Chapters (64)
- 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
Millicent towered down on her, eyes flashing with her power and burning with anger. She tightened the grip of that shriveled, monstrous arm on Emily’s throat and leaned in close as she said, “Your love has no place here, and it is your love that has killed you.”
Thirty-Two
Nox’s rage filled her with the ruby-red heat of her failure. The curtains were pulled against the late hour, and the tavern had died down as the patrons had gone to sleep. Not her. It would take a long time for the fury that coiled within her every muscle to unravel.
Nox was incensed. She had never lost control like that. How had that man—that idiotic, red-haired, dagger-covered mercenary—resisted her charms? This was her power! This was what she possessed! This was what she did!
She walked all the way into the far room of the wall and pushed off, using the leverage to dramatically spin on her heels as she paced. She needed something to do with her energy, something to throw, something to break. She scanned the inn for something inconsequential, something glass, something fragile that she could shatter against the floor. A lovely blue vase with three wilted peonies tempted her, but no. It wouldn’t serve her to further prove that she had no restraint.
Nox admitted she’d been rattled the moment she’d spotted the faeling, but she had still seen the path forward in their game of chess. Perhaps her opening hadn’t been the simple forward pawn she’d intended. He’d sensed her eagerness.
She had felt utterly stonewalled as turn after turn she had sensed him pulling away, the young man making it clear time after time that he wanted to leave their exchange. She paced the suite at the inn on the outskirts of Yelagin, nearly overturning the table with her rage. That fool, that imbecile had publicly displayed his weapons, ones nearly identical to those she had seen on the assassin years ago in Farleigh. After learning that the northern assassin had abducted Amaris, she had reached into her memory and written down everything she knew about the man. She’d made a thorough record of his height, his hair color, his clothes. She had drawn the swords and daggers and crossbow in sketches on the papers of her desk over and over. She had sketched his face, burning it into her mind. She’d flitted in and out of seven taverns in Yelagin that evening, and there it had been: a nearly identical sword, slung onto the back of the telltale bronzed skin of a northerner.
She’d stopped breathing.
It had taken her a full minute to compose herself before she slipped into character. She would need to use everything she possessed to get the answers she needed from the northerner.