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Back Queen of Ruin Save as PDF
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

“Nero said it was meant to be a signal.” Serina gripped his hands more tightly. “I don’t know if everyone who was at the hotel made it. There was a lot of confusion… people running.”

“When I got back, I looked around, but there wasn’t much time,” he said. “By the time I saw you and Ember, the fire was too close. We had to go.”

“Most of the firearms are still back there. I don’t know if we’ll be able to salvage them.” She was so tired. Her lungs labored, filled with ash.

“When the fire runs its course, we’ll go see.” Val ran his blackened hands over her hair. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he murmured, leaning forward to press his lips to her forehead, the gesture as much a sigh as a kiss.

Serina struggled to take a deep breath. The truth sat in her chest, as black and choking as smoke. “Asa will see the smoke. He’ll know something is wrong. He won’t send a prison boat; he’ll send an army. And we’ve lost most of our weapons. We’ve nothing to fight him with.”

Val gently rubbed her back. “I know.”

EIGHTEEN

NOMI

NOMI WOKE TO a deep, velvet darkness and the silken heat of Malachi’s body against hers. Somehow, in sleep, she had curled into him, tucking her head against his shoulder and her arms into his chest, their legs tangling. The smell of him—sea spray and sweat and peppery spice—surrounded her. She froze, every sense focused on the slow thud of his heart against her cheek. Malachi breathed steadily, heavily. He was still asleep.

Nomi was afraid to move, lest she wake him. And he was so warm, so solid and…

No. What was she doing?

She could never be with Malachi. She would never be his Grace. And Asa’s betrayal still clung like a film to her heart, sticky and suffocating. It didn’t matter how Malachi felt, or how she felt. This embrace was empty, a promise of nothing.

And yet, she couldn’t bear to separate her limbs from his, and she couldn’t fall back asleep. So she gave herself this one secret moment to breathe him in, to relax against him, to drink in each forbidden breath.

It was quiet, save for the shush-shush of Malachi’s breath and the stamp and whinny of a horse down in the stables. Nomi thought of the soldiers slumbering in rooms of their own, thought of Renzo, of the public carriage that would arrive with the dawn. The horse whinnied again.