Chapters (49)
- COVER
- DEDICATION
- MAP
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- DISCOVER MORE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- PRAISE FOR
“You and Malachi should rule together, as equal partners,” she went on, her eyes never leaving Nomi’s. She could see her version of the future unfurl in her mind, but it didn’t have the same impossible, fantastical sheen as Nomi’s. Serina had always been the pragmatic one. “It will help the country transition. The magistrates will be mollified by Malachi’s role, and you’ll be able to do everything you can to make this country what it should be. You will show the men of Viridia that women deserve to be equal, and you’ll show the women all the new possibilities opening to them.”
Nomi looked at Serina as if she were speaking another language.
Serina shook her gently. “You can already read and write, Nomi. You know the real history of this country. You are educated, intelligent.… You’re what Graces should have been all along—the perfect example of all a woman can be.”
“But…” She faltered.
“Marry him,” Serina said, her heart full. “Be the queen this country needs. Side by side with Malachi, so there will be no doubt of your legitimacy and no need to deny your heart.”
“What about you, Serina?” Nomi asked, sounding for an instant like the little girl she’d once been, curled into her big sister’s arms.
Serina smiled. “I’ll be here in the palazzo with you. There will be threats—I will protect you. I know how to do that now. This is what I want. What I’ve always wanted.”
Nomi stared at her hands. “You want me to ask Malachi to marry me. You want me to be queen.”
“Yes,” Serina said simply. “But it’s your choice. That’s all you have ever wanted, baby sister, to choose your future. Don’t be afraid.”
FORTY
NOMI
DO I WANT to be queen?
Nomi thought about the queens in Malachi’s history book. The warrior and her daughters. The thoroughness with which their enemies had erased them. The price the women of Viridia had paid over the past two hundred years. She thought about Asa and his father. All the Graces who’d lived in this palazzo, all the women like her mother who were never given a choice about anything. She thought about Serina, sent to Mount Ruin to die for reading, a crime she didn’t even commit.
Yes. Nomi wanted to be queen. As long as Serina was here with her.
She hugged her sister tightly. “Tell our fighters at the door they can stand down. Get some more food from Ines. Rest, Serina. You deserve it.”
Nomi returned to her old bedroom, where Malachi waited for her.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed. He’d removed his heavy armor now that the threat of battle had passed. The tight breeches and thin shirt he wore beneath clung to his muscular frame.