Renegade Red Read online

  © 2017 by Lauren Horowitz

  All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictionally.

  Published by Papaloa Press, California

  Papaloa Press trademark design by Tara French Johnson

  Cover photography by Gil Cope

  Cover design by Zoe Cope, Zoe Cope Creative

  Additional cover photography for “Traveler” edition by Michelle Craig

  Interior illustrations by Maren Gunderson

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2016913847

  e-book: ISBN-10: 0-9745956-6-7 — ISBN-13: 978-0-9745956-6-5

  Hardcover: ISBN-10: 0-9745956-7-5 — ISBN-13: 978-0-9745956-7-2

  Paperback: ISBN-10: 0-9745956-5-9 — ISBN-13: 978-0-9745956-5-8

  Printed in Canada

  CONNECT

  www.LaurenBirdHorowitz.com

  @birdaileen

  @birdaileen

  Lauren “Birdaileen” Horowitz

  AWARDS & PRAISE FOR SHATTERED BLUE

  Silver Medalist

  INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING BOOK AWARD

  BEST YOUNG ADULT FICTION 2015

  Finalist

  USA BOOK AWARD, BEST NEW FICTION 2015

  USA BOOK AWARD, BEST FANTASY 2015

  INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD, BEST FANTASY 2015

  NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARD,

  BEST YOUNG ADULT FICTION 2015

  “Anyone who’s ever fantasized about kissing a Fae will enjoy Noa and Callum’s first, sexy kiss. …Hip … fast-moving … lyrically concise.”

  —KIRKUS REVIEWS

  “I guarantee you’ll be hooked

  and anxiously awaiting the next book in the series.”

  —USA TODAY, Must-read Romances of 2015

  “A fantastical tale of love and betrayal

  …more than enough emotion and angst to keep any romance-loving teenager glued to the pages, and the promise of a trilogy will keep them eagerly anticipating the next book.”

  —SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

  “A book to fall for”

  —BUZZFEED

  “Not your average fairy tale … will have you clamoring for more of a story that you didn’t see coming … new and surprising.”

  —HYPABLE

  “Magic, action and a really, really attractive love interest…

  what more could you want?”

  —GLITTER MAGAZINE

  “A love story you won’t soon forget…

  a story of protection, sacrifice, and love.”

  —SHEKNOWS.COM

  “Book To Lean On When The Going Gets Tough”

  —BUSTLE

  “A Book for All Ages”

  —MARIASHRIVER.COM

  “Fae, magic, elemental control … two hot, confused brothers…

  LIKE YES PLEASE…

  WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR!”

  – Benjamin Alderson,

  Benjaminoftomes Book Tube

  “Like a fine wine, good to the last word!

  Wonderfully, amazingly, and skillfully written.”

  – Wanda Maynard,

  Goodreads.com

  “READ THIS BOOK IF: You’re alive and breathing,

  if you’re a ghost, animal, vegetable, mineral … read it.”

  – Jordan White,

  YA Book Madness Blog

  “Secrets were revealed, betrayal acknowledged, hearts torn open and scraped raw (including mine) … and more.”

  – Cassandra Carpio,

  The Bookish Crypt

  “Wow! What can I even say…

  I’m still reeling from that ending!!”

  – Mandee Lynn,

  Amazon.com

  “My warning for readers … Don’t think for a second you know where the author is heading with this one.”

  – Richelle Zirkle,

  My Fit2BTied Life

  “Should I read it, you ask? Yes. For romance. For loss.

  For the love of family. For the love of words.”

  – Jessica L. Brooks,

  Coffee Lvn Mom

  “Shattered Blue shattered me in the end.

  I’m so glad this is part of a trilogy, because that means

  I will get more of these characters. Yes!”

  – Sonshine,

  Amazon.com

  “Nothing like I’ve read before.

  No book can come even close to it.”

  – Tin,

  Amazon.com

  “Enthralling, exciting, addictive and a real page turner”

  – Elaine Brent,

  Splashes Into Books

  “Blue Son, Red Son … oh my!

  I can’t wait for the next installment!”

  – Crystal Zapata,

  Goodreads.com

  “The romance is jaw-dropping and conflicting.”

  – Ranu Jayasinghe,

  The Aralyia Bookshelf

  “One of those stories that makes you completely neglect all your life’s duties, because you cannot help but hole up in your room like a hermit crab and obsessively read …intense and earth-shattering”

  –Jessica,

  Life After Books

  “Holy Amaze Balls that was a really good read.”

  – Renee Nicole,

  The Book Royal

  “Intense, vivid and evocative”

  – Elsa Poppy,

  Poppies Dreams

  “A book that will awe you”

  – Anna,

  Amazon.com

  “…such a beautiful fae-tale, with wonderful world building, likable characters and a romance that is totally swoon-worthy”

  – Rachael Filer,

  Paein And Mis4tune

  “Noa’s voice felt so real … I felt like I was right there with Noa, feeling everything she felt.”

  – Zareena,

  The Slanted Bookshelf

  “…a beautiful, emotionally rich, new kind of fairytale”

  – Michaela Whitney,

  Goodreads.com

  “The plot twist of a lifetime. A story like no other.”

  – Natalie Roz,

  Julian’s Book Angels

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Awards & PRAISE FOR SHATTERED BLUE

  THE STORY SO FAR

  PREFACE

  PART I: HARLOW

  PART II: THE TUNNELS

  PART III: PRISON

  PART IV: ISLANDS

  PART V: HOME, AGAIN

  Join fae nation

  Poetry Appendix

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  THE AUTHOR

  THE STORY SO FAR

  Still reeling from the tragic death of her older sister, Isla, fifteen-year-old Noa Sullivan met and fell for Callum Forsythe, a mysterious transfer student at her elite Monterey boarding school. As they grew closer, Noa discovered Callum’s secret: he was Fae, a magical exile banished to her world from his realm of Aurora—and in terrible danger. To save him, Noa made a dangerous alliance with Judah, Callum’s rebellious, deceptive brother—all while trying to help her own family, and especially her beloved little sister, Sasha, survive its own
loss. But during Noa and Judah’s desperate rescue mission, Sasha herself disappeared into a collapsing Portal between worlds, and Noa leapt in after her, Forsythe brothers in tow, with no idea where they—or Sasha—were headed.

  Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,

  For I would ride with you upon the wind,

  Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,

  And dance upon the mountains like a flame.

  W.B. Yeats

  PREFACE

  Aurora

  (before)

  When Judah finally stopped struggling, when they were beaten, bloody brother-mirrors, Callum let him rise. The darker, slighter boy levered himself up against the bars. This cell had somehow caged it all: Callum’s lies, Judah’s anger, and guilt enough for Lily’s loss to drown them both. Judah bled from a gash above his eye; Callum wiped a smear from his broken nose.

  “You’ll be the first Banished there, since Kells,” Judah said.

  Callum smiled a little. “Always first.”

  Judah scowled.

  “You stay,” Callum warned him again. “For Lorelei.”

  Judah’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t argue. When he spoke, his voice trembled, like it had when they were young: “Do you go right through, or…” He turned, afraid.

  “The Gatekeeper’s supposed to make sure I don’t get caught between.”

  “But what’s it like? The In Between?”

  Callum stayed tall, and still. “Lorelei once said it’s the place where you find out.”

  “Find out?”

  Callum met his little brother’s eyes. “What you truly want. What you’ll truly give. And if, in the end, it’s enough to save your life.”

  PART I: HARLOW

  “Your sister is dead.”

  Hard and sharp, discrete and precise: Noa Sullivan blinked painfully as she wakened to the grim words. She struggled through tangled blankets, squinted into the gray morning light. A black shape loomed ominously.

  And laughed.

  “Did you hear me? Isla is dead meat if she doesn’t get her ass to class on time. Three tardies she might get sent for Review.”

  Noa rubbed an open palm over her left eye. The hovering shape sharpened into her best friend, Olivia Lee, its looming teeth merely the pink-hued points of Olivia’s trademark half-buzzed hair. Olivia was wearing her Harlow uniform properly enough—pants ironed and pleated, blouse buttoned three buttons high—but no amount of regulation could tame her rebellious punk-chick eyes, rolling sardonically on top. And of course, her perfectly pressed short blouse sleeves only better showcased the concentric-circle tattoos spiraling down her arms.

  But to Noa, no one was less intimidating.

  Noa groaned and pulled her pillow over her head, muffling her voice. “Isla’s not back again?”

  Olivia laughed. “You two really were born in the wrong order. She should be the baby of the family, not you. The wild-child gene must’ve gotten confused.”

  “Tell me about it. She’d better not abandon me this weekend—” Noa broke off, too late, as Olivia snatched her pillow away.

  “O!”

  “Up and at ’em, Noser! I sure as hell don’t want a tardy too. Review is the only experience I am not willing to try once.”

  Noa sat up grudgingly, wincing. She didn’t know why, but the last few weeks she hadn’t been feeling rested. It was as if her body never recharged—probably because of the thinner-by-the-year boarding school mattress. Harlow, her Monterey prep school, prided itself on being just as rigorous and elite as the East Coast name-brand schools like Exeter and Andover, but creature comforts were lacking.

  Noa stretched, trying to convince her aching back to forget its troubles, and her tablet screensaver flashed a picture of her with her sister Isla, the one who was evidently still out partying and apparently never needed sleep. Isla was two years older, but she and Noa had almost identical features and were often mistaken for twins.

  This was something Noa never understood: Isla was regal, with imperial silver eyes and iridescent blond hair. On Noa, those same eyes were drab and gray, that same hair a mish-mash tangle of dirty blond. In pictures like this one, where she and Isla stood side by side, Noa thought they barely looked related, let alone identical.

  Noa frowned at the photo taken this past winter break. Isla was grinning, arm slung over Noa’s uncertain, anxious shoulders; they stood in front of an abandoned cabin they’d secretly explored in some woods in Maine. It was supposed to be haunted but had really just been derelict, and they’d been lucky the whole floor hadn’t just caved in under them. Noa hadn’t wanted to go, but Isla had made it a test. Her little sister, she said, couldn’t live her whole life as a coward.

  Noa had never been good at telling Isla no.

  “Have you checked yet?” Noa asked Olivia, looking away from the picture. There were other, more pressing things to worry about today.

  For once, Olivia sounded nervous. “Not yet. I waited for you.”

  “Well … I guess we should look,” Noa said uneasily. “Since we’re both up.”

  “Yeah, so let’s look.”

  Neither of them moved.

  “This is so silly,” Noa said. “I mean, who even cares?”

  Olivia raised a pierced eyebrow. “You’re right. The Beautiful Little Fools are only the most exclusive and powerful female secret society at Harlow, and we’re only about to see if we got the nod into the world of social stardom beyond our wildest dreams—or if we’ve been denied, chucked aside, fated to be nobodies for the rest of our boarding-school lives. No big deal.”

  Noa frowned. “Okay, fine. It’s a big deal.”

  “At least you’re a legacy.”

  “Just because Isla’s in the Little Fools doesn’t mean I got tapped. In fact, knowing her, it probably means I didn’t.”

  “She is willing to be your roommate,” Olivia pointed out.

  “Rooming with me to appease Mom and Dad is one thing. She knows I can’t stop her from doing anything, no matter what they hope. I’m just her lame baby sister.”

  Olivia nodded seriously. “Now that I think of it, I hope your rep doesn’t rub off on me. Isla knows I’m a rebel, right? I mean, check the hair. And the skin art? Seriously.”

  Noa grinned, used to Olivia’s deadpan brand of teasing. “It’s not exactly rebellious if your parents support your choices, O. Your mom took you to get those circle tattoos.”

  “I know.” Olivia sighed dramatically, lifting her tatted arms. “I can do no wrong. How infuriating.”

  “High-class problems, O.” Noa ran a hand over her chest, where the long diagonal scar sliced down beneath her collarbone. “I wish my parents would let me turn this thing into a tattoo or something.” For some reason, Noa had been obsessing about her mysterious scar a lot lately. She knew she’d had it forever—her parents, Isla, had grown tired of assuring her she’d probably been born with it—but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else about it, a memory or a dream that sublimated the moment she tried to grasp it.

  Olivia laughed. “Somehow I don’t see Hannah and Christopher Sullivan going for a tattoo. But I think you should leave it anyway. Nothing like a huge scar to fierce up your image.”

  Noa looked skeptical. “Even when no one remembers how you got it?”

  “Especially then! You could be a sleeper bad-ass spy vixen! Code name: Girl Beast.”

  Noa got to her feet. “Well, if that’s the case, I can’t be afraid to open the door. So come on. We’ll open it together, and either we see signets or we don’t.”

  Olivia squinted shrewdly. “You know, these girls are pretty arrogant, just doling out rings without even waiting to hear if the person accepts.”

  “Have you ever heard of a tap from the Beautiful Little Fools being refused?”

  They walked to the f
ront door. “Okay, O, on three. One, two…”

  • • •

  “I have brought shame to the Sullivan name,” Noa moped, as she and Olivia walked to Dr. Chandler’s classroom, signet-less.

  “Only half the name,” Olivia pointed out. “Isla’s still a Fool, so fifty percent of Sullivan is still respectable.”

  “You didn’t get tapped either!” Noa reminded her with a laugh. She was disappointed, but she wasn’t as overwhelmingly upset as she’d thought she’d be. Maybe because, deep down, she knew she was no Isla. The wildness, the adventuring, that was Isla’s turf; Noa lived in a quieter realm. Not that it wouldn’t have been cool to get to feel like Isla, even if just for a little while. Olivia was at full snark, but Noa knew, without question, that Olivia would have joined only if they’d both been tapped anyway. Fiercely loyal like Isla, she was not afraid to make history and turn down even the most elite Harlites imaginable.

  Annabelle Leighton, another classmate, walked up to join them in the imposing hallway. When she’d been a freshman, Harlow’s stone-walled corridors had seemed infinitely daunting to Noa, with their soaring ceilings and echoing marble. Now she hardly noticed them. The same could not be said, however, for the howling wildness around the school, visible through massive windows and glass-paned double doors. Inside, Harlow was strict and sharp, but outside, the creeping Salinas wilderness ruled, as if the school itself were caught in the claw of a mythical beast, soaring through some wild, wailing unknown.