About the Book
Dai is the envy of her fellows at the White Court, a paragon of religious morality and magical potential—but she was only four the first time she killed, snatching the years of a gull’s life to save a fish.
To the White Court, years are either precious stones to be hoarded or crops to be harvested. And not just any crop. The crop—the driver of the economy, the cornerstone of the military, the key to religious bliss. Blessed with the ability to give and take life, Dai dreams of a future spent performing the year tithe on the empire’s citizens. But when she witnesses the tithe for the first time at eight, she doesn’t see the life saved. She sees the decaying person left behind. But she is the perfect novice, favored to ascend to White Court leadership—if only she puts all ill feeling from her mind and focuses on surviving her trials.
Twenty years later, Fen, a young woman sustained by her hatred of the White Court and crippled by her fear of their masters, contracts herself to the empire’s largest rebel sect. When Fen is tasked with finding a weapon crucial to the resistance, she’s forced into Dai’s path. That would have been frightening enough. But Dai has inexplicably run from the White Court and is being hunted by their most dangerous masters, who are desperate to recover her before her impending Ascendancy. Now, Dai’s fate hinges on the internal struggle of one woman, and neither knows which is stronger: Fen’s desire to destroy Dai’s order or her crippling fear of Dai herself.
Continue Reading…
Below, find chapters one and two as seen on The Letter Review.
I am currently querying for Iron Dragon, Black Swan. My contact information can be found below.
Abby Sandman 