The Shadows Between Us

The Shadows Between Us is a 2020 young adult fantasy novel by Tricia Levenseller, who writes young adult (YA) fantasy novels with romantic subplots. The Shadows Between Us is her third novel, following her popular Daughter of the Pirate King duology. The Shadows Between Us is a standalone novel though another novel set in its world, featuring protagonist Alessandra Stathos’s sister Chrysantha, is anticipated for 2024 and will be titled The Darkness Within Us. The Shadows Between Us is praised for its engaging antiheroine and mysterious, twisting plot.

This guide refers to the 2020 Macmillan e-book edition.

Content Warning: This guide refers to the use of offensive terminology that denigrates women for their sexuality and includes nongraphic reference to violence.

Plot Summary

The Shadows Between Us begins as Alessandra Stathos ends her relationship with her most recent lover, Myron, after he proposes.  Alessandra recalls how she killed her first sexual partner, Hektor, after he rejected her. Her father enters as she ejects Myron from her room (keeping the expensive ring he used to propose), and he informs Alessandra that her older sister, Chrysantha, is engaged to a duke. Since the law dictates that younger sisters cannot marry before their older sisters, Alessandra is finally eligible to marry. She plans to go to the court and enact her plan to seduce, marry, and kill the mysterious Shadow King, so that she may take his place (and his power) as queen.

Alessandra travels to court with her father; she wears black to stand out from the sea of green that most of the young ladies have worn as it is the king’s favorite color. She ignores the king, which piques his interest, and they dance, but not before Orrin, a friend of her father’s, expresses his interest in courting Alessandra. Her father, who does not believe her plan to woo the king will be successful, approves of Orrin’s suit. Alessandra ignores them, however, and is vindicated when the king, Kallias, invites her to stay at court.

Because Kallias has not danced with anyone since his coronation, Alessandra becomes an immediate source of gossip at court. She is approached by Lord Vasco, the head of the king’s council, who reveals that he has investigated her and hints that he knows that she has had multiple sexual partners, which is taboo for women in their society. To throw him off the scent, Alessandra befriends Hestia Lazos and Rhoda Nikolaides, whom she is surprised to like. She also befriends Leandros Vasco (whom she will learn at the end of the novel is actually Kallias’s presumed-dead brother, Xanthos Maheras) and his two friends Petros and Rhouben, the latter of whom is in an unhappy engagement.

Alessandra dines with Kallias, who says he wishes to court her for appearances; it will be a deception that gets them both things they want. For Kallias, the relationship will get the council to stop pushing him to marry; for Alessandra, the relationship will increase her influence. He emphasizes that they will be friends and that the edict that it is illegal to touch him (violations are punishable by death) will remain in place for her. Alessandra agrees but privately plans to tempt Kallias until he cannot resist touching her. Her courtship with the king prompts immediate popularity, a success tempered by two things: Myron, her past sexual partner, is blackmailing her, and Kallias almost never has time for her. Alessandra struggles to gain power at court, and she is annoyed by those who stand in her way.

One night, she travels to a pub with Leandros to see a boxing match, only to find that Kallias, upon her return, is angry that she went out with his former friend. She threatens to leave court if he doesn’t pay her more attention. The next day, Kallias takes her on a picnic and reveals the truth of his mysterious shadow powers: If he touches anyone, his shadows, which make him essentially invincible, do not work in the proximity of that person. Alessandra confesses her sexual history and is pleased that Kallias doesn’t hold that women shouldn’t be allowed to have premarital sex. They swim naked in a lake, not touching one another, until a bandit who has been plaguing the nobles steals their picnic. Kallias kills the guards who let the bandit (revealed later to be Orrin, Alessandra’s would-be suitor) escape, but Alessandra, who values power above all else, doesn’t care about this show of violence. Annoyed by her growing affection for Kallias, Alessandra procures a bottle of poison, vowing to remain true to her plan to marry and then kill him.

Several days later, Kallias and Alessandra are in the palace garden when an assassin shoots Kallias. Alessandra fights the assassin until Kallias heals himself with his shadow powers. Impressed by this show of loyalty, Kallias moves Alessandra into the queen’s chambers, which are adjacent to his rooms. As they grow closer, Kallias confides his feelings about his parents’ murders, a mystery he still wishes to solve. Alessandra rids herself of Myron’s blackmail by buying up all his debt and blackmailing him in return. Alessandra receives a letter, clearly a trap, luring Alessandra and Kallias to a gentlemen’s club, promising information about the assassin. Despite the clear threat, they go, in disguise, and have to sit close together without touching to support Alessandra’s costume as a sex worker. This causes the tension between them to grow. Someone jostles them and touches Kallias, but it is not Alessandra, as his powers still work around her.

Kallias and Alessandra together enact a plot to rid Alessandra of Orrin by matchmaking him with Rhouben’s hated fiancée, Melita. In the process, they discover that Orrin is the bandit, and he is arrested. Kallias proposes to Alessandra, and she accepts though she frets that her growing feelings mean that it will be painful to be married to him without being able to touch him. She requests that he make a public announcement of their engagement, which he does at a ball she plans. As the assembled nobles toast their marriage, Alessandra spots a girl who worked at the club and realizes that Lord Vasco is working with her to try to poison Kallias. She leaves Leandros in charge of Kallias’s prone body and whisks the girl away so that Kallias’s shadow powers will return. The little girl identifies Vasco and Lady Zervas, a paramour of Kallias’s late father, as culprits. Kallias heals, and the conspirators are arrested though Lady Zervas insists she is innocent.

Kallias decides that he no longer cares about keeping his shadow powers and that he would prefer to touch Alessandra than live for centuries. They kiss and later have sex. Soon after, Kallias abruptly summons Alessandra. He has found the bottle of poison. She confesses that she once planned to kill him but no longer wants to because she loves him. He banishes her, saying if he ever sees her again, she will be killed. Leandros follows and comforts her, and they kiss. Alessandra is departing court when she sees black on her hands. She realizes that Leandros is dyeing his hair and that he is actually Xanthos, Kallias’s presumed-dead brother. Despite the risk to herself, she rushes back to the palace and interrupts Kallias and Xanthos talking. Xanthos reveals that he murdered their parents after their father tried to have him killed for lacking shadow powers. He and Kallias fight, during which Alessandra grabs Xanthos’s sword and kills him. She flees the palace and goes to Rhoda’s estate. Several weeks later, Kallias arrives and tells Alessandra he loves her. The two reunite.