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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

A necessary evil, you once said. But you, who have seen my mind and body bare, you understood my guilt more than anyone. We watched how the precioso stripped even the frailest laborers of their natural weaknesses and turned them into fine-tuned machines. Round the clock, they would toil until their impossible strength faded to mind-numbing addiction. Before our eyes, they transformed into emaciated skeletons while their masters grew fat on blood-won riches.

These masters⁠—I thought I could drain their wealth and funnel it toward your rebellion. You were my dream, Nelo, the one person who could bring about their demise. But not even precioso could turn the game in our favor. Look at what it has cost us. When I left Orfelia, I vowed never to touch the infernal drug again.

But I lie to myself, as I lie to all those around me. You know this.

Six months ago, I met a man who defies all I know of mankind and divinity. He introduced himself as the queen’s brother, Maynara’s exiled prince. I thought him a swindler, but like Hara Duja, he bears godlike gifts. He suffered from tremors that seized his entire body and caused excruciating muscle stiffness. My precioso is the sole substance that alleviates the pain, and he had been searching for it for decades. He knows it is not a cure, but a costly reprieve from human weakness.

The prince and I have struck a deal. I will produce precioso for him and his sister. In exchange, I have been granted asylum in Maynara, free from the Salmanticans, free from the bounty on my head. I have done nothing to deserve this fortunate end.

My nobler friends have perished, and I live in their stead. I choose a haunted life with you as my ghost. I write to you, Nelo, even though you are gone. Even though you cannot reproach me for my mistakes. Even though you cannot grant me forgiveness.

I abandoned my heart to save my head. Now you know this. Would you still love me if you lived?

—⁠Ariel

Ten

line

Duja

Duja heard her husband’s laughter all the way from the entrance hall of the eastern wing. It echoed across the gilded nooks in the coffered ceiling. She took a right down the narrow servants’ passageway and followed it to the open door at the end. The king brightened when she stepped inside. The Orfelian, garbed in what Duja recognized as the king’s old clothes, dropped to a nervous bow beside him.

“There you are, my love,” Hari Aki said, holding out his hand to her. “Come see what we’ve done with the place.”