Chapters (63)
- Front Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Pronunciation Guide
- Prologue
- Part One
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Part Two
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Part Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Part Four
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Epilogue
- Excerpt from The Sun and Its Shade
- The Night and Its Moon Playlist
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Back Cover
She rolled the long-lost name around from the front of her brain to the back. She said it out loud a time or three. It would make more sense to convince herself that she had hallucinated the entire encounter than to believe that four damned creatures of hell had been discussing the white hair and lavender eyes of her Amaris.
That hadn’t been the only information they’d shared. She made herself focus, desperately wishing she’d had a pen and paper. Amaris was heading to Aubade. Amaris was not alone. Amaris could see them. What did that mean, that Amaris could see them? They were not invisible; Nox had seen the membranous, stretched skin of their batlike wings as a demonic entity had entered the barn’s upper window. She had seen the gargoyle’s face as it had peered down at her. What else had she heard? There had been more; she knew there had been more.
There had been four voices, yes; of that much she was certain. She’d learned two of their names. They were talking about Amaris. She was traveling south with…what had they said? She was traveling southwest toward Aubade to meet with the queen. She had two male companions. One was fae. One was fae? Had there been another word used to describe him?
Yes, she realized. One was a fire-haired fae. That’s how the beast had described him. Nox had been sharing drinks only one night ago with Amaris’s ruddy, faeling friend. Not her captor. Not her enemy. Her riding companion. She had been across the table from Amaris’s friend. She had grabbed the hand of Amaris’s friend.
What else had they said? Nox felt strongly that there had been one more piece to the puzzle, but the voice inside herself continued to shout, “Amaris is alive! Amaris is here, in Farehold! Amaris is heading south! She’s alive, she’s alive, she’s alive!” Whatever the demons had said, they had clearly wanted to ally with her. Nox knew she’d fight on the side of the ag’imni if they were truly Amaris’s allies. But that couldn’t be true. The ag’imni were creatures of nightmares. They were damnation personified, clawing their way up from the earth, escaped abominations who had wriggled free from the goddess’s hell. In what conceivable plot could Amaris be the champion of hell?
The sooty horse was happy to keep to the road, moving forward of its own volition while she was left to her thoughts. It carried her far from the farmhouse and the forest and its trees, keeping the freshwater lake on her right side all the while. The road led straight into town, right to the first inn on Yelagin’s outskirts, nestled on the edge of the lake. Nox dismounted numbly, leading the horse to the orange glow of the inn where the blessed release of sleep and perhaps several tankards of ale awaited her. If her head weren’t so foggy, she’d press herself to ride out now in the dead of night, with or without the duke’s armed escorts. But no, a few hours of rest would do her a world of good while she sorted through all that had been said.