Chapter 29 is up! You can read the whole chapter–and nearly the whole novel–here.
Nerissa jumped out of the way as the dragon reared back, clutching its shoulder. Dragons. Great sentimental louts, all of them.
She pushed her sleeves up. She’d seen enough of human nature to know how dangerous a cornered mortal could be. And Mara had never been anything less than extraordinary. But no one, not even Mara, would hurt one of her DIDs and get away with it.
“You’ve no one to blame but yourself,” she said, stepping forward. “You used your freedom to choose a path that would have hurt a great many people without thinking of anything but your own glory and pain. If you find you’re surrounded by bars, it is because the prison has been one of your own making.”
Mara pressed her lips into a thin line, hatred flaring from her eyes, dripping from every angle in her face. She had turned to the dark and not only embraced it, but sought to rule it as well. But that was the thing about the dark—it didn’t matter how strong or lovely or powerful a person was. The darkness won every time. The more a person thought they were winning, the deeper the darkness wove itself through them until they were blind of everything but their own delusions.
Nerissa narrowed her eyes. It was time she disillusioned Mara a little.
© 2011 by Danyelle Leafty. All rights reserved.