Daughter of No Worlds (The War of Lost Hearts, #1)

by Carissa Broadbent

He was twenty-one years old. He had been in too many battles to count. But this? This wasn’t a battle. This was a slaughter.

“They chose to start this here, in one of their cities,” she spat. “If they want to shit in their own beds, they can lie in it.”

One thousand and two. One thousand gold was the price of my freedom.

“You are worth one thousand gold,” he told me, at last. “That can be the price of your freedom.” At the time, I couldn’t even comprehend that kind of wealth. Even all these years later, that was still a struggle — even now that I physically had it in my possession.

If I could do that, I could do anything.

I couldn’t. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t watch this thing destroy Tisaanah the way it had destroyed me — and it would, even though she was better than I was in every way, stronger, kinder, more deserving. Still just another light to be snuffed out. Another tool to be wielded. And I had fed her right to them.

If I become lost, I will never be found again. I will never be found again.

“Men want power because it makes them feel good. Women want power because it lets us do things. And imagine, Tisaanah, the things we could do with you.”

My name is Tisaanah. I am a free woman and yet still a slave. I am fragments of many things but a whole of only myself. I am a daughter of no worlds, and all worlds. And I am not done yet.