LOGINOn 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
My heart drops. I need to disappear. This stall is far too close to the entrance.“Apologies.” I bow to Lord Yetir. “I am needed elsewhere, but I’ll be returning shortly.”“No.” A frown adds another wrinkle to his aging face. “I need my daily ride now.”“Shortly, I swear.” I hold my hands up as I ba
There has to be someone I can talk to who knew King Notu before he died—and I can’t talk to them for almost a week without risking everything. With a groan, I push through another page.The dog received a detailed examination, but human deaths whisk by with single lines of description. Most of the c
IngridI put the long lute—laz—down reluctantly. I’d love to spend the rest of the night getting to know the slightly off cadences of its new shape. “Which ones? Maybe we could play together sometime.”“The laz, for one.” He points at the top of another pile, where a flat string instrument like the
“I am not playing for them!” the troubadour on the stage shouts.Ozkan tosses him a coin. “You’ll play here or nowhere.”The troubadour scoops it up hungrily and strums a tuneless laz.I slide into the last empty seat at the table. As I do, the groom who grabbed my legs, Iltas, shakes his head.“Shi







