It’s easy to stay on the Path when you’ve never been tested, when you’ve never faced losses so bitter and deep that your Pagan faith is challenged. How easy it would be to step into the Shadows. How hard those Shadows would work to pull you in.

And yet if you resist, you may bring more light to the Path than you can possibly imagine. Sometimes facing your fears is your only option. Nelson Mandela once said, “Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our dark that most frightens us. … As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

So often today Pagan teens are portrayed as murderous, hateful, selfish, devil-worshiping freaks, but in truth, most teens are very concerned with justice, truth, light, self-sacrifice and doing the right thing. Their vision is simply clearer than ours.

In ShadowQueen, two teens, Bren and Jazz, walk right up to the edge of defeat, insanity and horrible loss, yet they keep doing the right thing despite their fears. They keep on the Path, keep defending the Path and ultimately bring light to some very dark places.

We very much enjoyed writing ShadowQueen together. Our personalities blend a bit more smoothly than those of Bren and Jazz (thank goodness), but we’re very proud of our characters and how they handle their differences. As with L.O.S.T., we traded chapters, often surprising and challenging each other just as our characters do. L.O.S.T. followed Bren’s journey of self-discovery, and ShadowQueen continues this fascinating and often bumpy ride. In addition, Jazz has journeys of her own to make — both literally and spiritually.

ShadowQueen continues where L.O.S.T. ended. Bren is devastated by his loss of Jazz to the Shadows. When he learns there is the possibility that he could bring her back from Talamadden, there’s nothing in this world or any world that’s going to stop him from doing it. Except perhaps the disapproval of everyone he knows, a moody little brother with a serious attitude problem, a pack of deranged harpies, a bunch of man-eating birds, near civil war in L.O.S.T. and a demented shapeshifting Erlking. Oh, and don’t forget beautiful but evil Enchantresses who just happen to be the Erlking’s daughters.

When Jazz ends up in Talamadden, she finds it’s not the beautiful peaceful place it’s supposed to be. In fact, it’s dark and oppressive, and it robs her of all sense of who she had been in life. For a time, Jazz does the unthinkable and surrenders to utter despair. Help comes in the form of her spirit guide Egidus — a talking peacock of all things — who teaches her that in order to find the light she needs to battle her fears. Jazz rediscovers her resolve and courage, and she begins to find her way toward the truth of her previous life. She banishes the thing that has brought darkness to this bright plane of existence — but not for long.

Egidus shows Jazz visions that terrify her. Alderon has sent a spy and a golem to L.O.S.T., bent on destroying the Sanctuary … and Bren’s coming to search for her, planning to break down the doors of Death’s Haven if he has to. He could die if he tries to breach Talamadden’s gate, and Jazz can’t let that happen.

Battling through trial after trial, Bren and Jazz finally reunite — only to confront even more ordeals that threaten both of them, as well as all of L.O.S.T. It isn’t until they can face their fears and put aside old and new wounds that they are able to make right what is wrong. Most of it, anyway.

For the King and Queen of Witches, there’s no rest for the weary. Like many teens, Bren and Jazz struggle with too much busyness, too many roles. Bren is son, brother, boyfriend and King — how can he find the time to think through the questions crammed into his tired mind? And Jazz — a daughter, girlfriend, mediator and Queen — she’s just as pressured. It seems like for every day they get older, their responsibilities increase. Without each other’s support, they might break under the stresses they face, but those same stresses threaten to drive them apart.

In ShadowQueen, a new villain emerges. The Erlking is an archetypal child’s nightmare. He is, essentially, the monster under our bed, the terror in our hearts, the uncertainty and dread that lurks in our mind and renders us weak. Like Bren and Jazz, all of us must face and defeat the Erlking at some point while growing up — we can’t find our way to adulthood unless we best this darkness that feeds on our own doubts and fears. We must learn to trust ourselves and each other in order to make ourselves strong.

The spirit always holds secrets and strengths we can’t imagine, if we only trust enough to turn them loose.