It hurt, yes. But it was also something of a relief.
“I think Cyn will help us,” Evin said.
“So do I,” Ileni said, though she wasn’t entirely sure. And then, with more certainty: “Lis will, too.”
Evin frowned doubtfully . . . but he didn’t know Lis as well as he thought he did. And more crucially, he didn’t know that Ileni had something to hold over Lis’s head.
Ileni took a deep breath. “All right,” she said. “Let’s take it one person at a time. For now.”
Evin smiled at her brilliantly, a smile so laden with hope that she looked away. Something inside her stirred, but it was something she wasn’t quite ready for. Not yet.
Evin extended his hand to her, and her heart leaped unexpectedly. A smile spread across her face, and she bit her lip. Maybe she would be ready sooner than she thought.
She walked across the ledge toward him. His eyes brightened, and he took her hand in his.
She knew Evin thought she had chosen because of him. Because somewhere, deep down, she loved him. And maybe someday—if she did end up loving him—she would tell him the truth.
That it hadn’t been about love.
It had, in the end, been about death. About who needed it, and who was ashamed of it, and who celebrated it. About who might, someday, move past it.
She leaned against Evin and closed her eyes, shutting out the precipitous drop below them and the vast sky above. And for a while, she concentrated on the sunlight on her face and his solidness at her back, and she didn’t think about the Empire or the assassins or anything at all having to do with death.
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About the Author
LEAH CYPESS is the author of Death Sworn; the Kirkus Best Book Mistwood; and its companion Nightspell. She lives with her husband and three young children in Boston, Massachusetts.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
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Credits
Cover art © 2015 by Mariusz Pocztowski, Slava Gerj/Shutterstock
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
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Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
DEATH MARKED. Copyright © 2015 by Leah Cypess. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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The text of this book is set in Centaur MT.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
TK
EPub Edition September 2014 ISBN 9780062361219
FIRST EDITION
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