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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

Nox had no desire to speak, but her mouth moved of its own accord. She answered, “I guess the matrons always favored me? I was set apart from the others while the Gray Matron kept me for her personal errands? Is that what you mean?”

Millicent considered the answer but remained dissatisfied.

“You have an inherent ability to make people fall in love with you, Nox. Now that I think about it, even your name makes more sense. Who was it that called you ‘Night’? Was it the matrons?”

“No.” She shook her head, feeling her long, black hair as it moved against her chin, her shoulders, down the middle of her back like a thick, silken curtain. Her hair had always been her favorite feature. It made her look like the shadows themselves. “I’m told it was the only thing my mother ever gave me. It was her parting gift before she abandoned me.”

“Well, I don’t suppose she would have known what to do with you. A fae wouldn’t have dropped you in Farehold, which means your father must have been the fae. It’s lucky, really. You’ve been able to hide in plain sight. You would have been sired by a northern fae—”

“A dark fae.”

“Pishposh, dear. You’ll come to find the world isn’t so black and white. Whatever it was that kept you nourished, I’m glad for the love in your life that sustained you for the seventeen years before meeting me. We wasted a year behind the bar, but no more time lost, dear! I don’t know if the matrons could truly have achieved such a feat, but you kept yourself alive long enough to bring you here to me. Believe me, dear, you’ve been running at a tenth of your potential. Now that we know what you are and what you’re capable of…oh, the world is just opening up for you.”

Nox swirled within herself, fingers of her mind gripping like oil against metal. Nothing about Millicent’s office was grounding. The colors and sparkles and sheen on the woman’s gilded bobbles only added to the kaleidoscope Nox felt, as though the floor were rocking, as if she’d been stashed in the belly of a ship without her consent. She didn’t know what to do, what to think, what to feel.

Nox didn’t know where to go, but she didn’t want to stay here. She didn’t know if she could truly leave, but at the very least, she had to get out of this office. She stood, holding her robe closer to her sides.

She found her voice again, utterly disgusted.

“What is the point of this—of a creature like this? Why would I do this? Why would something be created to murder?”