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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

Nox moved forward in a daze, knowing only that she did indeed wish to go southwest. Amaris was headed southwest. Her room was there at the Selkie, her notes were on her desk, and Emily would be waiting for her there. She felt a pain somewhere below her ribs at that. How would she find the words to break Emily’s heart again once she told her Amaris was close? Nox handed the horse’s reins to Millicent, though the awful midnight animal put up quite the protest. She didn’t care whether or not it came with them to Priory or if it was set free to roam the hills of Yelagin, but the action seemed like the only way she could consciously force her body to move. The chestnut horses bound to the Madame’s carriage were equally unpleasant creatures and did not care one bit for the additional companionship.

Nox crawled into the carriage, feeling utterly disembodied as she did so. Her legs moved her forward, mind numbly replaying the events from the night. She was focused on envisioning Amaris and her riding partners, on remembering the words of the ag’imni, on combing through her thoughts to remember what else it was they had said.

“Let’s get you home.”

Nox must have fallen asleep, though she didn’t know how. She hadn’t remembered resting her head or closing her eyes, yet when she opened them again, the glows of Priory were scarcely one mile away. She was choking on the sickly, familiar scent of the Madame’s vanilla perfume.

Millicent’s carriage was perhaps the most interesting piece of magic she’d ever thought possible. Nox had never heard of such devices that allowed the map before you to fold just as if it were no more than a piece of paper, with one destination meeting its opposite through the crease as they poked through locations. It wasn’t the only magic item she’d seen. The Madame had shown her a spelled quill once, claiming it was able to write its letters and have them appear on papers anywhere on the goddess’s earth, so long as the recipient had its matching feathered counterpart. Nox had heard stories from men at the Selkie about spelled objects, but it had been hard to tell fact from fiction when they spoke of such things while intoxicated and in the presence of beautiful women. The Madame had also told tales of coming close to owning an enchanted mirror once, claiming it reflected one’s possibilities rather than their present, and she seemed a bit more reliable a source on such things than the bragging of drunken patrons.