Chapters (53)
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area- Western Half
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Eastern Half
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Full Map
- Important Trigger Warning
- Prologue
- PART I
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Interlude: The River of Life
- PART II
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Interlude: Fallow Fields
- PART III
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Interlude: Of Man and Monster
- PART IV
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- POSTLUDES
- Postlude 1: Lana Vica
- Postlude 2: Ludo Vica
- Postlude 3: Cainan
- Acknowledgments
- An excerpt from Heartsworn, Volume II in The Forsworn Oath, available for preorder now!
- PART I
“Your time here is finished,” Sinna said to Soraya. “Say your goodbyes and meet me a half-mile south, near the Mortal Marsh.”
Soraya didn’t want to meet this woman anywhere, not after what she’d done. “Why would I do that?”
“Because I’ve already taken the liberty of moving your partner somewhere safer.”
“Shim? What do you mean ‘safer’? He was perfectly safe where he was. Where is he? Where have you taken him?”
“Safe? Already the townsfolk and soldiers are descending upon The Naughty Minx like it’s an enemy’s fortress. Did you think the destruction wrought there would go unnoticed forever? Nowhere is safe for us, or for Sunny. I suggest we all depart as swiftly as possible.”
“I won’t leave her,” Sunny spat, face glistening with tears.
“Please,” a weak voice said, as all eyes shifted to the woman they’d all assumed was already dead. Seela was watching them, her lips parted slightly. “You need to escape. You need to live.”
Sunny was by her side in an instant, using tender fingers to maneuver sweat-drenched tendrils of hair away from her face. “Oh, Seela. I’m sorry, I wasn’t strong enough, fast enough. I was supposed to protect you.”
“And you always did. You did better than that, too. You loved me. That was always the best thing you could do for me. But now I need you to love yourself and live on.”
“I don’t want to live if it’s a life without you.”
“Please. You must live for both of us now.”
“Stop being so dramatic,” Sinna interrupted.
“Dramatic?” Sunny said. “She’s dying. You killed her!”
Sinna’s eyebrows arched, and her smile returned. “There seems to be a misunderstanding here. When I said, ‘It is done’, I meant I had done what you failed to do. I saved her. The nightdemon won’t plague her any longer. I simply took the godsblood and the rat’s poison. Already she is healing. Soon she’ll be able to stand, to walk, and hopefully to run fast enough to escape those who will surely be hunting the both of you, otherwise my efforts will have been wasted on a living corpse.”
“What?” Sunny said.
“I—I don’t understand,” Soraya said, shaking her head. She felt like she had whiplash from the extremes of emotions she’d experienced on this night.