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
Malachi rubbed the back of his neck, burnt now by the sun, his expression cracking. “Then why are you looking at me like that? Why are you angry?”
Sea air swept across her cheeks, cooling the heated skin. But it didn’t cool the fist of flame in her chest. She tried to contain it, tried to think of a polite response, but she couldn’t do it.
“You called me a handful. You said you would tame me. You said you bought me!” she exploded, and the wind stole the words.
“But you know—”
“What? That it’s a lie?” She shook her head. “Maybe this time. But those are the words that allayed that man’s suspicion. Knowing I was your property made me safe, made me make sense in his world. It was okay that I was a ‘handful’ because you had me under control.” She wanted to get up and pace, but the little sailboat had caught a strong breeze and was bobbing violently up and down as it strained forward through open water, leaving the village of boats far behind. “Malachi, you didn’t blink. You didn’t have to think about it. You knew what would reassure him, and it was treating me like an unbroken horse.”
Tears were streaking down her cheeks now, and she felt so stupid. She knew she was overreacting, that he’d done what he had to do to protect them. She knew this was the way her world worked. She even knew he didn’t mean those words. He’d proved it the night of his birthday, when he’d tried to give her her freedom.
But she couldn’t forget that man’s expression; it built in her head, multiplied by the thousands of times she’d been dismissed so easily, erased from every decision that concerned her. She’d only spent a few days with Serina, in a place where women made choices for themselves, where women had a voice and a vote. But that was enough to make anything less untenable.
Malachi said nothing for a long, awkward moment. He concentrated on steering the boat and stared past her to the faint hump of coastline in the distance. Behind him, the sun sank toward the horizon.
“What should I have done instead?” he asked at last.
“I don’t know,” Nomi said, dipping her damp cheeks into her hands. What had she expected? Frustration boiled up inside her, scorching her to the core. “You can’t change the world in the space of a single conversation, can you?”
A new Viridia. That’s what Nomi wanted, and she knew now that even if he wanted to, Malachi couldn’t give it to her.
She watched the sun slowly drown itself along the watery horizon and pined for a new world.
THIRTEEN
SERINA
“ARE YOU SURE?” Ember asked. She held up a knife made from an old curved piece of metal, its edge newly sharpened.