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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

Amaris struck fast and hard with the dagger, closing her eyes and jerking her face up and to the side as she slashed the knife down in countering motion. A blood-curdling shriek filled the room as the merchandise mutilated itself, dragging a deep line from her forehead, across her brow bone, and down her left cheek. The acute pain was a sharp, sweet sensation of relief as she knew her dagger hit its mark. A hot rain of her own blood spilled over her face, soaking her tunic.

She was no longer perfect.

The Madame’s horrified screams sounded as though she was the one who’d been stabbed. The pain, the blood—it had set Amaris free. She was no longer glued to the floor. Feeling as though a millstone had been cut free from her neck, she ran with the weightlessness of liberation.

Millicent took off in pursuit, but Amaris was already out of the dining room, over the threshold and out the door. She ran into the open, spinning amidst the bright, clear indigo morning of the courtyard to see how close the Madame was on her heels. It was not the clean break she’d wanted. She couldn’t disappear into the forest. The courtyard was crowded with matrons and the assassin. Amaris spun to face the door to Farleigh, her back to the man and his horse, her eyes trained on the Madame while the matrons gaped in horror.

Amaris held her dagger aloft, and she swung again, this time cutting a line from her collarbone down nearly across her right breast, shredding and bloodying the tunic she wore. The matrons were realizing precisely what was transpiring as the crimson evidence poured down around their starlight girl. Agnes made a lunging move for her, but Amaris prayed to the goddess on the only wild card in the courtyard. She ran to the assassin. The man had already mounted his horse and had begun to nudge it off the premises when the pandemonium spilled from the manor into the courtyard.

“Please, take me with you!” she pleaded, reaching his horse.

The women advanced as if cornering a wild animal, triangulating Amaris between the Gray Matron, the Madame, and the assassin.

The man’s face tensed with surprise, his mouth parted in speechlessness.

He spat out a bewildered stammer. “I—”

Amaris stared up at him with her frenzied plea. Her back remained to the women as she silently implored the stranger. As she looked into his face, her second good idea for the morning came to her. She took the risk and pulled a familiar coin purse from her shirt. She swung around, holding it firmly against the middle of her back so only the man could see it.

Amaris presented the assassin with his own money as bribery.