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Chapters (50)
  1. Praise for
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. City of Mariit: Capital of Maynara Map
  5. One
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Two
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. Fourteen
  21. Fifteen
  22. Sixteen
  23. Three
  24. Seventeen
  25. Eighteen
  26. Nineteen
  27. Twenty
  28. Twenty-One
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Four
  31. By Order of General Ojas,On Behalf of Her Majesty Hara Duja
  32. Twenty-Three
  33. Twenty-Four
  34. Twenty-Five
  35. Twenty-Six
  36. Twenty-Seven
  37. Twenty-Eight
  38. Twenty-Nine
  39. Thirty
  40. Thirty-One
  41. Thirty-Two
  42. Thirty-Three
  43. Five
  44. A Coronation Prayer
  45. Thirty-Four
  46. Epilogue
  47. Acknowledgments
  48. Thank You
  49. About the Author
  50. Violetear Books x Bindery Books

Curiosity got the better of Yari. She leaned over Luntok. Gingerly, she peeled the tarp back from his face. Luntok’s body remained intact, with no sign of rot. With his eyes closed, he looked like he was sleeping. She pulled the tarp lower, her hand brushing against his wrist. Luntok’s eyes shot open.

Yari screamed.

Footsteps thundered across the deck as dozens more joined Yari on the bow. Luntok’s skin emanated an unearthly glow. He rose to his feet. Yellow threads of life snaked up his arms and legs before winding themselves like a silken noose around his neck. He threw his head back with a howl, and his torso arched up toward the sky.

Light exploded from his body, and Yari squeezed her eyes shut. Luntok’s screams went quiet. A deathly silence swept over the ship. Cautiously, Yari raised her head.

A dark figure hovered above her, casting its shadow across the warped boards that lined the deck. In Luntok’s place stood a raptor, twice as tall as any man. It possessed a beak that could snap through Yari’s spine as if it were nothing but a twig, and sharp talons that could pierce through thick layers of armored skin. It flexed its wings, which spanned the entire width of the ship.

Yari gazed up at the raptor, her mouth open in disbelief. Its⁠—no, his⁠—glorious plume rippled in the sea breeze. Soft thuds echoed in the air as the Kulaw men fell to their knees.

“My lord,” Yari whispered, and held out her hand.

The raptor leaned forward and let her caress his feathered cheek. A shiver crept down Yari’s spine when she realized what she had witnessed.

When Imeria healed her son on the cliffs, she had not merely stitched together his wounds. She did far more than breathe life into his shattered bones. No, Imeria had breached the realm of possibility. For a brief time, she had become mightier than any Gatdula, as powerful as Mulayri himself.

“My lord,” Yari said again, folding her body at the raptor’s taloned feet.

And so Yari understood what it meant to kneel before greatness. For the Luntok they knew back in Maynara was gone. Standing before them was a god.

Acknowledgments

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If writing a novel is like scaling a cliff, writing a debut novel is like scaling a cliff during a thunderstorm, your fingers slipping against the holds, rain streaming down your face and clouding your vision. I owe my gratitude to those who saw me through to the summit, without whom Black Salt Queen would not exist.

To Chelsea Hensley, my rockstar agent and biggest champion. Thank you for believing in me and my words. Your faith has kept me going through the rough storms of “trad pub.” Thanks to you, I’ll see my debut in print (and, hopefully, many books to come).