Published in the United States of America
Shadowvale isn’t your typical small town America. The sun never shines, the gates decide who enters, magic abounds, and every resident bears some kind of curse.
For Isadora Graham, Shadowvale seems like a dream come true. A safe haven where she can hide from the darkness that lives within her, and hopefully, keep everyone else from finding out about it too. She needs this kind of place where she’ll be left alone. Where no one will realize who she really is.
Dr. Henry Jekyll, or rather a monstrous part of him, makes Shadowvale a more dangerous place for everyone, no matter how hard he tries to stop that side of himself from emerging. He’s doing everything in his power to control it, but control is hard, and solutions don’t come easy. Fortunately, the town understands he needs to be left alone.
Until somehow things go wrong, and he gets a neighbor. Izzy is incredibly nice and for her own safety, Henry knows he has to tell her what everyone else already knows. That he’s a monster. But he only ends up shocking her and turning her against him. Then another disturbing encounter makes her understand he was telling the truth, and that they are so very much alike.
When they join forces, their collaboration feels like a match made in heaven. Except for the part where the town is being targeted. And Izzy seems like the one causing all the trouble.
Can Henry battle his own demons in time to save Izzy? Or will the monster in the mirror be the ruin of them both? Only time, and love, will tell.
Isadora Graham stopped her car a few feet from the wrought iron blocking her path and peered through the windshield. The imposing gates were rusted and overgrown with vines that also covered the thick stone columns that secured the gates, but wrought iron wasn’t flammable, and those vines looked too green to burn. That was good.
She pushed her sunglasses back onto her head. This had to be the place. Although it didn’t look much like it had on the website. She exited the car and walked up to the gates to see if there was an intercom or something that would connect her to a person who could grant her passage.
As aged as the gates were, as overgrown and in the midst of being reclaimed by the forest as they were, there was a decaying beauty to the old metal structure. The name of the town beyond the gates, Shadowvale, was still visible in the arch at the top.
Izzy stared up at the letters. If the gates looked like this, what shape was the town in? Did the town even still exist? Something buzzed by her head. She half-heartedly swatted at it. The bugs would really be out when the sun went down in a few hours.
A sinking feeling filled her. Had her impulsive decision to escape here been a mistake? Biting her lip, she glanced back at her Pathfinder. The SUV was packed with her possessions, such as they were. She’d been so enthralled with the idea of this exclusive gated community, which was how the website billed it, that at the first spark of trouble, she put a deposit down on an apartment. A few days later, she’d given up her lease, packed everything, and started her drive. She hadn’t really had much of choice, though. Staying where she was had no longer been an option.
A long, frustrated sigh escaped her lips. Going back wasn’t possible, because there was nowhere to go back to. Especially not when nosy Mrs. Winthrop had begun asking the kinds of questions that Izzy lived in fear of.
The kinds of questions that told her Mrs. Winthrop had suspicions about who Izzy really was. And if that came out, Izzy’s life would be unlivable. Even worse, the dark feelings that simmered inside her might become something more than feelings.
So Izzy had done the only thing she could think of. She’d run. She’d only found Shadowvale a few weeks ago. She’d been looking for a backup plan. Backup plans were everything. But she hadn’t realized she’d need one so soon.
The timing had seemed right. Fortuitous, even.
Now? Izzy wasn’t so sure.
She ran a hand through her dark waves and sighed again before approaching the gates. There was no intercom that she could see. No latch to lift or button to push. She grabbed hold of the gates and gave them a shake, causing a little shower of rusty flakes to fall. The gates creaked in protest but didn’t budge.
This had been a monumentally stupid idea.
So stupid, in fact, that she could feel the darkness in her swirling. Anger looking for a way out.
She tipped her head back and focused on the blue sky above. Funny how the cloud cover seemed to start right above the gates. She inhaled and exhaled the damp, green air and reminded herself that she had lived this long without giving in to the darkness. She could go another day.
She would go another day.
She would not become like him. She would not let her genes define her.
That was the whole reason she was here. To hide from the truth, yes. But also to escape the inevitable. To escape the DNA that ran in her veins. That had to be possible, right? People all over the world were doing it, weren’t they? Becoming more than they were born to be? Or, perhaps, becoming less?
That was one of those things she wasn’t sure of. Was it better to overachieve or underachieve in her particular situation?
Either way, she wanted to take the path that led her away from his legacy. Far, far away.
She’d already taken steps. Changed her name. Darkened her sandy-brown hair. Moved here. She frowned at the gates. Although this step didn’t seem like it was going to happen.
How had she gotten it so wrong? Was it possible she’d come to the wrong entrance? That could be. This might not be the right way in. That made perfect sense, actually. Of course it did. She’d followed her GPS here, but those things were always sending you on an old route or down a side road or to a back way that no one used anymore.
She should have known, because the road to get here had been overgrown with weeds, the trees alongside it draped in moss, branches reaching down as if nothing ever disturbed them. A few had scraped the roof of her car.
But figuring out if she was in the right place was easy enough. She searched the browser on her phone for the Shadowvale website where she’d done so much reading. She’d even secured her apartment through it. Filled out the form, paid the deposit, and someone had mailed her a key, for crying out loud. Everything about the site had been so helpful and user-friendly.
Now all she could find was a 404 Page Not Found error. What the … how was that possible? She checked the signal on her phone. She had bars. It wasn’t a connection problem.
She let out a groan. This was infuriating. The darkness bubbled up.
She exhaled. She’d figure something out. The sun would be down soon. She had no choice but to find a hotel for the night and make a new plan. She headed back to her car and opened the door. The sad thing about it all was that this really was the place she wanted to be. Shadowvale had seemed so perfect. Like a genuine answer to her problem.
A place to escape the expectations and entitlement of modern society.
So much for that.
As she climbed into the driver’s seat, she heard a low creaking sound. She looked up.
The gates were opening. They also didn’t look quite so old or rusty, either, but that was obviously just a trick of the light. Someone must have seen her. She leaned forward, looking for a camera, but with all the overgrowth, it was impossible to find. She waved anyway, hoping whoever had helped her out understood she was saying thanks.