Page 32 of Soul of Shadow #1

Thirty minutes later, they piled into one of the dressing rooms, two dozen gowns bundled in their arms. They tried them on one by one, discarding the ones they didn’t like.

Abigail strayed toward simple dresses in pale pink or lavender.

Lou preferred bolder options, like bright emerald or sparkling blue.

Charlie pawed limply at the other options, her mind, as always, on other things.

As they tried on dress after dress, they chatted.

More than once, Lou lamented her lack of a date, saying—in all seriousness—things like, “No, you guys—I can personally guarantee that I will die alone.” This sent Charlie and Abigail into a loud fit of hysterics.

A rough knock sounded on their dressing room door.

“Girls?” came a low, worried voice. “What’s going on in there?”

The three of them exchanged wide-eyed glances. Lou walked over to the door and unlocked it, peeking her head outside. “Sorry about—” She cut off suddenly. “Mason?”

Lou pulled the door open, revealing Charlie’s brother standing outside with one hand partially covering his eyes. “Everyone decent?” he asked, peeking through his fingers. “Good. I’ve come to make plans.”

“Plans?” Lou placed her hands on her hips. “Plans so important they couldn’t wait until we were done dress shopping?”

“Well, I was hoping to get a sneak peek at your dresses.” He eyed the purple number Lou was wearing. “Wow. That looks absolutely revolting on you, Louise.”

Lou slammed the door in his face. “Ogre.”

“Only joking!” Mason called over the door. “But seriously. I want to make plans for homecoming. Now that Charlie is going with Elias, we’ll probably want to link up groups for the after-party, and—”

“Hold on,” Lou said. “Do you even have a date?”

“Not yet,” said Mason. “But I’m sure it won’t be difficult to find one. ”

“ Won’t be difficult?” Lou repeated with disgust. “Of course. Mason Hudson, most popular boy at school. I’m sure the girls will just be lining up to go with you.”

“Is that a note of jealousy I detect in your voice, Louise?”

“Certainly not.”

“And who are you taking to the dance?”

Lou hesitated. “I haven’t, um… figured that out yet.”

“Perfect,” said Mason. “We can go together, then.”

Lou choked back a laugh. “Right,” she said. “You and I can go together. Totally.”

“Great. Glad that’s decided. I’ll start working with Elias on planning the after-party.”

“Wait.” Stricken with panic, Lou fumbled with the lock on the door. “That’s not what I—”

But by the time she got the door open, Mason was already on his way out of the store. He veered right and walked past the wide storefront window, waving cheerily to Lou through the glass. Lou stood, stunned, in the open door of the dressing room. For a good thirty seconds, she didn’t even move.

Charlie and Abigail glanced at each other, both holding back laughter.

Then, slow as a plant growing on a windowsill, Lou turned around. Her shoulders were slumped, defeated. The purple dress hung dejectedly from her frame.

“Well,” said Charlie, barely controlling the mirth in her voice, “looks like you’re going to homecoming with my brother.”

The rest of the shopping trip passed without incident.

Both Lou and Abigail found dresses they were excited about.

Charlie came up empty, too distracted to really pay attention to anything she put on, but she waved off her friends’ concerns, saying she would dig up something from the back of her closet.

The message pinged onto her phone right as she pulled the Bronco into her driveway.

She’d just dropped Lou and Abigail off at their respective homes, promising to send them photos of her dress options later that night.

When her phone buzzed, she unclipped her seat belt and pulled it out of her pocket.

She clicked on the screen, looking at the text bubble.

Its sender was labeled God of Fornication .

Charlie stared at it, dumbfounded… before remembering that Elias had taken her phone and put his number in two days before.

She rolled her eyes and clicked on the message.

We need to talk.

Frowning, she typed a response. I wasn’t aware that there was a god of sex in Norse mythology .

Elias replied almost immediately. There is now.

You’re ridiculous. What do we need to talk about?

There’s been another disappearance. A girl, this time. And another carved-up ash tree. It hasn’t hit the news yet, but the woods are swarming with police.

Who?

Someone named Maisie.

Maisie. There was only one Maisie at Silver Shores High, a girl in the grade below Charlie’s. She’d met her at one of the fundraisers Abigail had dragged her to over the last year and a half.

Her phone pinged with another text.

There’s something else.

What? she asked.

There were some symbols on the trees that have been carved up this week that I thought I recognized. I’ve been killing myself trying to remember where I saw them, and this afternoon I finally figured it out. It was in—a book I read a while back about Helheim, the underworld.

You think the disappearances are connected to the underworld?

That’s the thing: I did at first, but the closer I looked, the more I realized the symbols weren’t a perfect match. Similar—very similar, actually—but slightly different. Enough to make them unrecognizable.

Charlie shook her head in frustration. So, they’re NOT connected to the underworld?

I think they might be related to another realm. One even deeper than Helheim.

How can something be deeper than the underworld?

I don’t know. That’s what we need to find out.

Charlie stared at the message for several seconds. She looked up through the car’s windshield and spotted the shadow of her mother moving about the kitchen. Probably rearranging flowers or sneaking a piece of chocolate from the trick drawer she thought her kids didn’t know about.

Such normal activities. So totally disconnected to the danger swirling around her.

Tomorrow , Charlie texted back. During the homecoming game, when everyone is distracted. Show me what you found.

Half a second later, her phone dinged. She looked at the screen.

Tomorrow.