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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

“No you didn’t learn anything interesting?”

She could not allow them to get to the Selkie. She couldn’t yield to the seductive temptation to let herself drift free from the world. No. She would not go. Not to the brothel, and not into the dark.

“Let me out,” Nox said, reaching for the latched handle to the carriage door as its horses plodded forward outside the enclosed cab’s walls. The numbness began to ebb as she found the words she needed.

Millicent’s surprise was tangible. She intercepted the girl, her painted mouth opened in a startled gasp. The Madame attempted to subdue Nox’s movements, treating her like one might a drunken companion who insisted on swimming in the river after a night at the alehouse.

“Are you mad, girl?” Millicent gaped, blinking in horror.

“Let me out!” She wriggled, freeing one arm from Millicent’s restraint.

Millicent made more attempts to contain her, using her body to block the exit to the carriage as she grappled to restrict Nox’s flailing arms. As the scene unfolded, Millicent’s eyes bulged, not dissimilar to those of a dying fish. Nox had never snapped like this. It was as if the Madame were wrangling a crazed animal rather than a human woman.

Nox grew more rabid with every moment that passed, each heartbeat an increase in her ferocity, consumed with the singular need for exit.

“Let me out!” she screamed, grabbing a handful of the Madame’s hair as she yanked her to the side, battling for her life, her survival, her freedom. “Let me out, let me out!”

She went feral with her singular need. She tore at Millicent, willing to rip the woman to shreds if it would release her. She’d found every drop of her warrior’s heart, and she would not allow herself to be locked up in the Selkie again.

The Madame had her teeth set in a grit and was releasing a snarl in protest as she fought back, not caring how crazed Nox had become.

If she could just open the door enough, Nox would roll onto the road and begin running. Even if they both tumbled out onto the ground together, carriage in motion, she would twist herself free and run until she made it to the woods. She would hide, she would intercept Amaris, but she would not go back to the pleasure house. She would not enter the gilded, silk-tufted jail cell that awaited her.

“Stop!” Millicent shrieked, her voice like that of a banshee in the midst of the disaster.

There would be no stopping. Nox would sooner have them both die here having scratched one another’s throats to ribbons than be locked away. She was so close to Amaris, there was no coercion or command that would confine her to the tawdry cave and be Millicent’s puppeteer for one moment longer.