“I’m sure of you. Everything else, we’ll figure out along the way.” For eight years, Baojia and Natalie have pursued their goals: family, career, friendship and love—trying to carve out an ordinary life in an immortal world. And for eight years they’ve been mostly successful save for a world-bending adventure every now and then. Except that their life was never ordinary. It was never going to be. Natalie and Baojia might have made plans, but when ordinary life comes crashing down, they’ll have to turn to the family they have chosen—vampire and human—for help keeping their world together. Five couples, four kids, three weeks, two paths… and a partridge in a pear tree? For Natalie Ellis, it’s time to come home. Valley of the Shadow is a novella in the Elemental World series by USA Today bestseller Elizabeth Hunter, author of the Elemental Mysteries, the Irin Chronicles, and Love Stories on 7th and Main.