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Chapters (49)
  1. COVER
  2. DEDICATION
  3. MAP
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  47. DISCOVER MORE
  48. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  49. PRAISE FOR

Nomi didn’t breathe until they’d passed beyond the end of the platform and on through the outskirts of the city.

A hand touched her arm. Nomi turned, expecting to see the father’s haunted face.

Talia stood before her, eyes wide. In a soft voice that shook with emotion, she whispered, “Thank you.”

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Nomi rode to Silver City. There, she switched trains for another express to Bellaqua. She’d arrive later at the palazzo, not until midday the following day, but her impulsive gesture hadn’t cost her much in the end except a small delay.

It was worth it for Talia’s smile. The girl’s father said nothing during the journey, didn’t even acknowledge Nomi, who huddled into her cloak at the back of the nearly empty carriage. But Talia smiled at her when they disembarked, and her father kept her protectively curled into his side. He retained the haunted look of someone who’d almost lost everything.

In the Silver City train station, Nomi bought a meat pie, a bottle of mineral water, and a small book of stories at a kiosk. On the train to Bellaqua, she slumped in the back of the sleep carriage and read her book.

She had never read openly before, without the fear of discovery weighing heavily on every word. And now it actually helped, adding authenticity to her disguise. Here in the quiet darkness of the sleeping car, the occasional snort or snore the only sound, she could let her gaze move across the rough pages, shaping letters and words, distracting her from the finality of her destination.

All through the night she read, until she reached the end of the book. Then she ran through her plan, over and over again in her head. It had a beginning, middle, and an end.

Find the bakery, sneak into the basement, find the tunnel. Go to Asa’s room. Kill him with Serina’s knife.

Nomi thought there was a chance she might actually succeed. It helped that Asa didn’t know about the passageways. But she wasn’t trained. She wasn’t really an assassin. She was sure Asa would raise the alarm, or one of his soldiers—Marcos maybe—would be in the room. Even with the secret tunnel, she knew it was unlikely she’d escape. Marcos would kill her, or Asa himself would. Maybe they would die together, their matching mortal wounds a poetic sort of justice for all the plotting and betrayal.

As the train clattered into Bellaqua, Nomi stared out the window and thought about endings. About Asa’s last breaths, and her own.

TWENTY-FIVE

SERINA

THE NIGHT AND the rim of the island had hidden the Superior’s ships, but now Serina could see them racing forward in horrifying detail.

“I can’t outrun them.” Gia groaned. “We’re too heavy—”