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Chapters (64)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  6. Pronunciation Guide
  7. Prologue
  8. Part One
  9. One
  10. Two
  11. Three
  12. Four
  13. Five
  14. Six
  15. Seven
  16. Eight
  17. Nine
  18. Ten
  19. Eleven
  20. Twelve
  21. Thirteen
  22. Part Two
  23. Fourteen
  24. Fifteen
  25. Sixteen
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Twenty
  30. Twenty-One
  31. Twenty-Two
  32. Twenty-Three
  33. Part Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. Thirty-Two
  43. Thirty-Three
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. Part Four
  47. Thirty-Six
  48. Thirty-Seven
  49. Thirty-Eight
  50. Thirty-Nine
  51. Forty
  52. Forty-One
  53. Forty-Two
  54. Forty-Three
  55. Forty-Four
  56. Forty-Five
  57. Forty-Six
  58. Forty-Seven
  59. Epilogue
  60. Excerpt from The Sun and Its Shade
  61. The Night and Its Moon Playlist
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. About the Author
  64. Back Cover

Amaris did her best to remain solemn, but a grin escaped her. Odrin returned the smile.

Samael clapped his hands together little, more than a dark shape silhouetted against the sunset. He began, “We’re not much for liturgy, Amaris. Repeat the oath, and then shake hands with your brothers. Shall we?”

She nodded. They hadn’t told her what to expect. Her surge of nerves seemed to set the sky on fire as the sunset bloomed into deeper shades of vibrant violet, gold, and crimson. The men looked at her expectantly as Samael began. He held a dagger loosely in one hand and looked to her as she repeated her vow.

“I am the sword of the All Mother. I will answer to no king, join no armies, and seek for myself neither power nor glory. I stand between magic and its imbalance as its sentry in this world. I will not flee, fail, or falter. I am a reever.”

Samael finished, then looked at Amaris expectantly.

“Now, Amaris of No Home and No People: are you prepared to make Uaimh Reev your home and the reevers your people?”

Her heart squeezed with emotion. She nodded, slowly echoing the vow.

He raised the dagger to one hand, squeezing the blade to create a cut in his palm. His face betrayed nothing. He passed the knife to Grem, who did the same, though the man winced ever so slightly. Odrin traced a deep scar in his palm with the blade, exchanging the knife with the next man, then the next, until droplets of blood dangled from the fingertips of every man around her. Finally, the dagger was given to Amaris.

The knife was soaked with the reevers’ blood from blade to hilt. She wrapped one hand around the handle, palm sticky against the hot, red life of one dozen men.

She stared at the knife for a moment, eyes examining the hand that clutched it, and the pale, open palm that remained ready for slicing. A vivid memory pulsed through her as she felt her hands wrap around a dagger years ago and the cut of a blade as she’d marred herself, becoming imperfect. It had been a morning of panic, of fear, of desperation and scrambling and hopelessness. The sting of a blade had set her free in Farleigh, unleashing her from the chains of the world. The same gash of a knife would now toss her a lifeline, a tether meant to bind her to a new life, a new family.

She smiled slowly as she lowered the knife to her palm, watching ruby mar the milky white of her flesh. Pride swelled within her as she finished the cut, ready to seal her vow.