Prologue

Twelve years earlier

The little boy stood in the sand, watching the waves crash against the shore of the rocky beach. The setting sun cast pale pink and yellow against the darkening evening sky. “Luna,” the boy murmured, his voice carrying across the wind to where a young girl was standing, a couple yards away.

“Who are you?” the girl asked.

The young boy turned to Luna, his lips curving into a slight smile on his pale face. But he said nothing.

“I’ve never seen you before,” the girl paused. “Do you live around here?”

“You could say that,” he said, his voice so soft Luna could barely hear it over the sound of the harsh wind. He turned back to the dark water, the freezing waves lapping over his bare toes.

“How do you know my name?”

The boy shrugged. “They told me.”

Luna did not know who “they” were. But the boy said nothing more. 

She took a few steps toward him until she was standing by his side. “Well, what’s your name?” 

The boy didn’t look at her, his midnight blue eyes fixated on some point far in the horizon. “I’m not supposed to tell you.”

The girl frowned, and a feeling of impatience stirred through her. “Why not?” 

She waited. But he gave no response. 

Luna sighed and looked down at her feet, wiggling her toes in the cold sand. She noticed something else about the boy then. Something she’d never seen before. “Where’s your shadow?” She asked slowly, pointing to where his shadow should have been, long and dark beside hers. 

The boy followed her gaze to the sand behind him. He frowned. “They took it away from me.”

But he didn’t tell her who “they” were. Or how “they” could do something like take a person’s shadow. That was impossible, wasn’t it? Who was this boy on her beach that was telling her lies and wouldn’t even say his name?

“It’s my beach, too,” he said, interrupting Luna’s thoughts. But she didn’t think she’d said anything aloud.

“How did you do that?” 

“Do what?”

Luna turned to leave. She was getting fed up with this boy. 

But the boy turned to her then. He reached out to her, his beautiful eyes suddenly wide. He looked… afraid. Afraid like she’d never seen before. “No. Please don’t leave. They’ll take me back if you go.”

Luna shook her head. “Who? Who’ll take you?”

“The ones who took my shadow.”

The little girl blinked. “Who are they?”

A look of pain crossed the boy’s soft face. His mouth gaped, but no words came out.

“Luna!” She heard her mother call from the small neighborhood behind. She was never allowed to be out past sunset.

“I have to go,” Luna said quickly, taking a step back. But the boy looked so sad, so afraid. She didn’t want to leave him. 

“Please,” he whispered. “Please don’t let them take me.”

Luna heard her mother call again, but she met the boy’s fierce gaze with her own, feeling around her neck for the thin chain her father had once given her. She unclipped it and reached out her hand. It was a necklace with a pale blue pendant. “You can have my necklace. Mama says that as long as I wear it, I’ll be safe. If you wear it, maybe they won’t take you.”

The boy hesitantly reached out to take the necklace. “You’re sure?”

Luna nodded. “I hope you get your shadow back.”