Bound by Shadow

Claire Blackwood was somewhat ordinary before the Shadow attached itself to her. After diving into a Shadow rift to save her co-worker Sarah, Claire survives an accident that leaves her changed, unemployed, and trying to make sense of the strange presence now bound to her. In the weeks that follow, Claire and Sarah grow unusually close. Neither of them knows exactly what that closeness means yet, only that it feels important and neither is quite ready to examine it too closely. Claire’s longtime girlfriend, Leah, has a very different reaction to what happened. Claire’s willingness to throw herself into danger without hesitation becomes the breaking point in their relationship, and the two separate not long after the accident. Now Claire is trying to build a new life through freelance work, usually with Sarah at her side. When a job unexpectedly puts Leah back in their path, the three women are forced to work together while being drawn into a mystery surrounding Shadow, magic, and something far older than any of them expected. Bound by Shadow is a character-driven modern fantasy about freelance monster hunting, magical infrastructure, complicated exes, unexpected closeness, and three women trying to figure out what they mean to one another while something very old begins moving beneath the world they thought was safe.