Free The Bloodshade Encounters & The Songspinner (Shadeborn Book 2) by K.C. Finn Page A

– there should be nothing to fear here, above or below its ancient walls.
    The hospital had called mere moments after Novel left with Baptiste. Jazzy’s release time had been moved up by several hours, meaning Lily and Novel would have to leave very soon if they were still going to collect her. Lily had no idea how long a foundation check in the catacombs was going to take, so the only solution was to find Novel in the tunnels and give him the message herself. It seemed like a logical idea, but the farther Lily got into the suffocating depths of the stone staircase, the more she was starting to wonder if she could manage Jazzy and her wheelchair by herself, and leave Novel to his business.
    At the foot of the very end of the deep staircase, Lily found that she didn’t want to leave it and head off into the new tunnel ahead. Her vicious nightmares of being buried in heavy, relentless earth returned to her and she wondered how Novel could stand the feeling of encasement enough to do this every month. Why couldn’t Baptiste have come down on his own? The elegant gent was surely more suited to darkness and narrow corridors than his employer.
    The tunnel had a hard, echoing floor and every new step that Lily took reverberated into the darkness ahead. She thought about increasing the size of her torchlight, but casting a giant fireball in an enclosed space was an even less pleasant thought than getting trapped in the tunnels. When her steps gave way to the sound of a squeaking, scurrying form, however, Lily felt her stomach do a flip. Rats. Of course there would be rats, because Novel clearly wasn’t bothered about exposing Lily to that sort of thing.
    Slowing her breathing, Lily looked down to her feet. She felt the blood pulse in her veins for a moment, carrying its magical strength down towards the ground. She rose gently into the air, only an inch or two above the echoing floor, then hovered there for a moment to ensure she had her balance. A rat passed by beneath her, but she was steady enough in her levitation to stay out of its way. She began to walk in the air, her steps as silent as a low breeze.
    “So much for lacking precision,” she murmured to herself smugly.
    Lily continued down the long corridor, until the sight of light ahead caught her attention. A faint glow emanated from around a corner some way in the distance. Now confident that she could use her gravity skills to speed back to the staircase if something went awry, Lily strode on through the air, extinguishing her fireball when she found the very edge of the new light source. She was about to turn the corner into the lit space when a sudden noise stopped her.
    Novel. And he was injured.
    “It never gets any less painful,” he said. Every word sounded as though it had come from between gritted teeth. The illusionist’s breathing was stunted and shallow as he heaved out the words. “Ow!”
    “Do you think there will ever come a time when you don’t talk incessantly all the way through this?”
    Baptiste sounded as though he was chewing on something. His usually graceful words were marred by bad manners, and he too was out of breath.
    “I’m supposed to sit here in silence, am I, whilst you – AH!”
    Novel cried sharply, the way Lily did when she dropped something heavy on her foot.
    “You did that on purpose,” he added in a growl.
    Baptiste did not reply. Lily stood for a moment in the half-light, deeply confused. They weren’t checking foundations. She couldn’t imagine what was happening mere feet from where she stood, but the queasy feeling in her stomach had returned tenfold. This was something she wasn’t meant to be overhearing. Novel hissed in pain again, and suddenly Lily didn’t care if she was supposed to be there or not. She lunged forward in the silent air and flew around the corner, eyes widening at the sight she beheld.
    Novel sat in a white throne, his head lolling back as he gritted his teeth. Baptiste was kneeling at his