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Back A Crown as Sharp as Pines Save as PDF
Chapters (37)
  1. PROLOGUE
  2. THE FIRST
  3. THE SECOND
  4. THE FIRST INTERRUPTION
  5. THE THIRD
  6. THE SECOND INTERRUPTION
  7. THE FOURTH
  8. THE FIFTH
  9. THE SIXTH
  10. AN INTERRUPTION
  11. THE SEVENTH
  12. THE NEXT INTERRUPTION
  13. THE EIGHTH
  14. THE FIFTH INTERRUPTION
  15. THE NINTH
  16. THE TENTH
  17. THE ELEVENTH
  18. ANOTHER INTERRUPTION
  19. THE TWELFTH
  20. THE THIRTEENTH
  21. A MIDDLE-ISH INTERRUPTION
  22. THE FOURTEENTH
  23. THE FIFTEENTH
  24. THE SIXTEENTH
  25. THE EIGHTH INTERRUPTION
  26. THE SEVENTEENTH
  27. THE EIGHTEENTH
  28. THE NINTH INTERRUPTION
  29. THE NINETEENTH
  30. THE TENTH INTERRUPTION
  31. THE TWENTIETH
  32. A TRITE-ISH INTERRUPTION
  33. THE TWENTY-FIRST
  34. AN INTERRUPTION
  35. THE TWENTY-SECOND
  36. A WEEK OR THREE LATER…
  37. MERRILY MERRILY

“Don’t be ridiculous. You take the bed,” I said to him.

When he smiled—the first smile since we left Wentchester Cove—it warmed my whole body. “Helen, I’ve learned that you turn into a grouchy polar creature when your mind is muddled. Go to bed, Trite. I’ll wake you if I hear anything troublesome.”

There was no way I’d sleep a wink after what happened, but I knew he would argue me to death over it, so I sat on the bed to pull off my boots and laid back on the mattress. “It smells like dust and claustrophobia in here.”

Zane was resting his mouth against his fist, but I saw his smile spread past his knuckles. I tilted to study him. “You don’t seem upset about what happened,” I added.

His smile did slide away then. He shifted in his seat and folded his hands on his lap. “I’m unmerry enough for the both of us,” he admitted.

The chain of my necklace rattled as I lifted my orb, studying the crack in the glass where a smoky stain had scorched it. The ivory and gold toiled, restless.

“It’s a sign,” Zane said. “Nightflesh is trying to get in—the way he got into the Cove. The way his blackness got into your orb.”

“It’s a sign he’s trying to get into what?”

“He’s trying to get into you, Helen,” Zane said. “He’s burned the Volumes, the library, the key room, and the hope in most of Winter’s villages. You’re the last thing he needs to stop the Truth from spreading.”

THE FIFTH INTERRUPTION

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THE FIFTH INTERRUPTION

A Measure of Seasons ago…

(Twenty plus five, to be precise)

It was an unofficial crime in the Green Kingdom to not hoot and holler and fuss over the banquets. Young Edward Green knew as much, yet he often could not find himself lured in by the sugary nectar drizzled over hot, roasted bird, or the cooked citrus slices layered upon the sizzling forest boar. The fermented ciders did not entertain him, and the heaps of smoked sausages dunked in olive butters did not get a second glance from the young prince, either.

The spoon between his fingers felt colder than the frost outside where the royal family dined at the long, lumber table along with the Council of Pines. The place settings stretched further into the forest than Edward could see, and he often wondered how long it took the servants to prepare such large feasts at every sunrise and sunset, and how they kept the birds from swooping in to eat it all before the guests arrived.