me at the Marquis's command, and I had nannies and servants, but the atmosphere in the house was so obviously against me that nobody cared what happened to me. My nanny - if you could call her that - was downright abusive, and the Marquis himself and his heir, my uncle Niall, would demand unreasonably mature behavior and manners for my age. I grew up never knowing when I would be hit next, or struck with a rod for meeting my grandfather's eyes without permission, or locked in my room for weeks without food. My shifter heritage made me more resilient to all these things, but the abuse still took a toll on me mentally.

My coward of a father was no help. He ignored my pleas for help, avoiding my gaze every time we came across one another, and never offered me any type of comfort. I was only ever spoken to when necessary, by everyone in the mansion, and I spent most of my days alone, reading the few books I could sneak out of the library.

Renita was my only friend and companion. Thankfully our other halves as shifters are souls that have come back time and time again, and Renita was one of the older souls around. My wolf was the biggest help during all those years of confinement, telling me everything she knew about the outside world. She would sing me to sleep when I was very young and missing my mother, and she would light the fire in my belly when I thought about giving up.

So when one of the servants secretly slipped me a letter from my uncle, my mother's brother, I was thankfully far from broken.

Apparently he and my maternal grandfather had been growing their information network, and they had managed to sneak some of their spies into the Marquisate.

I was 13 when I found out through a damn secret letter that my mother had died only a year after I was taken.

It was in that moment that my hatred for my father, the Marquis, everybody that did this- I swore revenge bitterly that day.

Finally I reached 18 years of age. My uncle and grandfather on my mother's side gifted me a townhouse to use whenever I could get away from the Marquisate. Thankfully now that I was grown, the eyes on me had lessened.

It was likely due to the growing influence the Rileys had in the underground. They had never treated commoners like anyone lower than themselves, so they were very well respected in all communities. It was probably much easier than anyone anticipated for them to take so much control of the Marquis's mansion without anyone in the Tessen family finding out.

The thought made me smile bitterly.

Fuck the Marquis. f**k his ignorant, shitty sons. f**k every single one of them.

I turned the key in the lock of the front door to my secret home in the Riley Barony, instantly relaxing as soon as the door was locked behind me. I hadn't made any changes to the decor so far; my uncle and grandfather had carefully chosen the furniture and decorations for me, and that made me feel more special than I had in a long time. I didn't want to change anything at all.

Sighing, I flopped onto the sofa in the living room just inside the entryway.

My hat rolled off onto the floor, letting my long, silvery hair spill everywhere.

I just smiled and drifted off into a light sleep.

Jordan's POV



My head hit the top of my desk with a soft bang! but I didn't flinch. All I could do was groan softly.

Marriage. This was the subject that wouldn't stop coming up lately. The nobles had always been against me as the King's heir, but this was something completely out of left field.

I sat up, glaring off at the large, ornate mirror on the wall to my left. Actually, maybe it wasn't so out of nowhere after all.

I'm 21 now. Everybody thinks I'm just a shade like my father.

Shades don't have fated ones.

But I'm not just a shade. I have the abilities, yes. Shadows bend to my will, but so does everything else.

Everyone believes my mother to be a simple witch, but she's actually another type of being entirely. They don't call themselves anything, but other races would refer to them as gods or deities. The deities are more or less adjudicators for all the worlds, every plane of existence. And I'm one of them.

For most of our lives, we are tasked with keeping the peace in whatever plane we are designated to. To make sure that we maintain complete neutrality in all ways, we aren't allowed to see color or experience emotion like all other beings do. It's a harsh restriction, according to my mother and sister, who both have had theirs lifted.

Once you meet your fated one as a deity, also called our solia, the world lights up with color, and we can retire from our duties and live normally, as other beings do.

At least, that's what my mother, sister, and aunt have told me. My mother's solia ended up being my father, King Theodore Montano of Trevellia. She had been faithful to her duties as the Goddess of Night in this plane for hundreds of years, but once she met Father and felt what she'd been missing, she immediately abandoned it all. Her duties became mine once I was old enough to handle my power.

My sister, while young, had somehow found her fated one very, very early. She refused to tell anyone who it was.

Sometimes I found myself longing for my own solia, but the restrictions placed on me by my own blood usually tamped it down rather quickly.

But these days I seemed to be allowed to feel it a bit longer.

Was it due to all the marriage talks coming from the nobles? It even came up earlier that day in the council meeting. My father's face had hardened at the suggestion, and he stated very plainly that he would allow me to find my own wife.

I knew he wanted me to marry for love, like he did, but it seemed impossible.

Love? Is it even real?

I don't feel it. Even with my family, there's nothing. I feel a sense of responsibility toward them, but that's it. No affection, no comfort, no contentment.

Even when I looked at myself in the mirror, I didn't feel anything. I couldn't even tell what color my hair and eyes were.

Frustration bubbled up from deep within, and this I knew was an emotion my restriction was slow to contain. Groaning I stood, barely looking at my aide as he flinched away.

"I'm going out," I signed to him, and walked away.

"Wait, Your Highness-"

His protest was cut off as I stepped into the nearest shadow, using it to transport myself to another place entirely. I didn't really care where I landed, as long as it was for away from the palace.

I stepped out into the cool night air, breathing it in through my mouth to calm myself. Finally the frustration I felt dissipated, and I set off to just cool myself down.