Embrace My Shadow Novels & Stories

"You are not alone, Emily. We believe in you." The faces of my friends and allies appeared, their faith and support giving me strength. I straightened, meeting the shadow's gaze with renewed determination. "I am not defined by my past," I said firmly. "I have the power to change the future, to protect those I love. I will not be broken." The shadow recoiled, its form wavering. With a surge of will, I stepped forward, the light within me growing brighter. The shadow screamed, dissolving into mist.

“We need to end this before it tears us apart.” The Seer’s eyes glowed faintly, her voice rising above the chaos. “It is not brute strength that ends it—it is acceptance. What you deny will only grow stronger.” She thrust her staff down, and a ripple of power spread across the chamber, momentarily forcing the echoes back. “Face yourselves. Do not reject your shadow—acknowledge it, and it loses its hold.”

“Good,” Nyssandra said. “Stay there. Feel the heat and the energy pouring out and around you.” I heard the water swish and dripped. I knew Nyssandra had removed herself from the spring. “Now. Reach for your shadow self in the deepest part of you. Once you have it, hold on to it and see yourself absorbing it, becoming one.” I shifted, uncomfortable with the heat of my body. I reached into my mind’s eye for the shadow that always stayed just out of sight, but I could feel it hovering. I knew that was my wolf, watching, waiting, afraid to step into the light.

Right in front of her god damn boss whom she hated to no end. Her eyes enlarged and panic rose in her immediately. "Putting on a naked show in front of your boss, is so professional of you!" Suddenly speaking, master Ethan's words seem to make Sylendra eyes blank. He taunted her... "Professional isn't invading someone's personal space either, Mr.Thompson!" Taunting back in the same wrath Sylendra got the blanket which was beside master Ethan and wrapped it around her body slowly to hide her nudity from him. Without any weird emotions like shame clouding her thoughts but rather with full confidence and anger!

The land… I want to be on land. Maxim and Ignat answered her humbly while Luca was brimmed with his personal interest. “You can go crazy.” She gave them permission to do what they wanted to do. (Yessha!) They said in unison. “And brother…” Shadow took her dagger and slit her skin. “It’s only through estranging yourself from other people’s belief that you can be someone that has never existed. You must abandon all the baseless fear that you have accumulated. Start to find your own path.”

But when I was in the middle, the wind blew suddenly, taking the thick clouds. Strong sunlight shone a few meters away from me and every second, it was getting wider. To escape the sunlight, I had to run so fast. But I hesitated because I had to hide that I had changed. In the end, I wanted to run like a bolt of lightning since I wasn’t sure if someone was looking at me. But before I could do that, Gavin appeared at my side and carried me in his arms. He ran so fast and he reached the other side in just a blink of an eye.

The ride to Velvet Mirage was a blur of neon lights and fear. My head throbbed as I tried to piece together what just happened. My package—my lifeline—was gone. I kept replaying the attack in my head: the rough shove from behind, the way my knees scraped against the pavement, and the speed at which they snatched it from my grip. I should have fought harder. I should have done something. But what could I do against two men? The bus jolted to a stop, and I staggered out, the sticky night air clinging to my skin. The club's glowing red sign loomed ahead. “Velvet Mirage,” it read, flickering slightly, just like the stability in my life.

Still, I think I should keep it to myself. I finally decide to get them to leave her out of these matters, so that they handle things on their own. This is going to be fully blown, but I think it's part of the life I've come home to. I simply believe it is about ultimate self and trust—how to protect oneself—because everything they think is that the Shadow Fang is going to win, and they are the ones to win instead. I don't know much about them personally. I think he has been a little too proud to claim that he is going to defeat them, because they might be tougher for us. You know, it's time for a tough war; it's not time to start begging—it’s time to start preparing for the aftermath.

“I want to know how to use dark magic, Atlas.” “This is going to be painful for you to learn like it was for me, because the truth is,” he leans back, placing one finger underneath my chin and tilts my head up. I’m looking up his six foot tall frame and never in my life have I felt as small as I do right in this second. “I let the darkness in before I ever came to the academy. It is part of me now, as are the shadows. I embraced it. I became it. I trained my body to become fluid with the shadows around me.”

But as I walked away visibly emotionless, I couldn’t shake the image of the woman in the scarf, sitting in the shadows, watching me like she already knew me. And I had no idea that she was about to change everything.