ANMELDENOn a whim, I try to roll him over, not expecting the iron cage of his arms to so much as shift. But he flips easily with a soft noise of surprise. I pull back, worried.“Apologies.” He smiles ruefully and taps the bandage on his face—on the side I rolled him to. “I think this will take some getting
“Oh.” I glance at Amval. Cirocco waits by his shoulder, clearly about to demand something similar. All the pressures of life suddenly descend back into place. With Kaloni dead, Amval has no rival for the crown. There’s going to be a coronation and then months of cleaning up what happened here. I’m g
Ingrid“The Goddess’ will is often far more complicated than any of us can guess,” Halit says, blood streaked on her cheek from the arrow she took to the shoulder before fleeing the altar.Laughter ripples through the temple. I know, from my second march up here, that the healthy hold up the wounded
And that is his mistake. The heartbeat he wastes on gloating gives me just enough time to slash at his unprotected throat, tearing through fur and old scar tissue.Blood waterfalls onto me, hot and fast. I wriggle out of the way before he crumples. Dead.Or at least it seems so. My halved vision mak
Amval“She will never be ready to marry my brother!” I shout as I storm into the packed temple, a sword lifted high above my head and a trail of allies collected from every corner of the palace behind me.Gasps ripple through the crowd, buoying my name forward. Ingrid turns, her jaw falling slack. T
I suck in a breath through my gritted teeth as Halit intones about the complexities of fate, how perhaps Amval dying was all part of Her cosmic plan for Cirocco and I to end up together. Maybe it was part of Her cosmic plan for me to punch a holy woman in the mouth.No. Joli is counting on me. Light
“I—” She scowls. “Have you heard about the conscriptions? I wasn’t aware Lightning Cape’s army was weak.”“There is strong and there is strong enough to conquer wildlands abandoned to rogues,” I reply sharply. Perhaps I wondered something similar, but Ingrid certainly lacks the knowledge to understa
“Another,” a familiar voice says.From a month and a half of control, I do not jump when I hear my brother behind me.“I’ll pay.” Cirocco steps up to the bar next to me when Ozkan hesitates. “Clearly, he deserves it.”“Thank you,” I say in my lowest, least recognizable voice. “But I’ve had enough.”
The shock on her face is so sweet that it makes up for every night I spent making music alone in an empty dungeon because it was the only place the guards didn’t check.“And I needed the occasional midnight snack,” I admit. Something about her earnest reaction to everything I say makes me want to be
Tazi’s eyes go distant with a mind-link. Bengu only mentioned Recai once, to say that he told her the rumor about another kingdom being behind the accidents, but soldiers and maids don’t talk very often. Hopefully, my semi-educated guess is enough.Tazi smiles faintly, and her eyes clear. “She is te







