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Back The Night and Its Moon
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 was a young woman brought into Uaimh Reev under the expectation that she would behave and compose herself like any other reever. They were meant to see her as a brother-in-arms. The men of all ages had grown to respect her skill, and she knew that they would fight beside one another in an unbroken trust, holding each other’s backs to the death if ever the situation arose.

They appreciated her for her tenacity, her stamina, her skill, her memory, her wit, and her unwavering spirit—none of which implied she possessed any gender or sexuality whatsoever, as any family member should embody those. Her first year had been filled with bets over whether or not she’d give up and run off in the night. She’d never given them the satisfaction. Not only had she stuck it out but she’d lived and thrived long enough in the reev to watch their hearts fully open to her as one of their own.

Perhaps she also struggled with what it would mean to Ash if they were to truly tangle, even if the thought was secondary. Would it impact the way he saw her, or the way they trained? Could sex just for the hell of it be worth its complications?

Unlike the old gods in some of the other religions, the All Mother expected nothing by way of celibacy, and as such, the reevers were no saints. Many had taken lovers whom they saw in their travels. Some had married and started families, living out their service and keeping up with their training on the ground, away from the reev. Amaris was quite certain that one of her brothers had a male lover in Stone whom he spoke fondly of, carefully avoiding pronouns when speaking of the man around Grem the bladesmith’s backwater beliefs. But her brother’s identity and proclivities hadn’t made him look for sex within the keep’s walls amongst his reever brethren any more than hers should. Maybe that was why Ash found it fun to flirt, as he, too, knew the unspoken agreements to keep the hewn reev as an escape from the world below with its entanglements. Knowing they shouldn’t, knowing they couldn’t… Well, maybe that was half of the fun.

The bubbles had popped and the water had started to cool, telling her she’d been in the bath for long enough. Whatever questions she had could be dealt with on the bed, amidst a midafternoon catnap.