Lily Dane is a bright light. A spiritually barren, consuming flame, she befriends girls whose inner lives are rich with dreams and compelling desire. Their unapologetic souls fascinate her. However, Lily's interest in her peers isn't friendly, she's obsessed with the machinations of crushing their spirits. Lily also has a shadow who is sentient. A freak of nature? An abomination? Who knows? But Lily's shadow is consumed with stopping the emotional and psychological devastation its host always leaves in her wake. The novelette is a psychologically dark retelling of Han's Christian Andersen's "The Shadow." is a prelude to the collection and includes the three short stories: "The Girl Who Watched for Elves" "The Girl Who Dreamed of Red Shoes" "The Girl Who Couldn't Sing" Novellas in the collection: