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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

It was a beautiful, if modest, home. The idyllic country coupled with the rolling hills and view of the lake made it the kind of place Nox would have loved to live in. In another life, she could envision herself in such a home, waking up to a glass of tea by the window, looking out as the sun came up over the water. She could picture herself waiting for Amaris to finish her book just there on the stuffed settee or see the life they’d lead tending chickens and selling eggs in Yelagin’s square. She imagined their shared conspiratorial smiles as the townsfolk made comments about what very good friends the two maidens must have been to share a home and to have never taken husbands. She was sure she’d learn to love the ever-present freshwater smell if she shared this home with Amaris. It was ridiculous to let the daydream cross her mind, no matter how fleeting.

As she waited, she uncovered a very tiresome truth.

One thing no one had told her about espionage was that it was dreadfully dull. There was no excitement that the spying heroes of folk tales and ballads had led her to believe. There was no thrill from the deception as she watched the barn. Her mind wandered elsewhere—not to Amaris this time, but to the girls in the salon. She thought of troops she needed to gather. She thought of the toffee-haired Duke of Henares and of oxytocin and power and of the bluish-white glow that every soul had as it left the body. Her mind wandered to her childhood days at Farleigh, to the teachings of the church, to the bullies she’d met and the peers she’d hated. She thought of Emily—of her lips, her smile, her compassion—and regret tugged at her.

The memory of her speckled face was just starting to fade when Nox saw the distinct flash of blackened, batlike wings.

Thirty-Three

Over the past few years, Nox had come to think of herself as brave. She rarely, if ever, met an opponent she couldn’t tackle. The matrons and the Madame had favored her. The townsfolk had opened doors for her wherever she went. Men had swooned at her feet, handing over their mortal lives for a chance to be with her. As she sidled along the edge of the barn, painted in its shadow, she couldn’t hear anything inside over the furious thundering of her own heart. She willed her knees to bend, her feet to move.

Bravery, like cunning, was a skill that required regular practice. She was strong, resilient, and clever, but her courageousness had atrophied from years of disuse.