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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

Nox couldn’t explain the coal she felt in her stomach as she watched the carriage. She had no reason to feel any emotion toward the stranger, but a sinking heaviness filled her with inexplicable dread.

“We should go,” Nox warned.

“Why?” Amaris whispered back, rising to her tiptoes to peer through the window that overlooked the courtyard. “I want to see who owns such a carriage!”

Nox wanted to grab Amaris’s hand and drag her away but couldn’t summon the strength. The coal in her belly spread, creating a lead in her feet that weighed her to the ground.

The sunset had been so beautiful only moments before. Now the bloodred sky sang its ominous warning as it backlit the newcomer.

The carriage belonged to a woman in her late thirties. She was dressed in deep-blue finery with green, jeweled accents, resembling the noblest aspects of a peacock. Her attire contrasted starkly with the black gloss of her carriage. Her curled yellow hair had been elaborately pinned atop her head. The season was still chilled enough that she had a black fur around her shoulders held together with a gem-covered clasp, and long, dark gloves stretching up beyond her elbows. The stranger glided over the courtyard. She stepped over the threshold and immediately began tutting under her breath, waiting for a matron to attend to her.

“Have you seen her before?” Amaris asked quietly.

“No, I’m always with you on market day,” Nox murmured, a chill snaking down her spine. She tried again. “Please, let’s go.”

“Who do you think she is?” Amaris asked, ignoring her.

Matron Agnes greeted the peacocking woman with some familiarity. Whoever she was, she’d visited before. Set against the gray and white cottons of the matrons and the children, her lavish outfit was absurd. Nox’s anxiety continued to bubble as she watched the women chat on the landing. After thirty seconds of pleasantries, Agnes turned to escort the stranger up the stairs. Nox repositioned herself to block Amaris from the woman’s view as they floated over the stairs and into the dormitories.

“What are—”

“Don’t speak,” Nox breathed. She kept her eyes trained on the door to the oldest girl’s dormitory until the moving shadows betrayed their departure. Nox turned to face Amaris, keeping her back to the women. She hoped that from behind she was little more than a gray dress and black hair.