Shadow Prophecy (The Magic Carnival Book 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Epilogue

  Shadow Prophecy

  Trudi Jaye

  www.trudijayewrites.com

  Contents

  Copyright

  Other Books by Trudi Jaye

  Trudi Jaye Readers Group

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Epilogue

  Thank You!

  Also by Trudi Jaye

  About the Author

  Shadow Prophecy (The Magic Carnival, book 6)

  Published 24 March 2017 by Star Media Ltd

  Copyright © 2017 by Star Media Ltd

  All rights reserved.

  Shadow Prophecy is a work of fiction. Names, places and incidents, except those clearly in the public domain, are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, names, places or incidents is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design: www.ravven.com

  Other Books by Trudi Jaye

  Magic Carnival Series

  Ringmaster

  The Gift

  Tilly’s Secret

  High Flyer

  Hidden Magic

  Shadow Prophecy

  Dragon Rising Series

  Hidden Dragon

  Searching Dragon

  Fighting Dragon (due out 2017)

  Firecaller Series

  Fire Mage

  Book two (due out 2017)

  Hi, my name’s Trudi Jaye and I’m the author of this book. I’m pretty convinced that if you enjoyed Shadow Prophecy, you’ll like reading my other books too.

  Click the link below to join my Readers Group and you’ll receive a free novella from the Magic Carnival series, plus a short story in my new Dragon Rising series world, so you can see if I’m right.

  Join Trudi Jaye’s Reader Group today!

  Chapter 1

  Sam gasped for breath, his lungs burning.

  Sweat dripped down his face and his legs felt like jelly, but he pushed himself harder, making his exhausted body run through the pain. In the distance, the early morning sun was breaking over the hills. He narrowed his focus to the rocky landscape directly in front of him, ignoring the dappled light, and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.

  The hills behind the camp were the perfect running track. The physical activity didn’t stop the thoughts in the middle of the night; it didn’t stop him remembering what he’d done, or how many people he’d hurt. It didn’t stop the blood that flowed past his eyelids when he tried to sleep. But if he ran fast enough, his nightmares faded into the sunlight, and he could at least function during the day.

  Sam paused at a lookout point, his hands on his hips and his breath rasping in and out. He leaned forward for a moment, his head hanging down and his hair dangling past his eyes. He’d stopped cutting his hair and shaving a few weeks back, and now his bangs were as long as his shaggy beard. It suited his mood and hid his thoughts from the rest of the Carnival.

  Far below, the striped cones of the big top rose out of the grassy field, and tiny ant-sized Carnival folk ran between the newly erected structures. He could hear the shouts from the crew bosses as they harangued and organized the workers. Travel trailers in all shapes and sizes were clustered together on the far side, and the crews were finishing the thrill rides alongside the main strip. The Ferris wheel spun slowly, glinting in the sun.

  It was the first stop of the new season, and Sam didn’t know what to think yet. When Jack, in his role as joint Ringmaster, had approached him, he’d agreed to tour with the Jolly Knight Carnival as their doctor—it wasn’t like he had anything better to do or anywhere else to be. He owed a debt of gratitude to the Carnival folk who’d rescued him from the circus show where he’d been trapped, and he was happy to help out.

  Right away Jack had assigned Sam a small trailer that could double as a clinic, almost like he was afraid Sam would change his mind. The tall, engaging Ringmaster had grinned and said it was practically the royal treatment, getting a trailer of his own.

  Sam pushed his hair back off his forehead with one hand, shaking off the sweat. He didn’t quite know what to make of Jack’s laughing comment. His new home was a tiny, rickety space that had shuddered the entire drive down from the Compound.

  The Jolly Knight Carnival was very different from anything he’d experienced before. Veronica Snow had ruled the LA show called The Experiment with an iron fist—no velvet glove—and had insisted on complete and utter obedience. Always dressed in perfect designer suits and understated gold jewelry, she’d looked harmless, or at least innocuous, at first glance. It was only after you’d irrevocably joined that you learned her true nature.

  Meanwhile the Jolly Knight Carnival had two Ringmasters—the stunning and charismatic Rilla and her new husband, Jack—but they also had a ruling council, the Nine, and they often voted on important decisions. There was an openness to everyone’s faces, and a tendency to speak their minds that Sam was still getting used to. Sometimes he just had to escape and be by himself, away from their honesty and frankness. It was too much after the years of solitary anguish he’d experienced at Veronica’s ha
nds.

  He held his left arm across his chest and put his right one up over his forearm, stretching out the aching muscle. Yesterday, Sam had helped the Thrillmaster Viktor and the rest of the crew with the initial set up. He considered himself fit from his running, but he’d used muscles he never had before, and the weathered Thrill leader had run rings around him.

  Veronica had employed a more hierarchical structure that meant the doctor—even a pet one who had to do whatever she said—didn’t do any of the manual labour.

  He glanced down at the blisters gathering on his hands. Despite the pain, he preferred the Jolly Knight Carnival’s methods. He hadn’t come from a circus background, he’d just joined The Experiment thinking it would be an adventure—and had spent the long years after he was trapped by Veronica’s magic wishing he’d never made that decision. Dark memories tried to sneak back into his consciousness, and he clenched his fists, pushing his fingernails into his palms until the pain drove the images away.

  As he gazed down at the brightly colored Carnival below, Sam admitted to himself the real reason he’d agreed to stay. If Veronica were going to emerge from whatever rock she was hiding under, it would be to exact revenge on the Jolly Knight Carnival for the death of her brother, Marco. They’d accidentally killed Veronica’s beloved sibling in the process of escaping The Experiment, and despite the fact that he’d been begging to be set free from her magic to die a natural death, she wouldn’t take his death lightly. He knew she was even now plotting some form of vengeance on those she held responsible.

  And when she showed her face, he would be waiting.

  An elephant trumpeted in the distance, and he glanced at his watch. It was time to head back down if he was going to make his meeting with Jack and Indigo. He’d promised to help with Jack’s absorbing powers. He’d seen similar cases at The Experiment where someone new to a talent had struggled to restrain it. At least his time in that hellhole was going to benefit someone.

  At first, he took his time over the loose shale, but the sweat was beginning to dry on his body and sending chills along his spine. He sped up, bending his knees and using the hardened muscles in his legs to keep his balance. He was about half way through the shale when he slipped, his heart pounding in his chest as he slid down the decline, his arms out wide, trying to keep to his feet.

  He hit a rock and lost his balance, sprawling toward the ground. His hand reached out to break his fall, and scraped over a rock poking out between the foliage. Blood appeared instantly on his palm, and he swore.

  That was what he got for not concentrating on what he was doing.

  As he clambered to his feet, movement to his left made him glance up. A wild cat, some form of bobcat, or maybe a spotted panther—if such things existed—jumped down onto the path in front of him. It hissed, and he froze. Without taking his eyes off the wild animal, he moved slowly away from it, trying to escape from what it obviously considered its territory.

  The cat moved forward again, graceful yet deadly on all four paws. It hissed again, showing rows of sharp teeth, and Sam automatically put up his hands in a calming gesture. “It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I don’t want to be in your territory. I’ll just get out of your way,” he said, trying for the soothing tone of voice he used on his most hysterical patients.

  The wild cat halted and watched him intently as he edged away. He was going much farther to the right than he’d been planning for his trip down the hill, and he was going to have to do some rock climbing. But he’d do a bit of climbing any day to avoid a run-in with a wild mountain cat.

  As he backed away, the cat remained motionless, tensed as if to strike, watching him with its strange, intelligent green eyes.

  Once he’d determined the cat wasn’t going to follow him, he let out a breath of relief. Moving carefully forward, he soon came to a ledge. He looked over the small cliff he was about to climb down—it wasn’t far, maybe a five or six yards deep—and had a moment of doubt. Maybe he should go back the way he’d come? He glanced back to where the mountain cat had been, only to discover the creature had followed him, and was now standing only three yards away, the snarl back in place.

  Grabbing a scraggly tree next to the ledge, Sam lowered himself over the edge. As a teenager, he’d almost lived at the local rock-climbing center, but he’d done nothing while studying or even since. His fingers clutched at the narrow outcroppings, and his feet struggled to find purchase in his running shoes. Going down was much harder than going up—when he was about a foot down the cliff, he realized he always used to abseil down the cliffs.

  His entire body was shaking, but he kept going, slowly climbing down. What was the worst that would happen to him if he fell? He’d die. A part of him called out softly that perhaps it would be best if he did just let go.

  All the pain and hurt would stop. The nightmares, the blood. It would all be gone.

  Even if he didn’t die straight away, no one would know to look for him up here. He’d die alone or perhaps with the company of a hungry bobcat. It was nothing more than he deserved.

  His fingers tightened on the rocks. Today was not the day he was going to die. He had a mission, a self-appointed task to complete before he could think such thoughts.

  He was going to find and kill Veronica if it was the last thing he ever did. In fact he was pretty sure it was going to be the last thing he would ever do.

  But that was okay.

  It just meant he was going to fight a little harder to survive today.

  Chapter 2

  Celestine knew she was in trouble.

  The morning sun was starting to heat up the rocks where she had fallen, and it would only get hotter as the day wore on. Reaching out with shaking fingers, she tried to touch her swollen ankle, just above the brown sandal. A bright burst of pain shot out from her foot, right up her leg; she jerked back, bumping against the rocks behind her. Her hand landed against the rough surface, and yet more stinging pain launched its way up her arms. The world started to spin, and her vision blurred.

  Panting, she lay still for what seemed like hours until the pain ebbed away and the landscape settled back into place. Celestine tried to pull herself to sitting, but her long skirts were tangled and twisted around her legs; she couldn’t drag herself up without moving her ankle, and she was afraid she might pass out if she did that again.

  She cursed. When she got home, she vowed she was going to change into pants. It was just that skirts were so much lighter and cooler in the summer months. It also fit nicely with her image as the Carnival’s fortune-teller.

  Celestine looked down at her hands and sighed. The thin cotton gloves covering them were ripped, and blood pulsed out over the material. Her palms stung from the rather large gash on her right hand, and the smaller grazes on the left. Much good they were going to do her now. She eased the gloves off, wincing as she caught the edge of the wound.

  She gently ran a finger over a graze, trying to find the little pieces of rock and dirt so she could pull them out. She had long elegant fingers, and often used her hands to create an aura of mystery during the readings she gave. Punters remembered her hands more than anything else, and now hers were all cut up. What kind of impression would scabby, grazed hands give?

  Celestine snorted to herself. Some fortune-teller she was. She should have looked into her own future and avoided this whole mess from the start. She sighed and laid her hands against her chest. If only it worked that way, she would have led a much simpler life.

  Not that it mattered, now anyway. She was going to die out here quite alone.

  Panic rose in her chest and Celestine flicked her gaze left and right, as if a solution would pop out from behind one of the trees grouped on the far side of the rocky ravine where she’d been climbing. She was in the middle of nowhere, up some godforsaken mountain with a broken ankle and no way to get home. She’d done a fair bit of climbing over large rocks to get to this point, and there was no way she could get back down again on her own.


  Even worse, she hadn’t told anyone where she was going.

  Even Artemis had disappeared on her. She glanced around, trying to make out her distinctive spotted fur hiding in the terrain. Usually her cat—more like a behemoth given her Savannah heritage—could be trusted to stay by her side when trouble hit. If she could have had her large comforting presence cuddled up next to her right now, she would have felt better. A rogue tear escaped down her cheek, and she angrily wiped it away.

  She wasn’t a quitter. This wasn’t going to get the better of her.

  She pulled out her mobile phone again. Zero reception. She shoved it back in the pocket of her leather jacket. At least she’d been wearing the thick leather; it had protected the top half of her body somewhat—except her hands.

  Celestine lifted her skirt and looked down at her leg. The ankle was definitely swollen, and the long graze down her leg was starting to really hurt. She’d slipped on shale, then tumbled down over a large boulder and into a dried-up creek bed. Lifting one hand to the side of her head, she touched the large lump that was forming, and felt something sticky on her fingertips. She pulled her hand away; congealing blood dripped down from her fingers. For a moment, she felt woozy, and the world swayed around her.

  Celestine blinked, trying to get her focus back. Her body felt heavy, and she wanted to just lay her head down and close her eyes. But despite the sick feeling in her stomach, and the way the world was ever so slightly blurry, she knew she had to stay awake.

  Just at the edge of the rocks, there were flowers growing in a patch of grass under the trees. It would be lovely to lie in the shade rather than here on the rocks. Several stones were poking into her butt and it was as hard as… well, rock.

  Perhaps she could crawl. Rolling over onto her stomach, she tried to come up on all fours. Pain tore up her leg, and she cried out. Waves of agony crashed over her, and she fell back to earth.

  She must have passed out for a moment or two because suddenly Artemis was there, licking her face. Reaching up, she gathered her cat to her, the creature’s large body offering comfort where before she’d had none. Artemis gave a warning meow, and pulled herself away from Celestine, melting back into the shadows of the trees nearby.