Spinning Silver Naomi Novik Novels & Stories

Silver turned her purple eyes towards us and they glistened as they met Mac’s. “It’s done…” I said softly. “It’s done…” Mac took a step towards her. The world stopped. Time stopped. Everything stopped. I didn’t care what was happening between Tessa and Graham behind us. I didn’t care what was happening around me. All I could see was her—my mate. But suddenly something happened. I felt something snap inside of me. And before either Mac or I could comprehend, Silver collapsed on the floor with a thud, shifting back into her human form in a snap.

I ran my fingers across the spines as I walked through the foyer, noting how silver glitter fell softly off every book. I looked down and saw the ground was littered with sparkling silver dust. It was strange dust though, it didn’t stick to my boots. It seemed to just stay in place, sparkling and taunting me, as if beckoning me to lean down and attempt to wipe it with my own fingers. I refrained in fear that if I touched it there, it might whisk me away from this magical place.

*** Naomi's POV *** I slowly opened my eyes to face myself in an unfamiliar place. The room has an old musty, earthy smell to it. The floor under me is wet and cold. I feel like my body has been hit by a truck, and my headache is on the brink of making my head split open. I lift my right hand towards my head only to realize I can't because I am chained. My wrist burns where the shackles touch my skin. I palpate the ground, mapping the floor underneath me. My fingers brush against the chain links, and once again, my skin sizzles at the point of contact. The chains are made of silver.

CHAPTER 16 NOVA'S POV I don't know how I did it, but I am standing there in a room with ten dead men on the floor. And the silver is tied to my arms. But it is a lot more loose now. “Cassian,” I whisper again, and Cassian blinks, like he is trying to understand everything that is happening in front of him. “Fuck, Nova,” he says, as he finally walks towards me, stepping over the men. He is about to touch the silver, and I quickly take my hand away.

"War is coming. Because Alpha Ashton declared you… priceless." *War.* The word landed with physical weight. *Because of me.* The hollow space inside Novah filled with a cold, sick dread. She didn’t want this. Any of this. She didn’t know this Ashton, this Thorne, these Silvermanes or Western Clans. She just wanted… quiet. Darkness. To not *be*. "I…" Novah’s voice was a rasp, unused, barely audible. "I don’t… remember." It was the only truth she possessed.

“Told us what happened. Finch. The wolf. The fire.” Silver’s gaze drifted to the window, where gray sea turned to endless green. “He won’t stop.” “No,” Liana said simply. “But wolves lose their teeth when they’re far from their forests. Let him come. Ireland doesn’t answer to the Order.” Silver nodded, though her chest stayed tight. She’d heard that before—safe, untouchable, out of reach. Safety was just a quieter kind of lie. Nik turned down a narrow road lined with blackthorn trees. “We’ll take you to the estate. You’ll have a room, quiet, blood supply, and time. You look like a woman who hasn’t slept since the world ended.”

Three years after losing my wolf, I learned that my mate, Alpha Kael, had been poisoning me with Silver Dust to suppress my awakening. All because the one he truly loved was my adopted sister, Selene. I was standing outside his office, clutching a file, my knuckles hovering just inches from the door when I heard his voice. "Have Clara’s blood reports come in yet?" "They have, Alpha. The level of Silver Dust in her system is dangerously high." Silver Dust?

They vibrated out, the inky void seemed to take on a shimmer as if a film of starlight was glazed over them. The water ebbed and flowed and moved and changed and then it stilled. Nova sat back after a long few moments. Before she could look back at me, the water seemed to fold in on itself; it took the silver gift Nova offered and swirled into a pool. The silver edged away and replaced with gold as vibrant as a crown in the sun, as vibrant as Nova’s now wide eyes. When the water stilled, flickering warm, green-tinged golden lights illuminated the walls. Nova sank back the same way I had done, and as she was there to ground me, I was here for her now.

Let alone the tights and… I glanced at my feet… ballet flats? “That looks great on you!” “Huh?” I looked up at Logan, who was now buttoning up a dark blue polo shirt. I hadn't even seen him pull his own clothes out. “You were starting to spiral.” Silver said gently. “I took control just for a moment to break you out of the loop.” With those words, the anxiety that had started to grow at the missing time vanished like mist evaporating before the rising sun. Silver was just looking out for me like she always was.

“Will he accept me as his wife?” Three quiet knocks suddenly resonated through the room, startling me at once. The signal… I took a deep breath and swallowed back the anxiety building up inside my chest. “It's just a wedding, Anya,” I told myself as I walked towards the door, each step feeling heavier than the other. “How bad can it be?” I braced myself for the worst as the doorknob slowly twisted, and the door slowly opened to reveal…. “D-Don Silver?”