Summer and Shadows

Excerpt

Summer and Shadows
Kathryne Lentes © 2026
All Rights Reserved

Chapter One

There are real monsters in the world. I know because I am one of them. After three years, I was still trying to get my head around that fact, even though I was getting ready to attend a convention full of them. The Menagerie, as they called themselves, were a group of shapeshifters who hid from the world. Still, since their discovery was always a dangerous possibility, they had created an entire intellectual property called the Façade to coax people into their world. It started as a game, and with my introduction, they had added novels to the mix. Now, I was traveling to California to try to sell my recent bestseller to a movie studio. I wondered if Dominique would ever forgive me if a werewolf novel of mine made it to the Cineplex before she did.

She didn’t speak up. She was the main character in my first book series and the voice in my head when I was doing something I knew, in most plots, would end with me dead. We’d had a really good run, and her adventures had brought me my first real success, but after most of the changes I had gone through, I had started a new urban fantasy series. It was almost autobiographical, not that anyone would ever believe it.

I mean how often does a person find out their sister disappeared, meet a hot detective, get bitten by a werewolf, find said sister, lose said sister and hot (now maybe new girlfriend?) detective, and blackmail an entire group of supernatural entities to get the pair of them back. Not to mention discover you are part of a legacy of shapeshifters and can now channel a snow leopard totem. And finish up by trying try to live happily ever after only to have to engage in a death match with a psychopathic grudge-bearing werewolf leader.

It was hard for me to believe, and I had lived through it—even if just barely. I took a deep breath and told myself to get out of bed. I don’t know why I was so focused on my past today when the future seemed so promising.

It was probably because Val was out of the house. This was the first big trip I was going to make without her, and I missed her. She was one of the only people I had ever met who accepted me for being the giant pansexual polyamorous mess of a partner I was. I looked in the closet, trying to decide on a dress to pack in my luggage. I was much more comfortable in jeans and a band T-shirt than I was in Chanel, no matter what my budget told me I could afford. I needed something more formal if I was going to meet with a movie producer. Great, now I was beginning to miss my sister Nisha. She was the clothes horse of the family and would not only have brought me six of her dresses but also tried to do my hair and makeup before I left. She was out in Montana with a pack of werewolves. My life was not the only one that had changed a lot in the last couple of years.

As I contemplated which outfit I hated the least, my phone started vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw it was Val.

“Hey, babe, were your ears burning? I was just thinking of you.”

“Well, I did have some feelings in certain parts of my body, but not my ears.”

“Don’t be a tease when you are getting on a plane and going to be gone for a month.”

“Hey, don’t complain. It’s your fault I am going out of town. I can’t believe I am going to be guarding the Speaker at a meeting of the Council of the Pact. I liked my life as a regular detective. Now, I spend most of my day standing around waiting for something to happen.”

“I didn’t tell them to elevate you.”

“Yeah, but since you stole their book of secrets, no one believes me when I say I don’t know anything.”

“Really, but you run out of the room with your hands over your ears, yelling, no, no, no, every time I try to tell you something juicy.”

“Yeah, but it’s guilt by association.”

“You do remember I stole that book to save your ass, right.” Before she could respond, I added, “I mean, it’s a lovely ass that is totally worth saving.” I wanted to make sure she knew I was joshing.

“Yeah, I remember.” She chuckled.

“You know you could quit all those jobs. I make enough; you don’t have to work.”

“I am not going to be a kept woman. I like my job, and I feel there need to be some cops who understand what it is like being an outsider on the force.”

“That reminds me, I was wondering how you are getting time off from the Saint Louis PD for a month.”

“I am on a special undercover assignment with the feds.”

“You know, sometimes I love being part of the Menagerie, and sometimes it scares the fuck out of me. They had an actual FBI agent send a request for you to be excused from work.”

“Yeah…” She let out a slow breath.

“I have to ask you. Are you sure it’s okay if I go on some dates while you are out of the country? I just thought it might be simpler if the first couple were in a different city.”

“Listen, I know your previous partners freaked out every time you mentioned something even in the neighborhood of polyamory, but I am cool with it as long as you keep me in the loop of what you are doing. You can get out there and start figuring out who you are. We will conduct regular check-ins to ensure this works for everyone. So, take the opportunity to have some fun before I come back, and your number one relationship is with Google Calendar.”

“You are the best. Thank you. You were totally worth almost getting killed by a werewolf for.” I heard Val chuckle. We certainly had an interesting “meet cute.”

“Hun, I am getting on the plane, and from here on in, I have to go radio silent. I just wanted to let you know I love you and am going to miss you.”

“Same to you and more of it.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

I shoved my phone into my back pocket, and now I was even lonelier. The first thing that popped into my head was chocolate, so I headed toward the kitchen. I had taken about three steps when my phone buzzed again. I hit “answer” without even really looking at the screen.

“What happened? Did your plane get delayed, and you decided to spend some more time talking to your favorite person?”

“You are hardly my favorite person.” The Speaker’s voice came through the phone.

That will teach me just to accept calls.

The Speaker was one of the leading council members of the Menagerie, and after all that had happened, I had made a deal to be his “beck and call girl” in exchange for nothing happening to me and mine.

“Oh, Hey.” I took a deep breath. Most of the responsibilities he had given me up to this point had been academic research in the Menagerie archives or promotional work for the game. I had thought he would be gone from my life for a month as well. “What can I do for you?”

“I need you to cancel your plans and head to Los Angeles instead of San Diego.”

“What? No. I have wanted to go to Comic-Con for years, and this is also helping the council. Getting a story on the big screen will be a major coup for the Façade.”

“All that is true; regardless, I have canceled your flight and booked you a new one to LA. The Daoine Sí community had a need for someone with detailed knowledge of the Menagerie, and all of those individuals are accompanying me to this meeting.”

“The Daoine Sí. You mean like the elves and fairy people. Really. I know nothing about them except a few footnotes in the Book of Tales. Why do they need someone with detailed knowledge of us? You always say we must hold our secrets close. I mean, tell them to pick up a copy of the player’s handbook.” I knew I was babbling, but this did not sound like a fun way to spend a weekend.

“First, you know everything in the game books is not accurate. Two, there are pacts between all the Veil legacy lineages, and lastly, because I told you to. You made an oath to go where I bid.”

“I told you that was kinda stupid.”

“Shut up, Dominique.” She always tended to get mouthier when I was talking to the Speaker.

“What?”

“Nothing. Okay, I will go, but you did not answer why they need me.”

“There may be a feral member of the community going on a serial killer spree.”

“Oh, hell no!” Dominique and I answered in unison.

“You made an oath!”

“Hey, you want me to spend fourteen-hour days in the archives researching? Sure. Sitting and handholding some high-ranking members of the Revenant hierarchy? Again, sure. However, I do not have the skill set to track down a serial killer. I am just starting to really enjoy my life, and I don’t feel like getting killed.”

“Your second novel was about the hunt for a spree killer.”

“Novel. It was a novel, not real. At the very least, you could send Val with me. She is an experienced detective, not to mention a lot tougher than I am.”

“No, we cannot spare your partner. Our security needs outweigh this matter. I will contact the Daoine Sí and see if they can find someone to give you some protection. Have no worries, you are going just as a consultant. You will not be on the front lines.”

“Don’t listen to him, girl. That is what they told Ripley, and you remember how that turned out.”

“This is not really a discussion, is it.”

“No, if you check your email, you should be getting confirmation of your flight tickets shortly. Your contact with the Daoine Sí is named Rúadán Dé Danann. He is a distant member of the royal family that presides over the Daoine Sí in this country. You will keep your sarcasm to a minimum.”

“Fine. I will go just because I have no choice, but the tickets better be first class.” I hung up the phone.

“Girl….”

“Shut up.”

I pulled up my email. The flight was scheduled to leave in three hours. Well, with the whole “please show up at the airport two hours in advance,” that meant I was basically late already. I skipped packing and just grabbed my go bag. The bag had everything I needed to survive for three days, and I hoped I could pick up anything else I might need once I got to LA. I called a cab because I am over thirty and still have mixed feelings about Uber. They said they would be there in fifteen minutes, so I went down to the street to wait. I pulled out my phone.

“Call Nisha.” The phone rang five times, then went to voicemail. I hit redial.

“Are you sure this could not have been a text?” Did I mention that my sister is younger than me? Okay, she is my twin and only five minutes younger, but that seems to have had an outside impact on our openness to new ways of doing things.

“Nice to hear from you too, sis.”

“Sorry, it’s just… You know, talking on the phone.”

“I hope you can somehow survive. I need some information. I have to go on an unplanned trip.”

“Wait, what happened to Comic-Con? You were going to get me Mark Hamill’s autograph.”

“Council business.”

“Fuck, that sucks. Are they sending you out to another drafty library?”

“No, not really. Are you still working on that Elven expansion to the Façade?”

“Yeah. Why, do you want to come out and playtest? You said this stuff was too close to your actual life to enjoy as a game. I think the quote was that Master Chief was your preferred power fantasy.”

“I was not casting any aspersions on your work. But yeah, I kind of live and breathe this shit. What is the story with the elves?”

“The story? Wait, are you going to meet some actual fairy-type people? You have to take me with you.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny the number of elves soon to be in my world. But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that I am building a character to play. What powers do I have? What are my weaknesses? What would a faux pas be?”

“Well, first off, all I have is the lore they gave us for the game. You know from the Façade that not everything is true in the game.”

“That’s fine. I need some idea of what I will be dealing with. I mean, my character will be dealing with.”

“Okay, first things first, the whole group is called the Daoine Sí. What we are referring to in the game as the elves is the Summer Court of the Daoine Sí. The Daoine Sí are a diverse collection of Faerie beings, but the elves were the only ones we were permitted to adapt for the game. Now you know how the Menagerie all share a connection to nature through their bonds with totems. Well, all of the Daoine Sí are intimately connected to raw magic. They come in various shapes and sizes, but what we commonly refer to as elves are the most powerful. They are the royals of the lineage. Those you do not want to fuck with. They age incredibly slowly, so you might run into someone who has spent a thousand years practicing sword combat. They also have the power to tap into people’s minds, create illusions, twist desires, steal memories, and do all sorts of other things.”

“Well, that is pleasant. Do they have any shortcomings?”

“Yeah. They always keep their word but only to the exact letter of any agreement they have made, and their magic, while powerful, gets shorted out by cold iron. Any new experience also enthralls them. Not that there are a lot of those for them.”

“Hmm. Wait, what the fuck is cold iron? Like, is that they can’t ride in cars, or like you need to have some enchanted meteorite or sword to challenge them?”

“Funny you should ask that. We had the same question and sent it off to the lore department, and they have yet to respond with any further details.”

“Peachy.” I could not think of anything else to ask. “Okay, thanks for the info. I will keep it in mind if I decide to play this character in a game.”

“Okay, give me a call if there is anything I can do. Remember to give Val a hug from me.”

“Will do.”

I disconnected. Nisha’s face lingered on the screen for a moment, courtesy of my contacts. It’s funny, we used to be identical. We both started out sharing my mom’s brown eyes and jet-black hair, but ever since I had connected with my totem, I had wisps of white flowing through my locks. When we were together, new people had started asking if I was her mom. She found this very funny. I did not. We had also shaped our bodies differently. I liked to do parkour in my spare time, so I had developed a lean physique, while she had taken up bodybuilding. Many things had changed, but she was still all the family I had in the world.

I sat down on the steps and let my head sag backward. I wondered how tough it would be to find a lawyer among the Menagerie to look over the pact I had made. After a few minutes lost in thought, I realized the cab had pulled up.

As I got into the back, Dominique chimed in.

“Game over, man, game over.”

“Shut up.”