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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 had asked why anyone would live in Stone, given its proximity to the Dark Kingdom. Mable waxed poetic about a league of guardians in the mountain who served neither the north nor the south. Nox and Amaris had exchanged looks at that, confident that Mable was more naive than they’d initially understood. It would be a lovely tale for parents to tell as they tucked their child into bed, allowing them to imagine guardians watching them in their poor peasant village. Certainly, such a legend would prove useful to keep the night terrors away when signs of demons filtered down from the northern kingdom.

Nox hoped Mable was too distracted as she skinned vegetables and discarded the peels to pay much mind as to why the girls cared.

Nox kept her questions focused on the warmth of the southwestern coast.

“You’ve asked about the south a lot, little Nox. Do you have big dreams of living in the southern part of the kingdom?” Mable’s hands continued working on the potato, thumb edging the knife deftly around its skin.

“I’ve always dreamt of the sea,” Nox claimed. “It would be lovely to work for someone along the coast. I’ve thought about the water even more after the sailor visited on the last market day. Have you ever been? To the sea, I mean?”

The lie was pretty enough that Mable was happy to tell them about a time when she and a few of the devout matrons had taken their horses on pilgrimage to the Temple of the All Mother. From there, they’d gone onward another day to Priory. The coastal town was just outside the royal city of Aubade, where Her Majesty resided. It had been more than two weeks of hard travel, Mable said. Still, it remained a joyous memory, as she had been able to worship with other matrons who had come from surrounding territories throughout the southern kingdom, all sharing in the sacred pilgrimage to visit the All Mother in her earthly form. Her stories of the temple were otherworldly, surely colored by a combination of time and wishful thinking.

Lost to her thoughts, she continued to work absently on her chore as her eyes glazed over. Perhaps her mind drifted to the holier path her parents had wanted for her and to the thinly veiled slave trade masquerading as a church-run orphanage that her life had become.

“You’ll get to see it, though, little Amaris,” Mable said, her voice distant.

Amaris cocked her head curiously.

Mable nodded, not really speaking to either of them. “You’ll have to make the trek to the Temple and say a prayer for me when you go off to live in Priory. It’s only a day or two away. I’m sure she’ll let you visit the All Mother.”