More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
The thick crowd of courtiers, dressed in their finery, parts easily for Prinz Søren and me as we make our way toward the Kaiser. Like Cress, the courtiers all wear blue Water Gems for beauty and clear Air Gems for grace—so many that to look at them is almost blinding. There are others as well—red Fire Gems for warmth, golden yellow Earth Gems for strength.
His presence is an unspoken threat. He’s rarely allowed at court functions; he usually only appears during one of my punishments.
My body remembers—even when the rest of me forgets—that I am not made for curtsying.
he’s clearly Astrean, with tawny skin, black hair, and deep-set eyes.
No wonder the Kaiser is so happy. He’s finally caught the last of Astrea’s Guardians, and my mother’s closest guard. Ampelio. “My Queen,” he says. His voice carries so that everyone gathered in the silent throne room hears his treason.
He was my mother’s most trusted Guardian and, according to just about everyone, my blood father—though even my mother couldn’t say that for certain.
“Today is done, the time has come for little birds to fly. Tomorrow is near, the time is here for old crows to die.”
Wow that’s harsh
Houzzah, god of fire, would keep us warm. Suta, goddess of water, would surround our island and protect us. Ozam, god of air, would keep us healthy. Glaidi, goddess of earth, would keep us fed.
“I am Th…Theodosia Eirene Houzzara,” I tell him. “And I am my people’s only hope.”
“I have no reply,” I tell him. “Good day.”
Balsy
heart’s sister, a Kalovaxian expression for a friendship that goes deeper than family, so deep that two people share one heart.
Give me fins instead of legs and I could swim to depths where the Kaiser’s men would never be able to find me.
I am a princess made of ashes, after all. I can’t help but fall apart.
“Thank you,” he says with a slight bow. “May our paths meet again, Theodosia.”
The useof her given name by someone other than hed shadows!!
He swallows. “I know that I’m willing to fight for you,” he says quietly.
Oh søren
“An inch lower,” he whispers against my lips. When I comply, a smile ghosts across his face, though it doesn’t make it to his eyes. “There it is. Now strike hard and true, Thora.”
Long live the daughters of Houzzah, born of fire, protectors of Astrea.
“Even if Søren does marry you, you’ll always know,” I tell her. She freezes. “Know what?” she asks. “That he’s wishing you were me,”
Heron hasn’t learned that lesson yet. He sticks to my side, devoted, using his gift to mend my rib and the other scrapes and cuts. He fixes Søren as well, though no one asks him to and Artemisia even chides him for it.
