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Chapter 1: The Proposal

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“Explain to me again why you’re marrying him?” I said. “He’s a total creep and raging misogynist to boot.”  I stared at Lynn with set shoulders as I waited for her response. Lynn glared at me over the laptop. I met her gaze and refused to blink. Lynn was my best friend. We had known each other since kindergarten. We shared nearly everything in common, except our taste in boys. Rain pounded on the windows of the girl’s academic dormitory, and I could actually feel the wind shifting the building. Outside, lightning spiderwebbed across the sky, and then the thunder rattled the windows. I hadn’t had time to draw a breath between lightning and thunder.  Lynn shook her head. “I’m marrying him because that’s how it is. That’s who I marry. Period. No way around it.” I picked up my wine glass and paused. Was it my wine glass? It couldn’t be Lynn’s. She was holding hers. But we were the last two girls standing tonight. Lindsay was asleep on the couch. We had held Sophie’s hair out of th...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter Forty-Three: The Life of a Duke

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“No.” I shook my head.  “There is no reason for you to sacrifice yourself.” Monique put her hands on her hips.  “Leon is still dying.” I said. “I’m not letting him die on our behalf. I’ll turn myself in. I can cure him once I’m imprisoned.” “That’s too big a risk. I’m not implicated. I’ll slip him the cure.” Lynn said.  “And then you’ll implicate yourself. That doesn’t help us. I’m already their preferred scapegoat. I should do it.” “We should kill them.” Ada said. “I tire of our men. We do not need them.” “I don’t know how we would do that.” I said.  Ada definitely had social change on the brain. She wanted to move mountains. And I was on her side. But I couldn’t think how to do it. We were a small battered group of fugitives. We were women, which meant Hyperborea afforded us no respect. What options did we have? Could we steal a boat? But none of us were sailors. The Boro Sea was gentle compared to the open ocean. But sailing it and navigating it would still be bey...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter Forty-Two: Back in the Catacombs

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“Back in the catacombs,” I said into the darkness. “We see all the tourist spots.” Amy giggled, but I heard a hitch in her voice as she did.  The catacombs were pitch black. The air hung, cold and damp, wrapping around us like a wet blanket. In the darkness noises loomed large. The sounds of things scuttling in the darkness echoed down the tunnels, rats or worse. Breezes wafted through the catacombs, carrying a whiff of mold and something wet I couldn’t place. The current tunnel’s ceiling sat two low to stand. And so, again, I found myself crawling on my hands and knees. Soil and gravel scraped and shifted under my palms and I crawled. I felt something sticky on my hands. I suspected that my palms had started bleeding.  “Now what?” Ada said in the darkness. Nobody answered.  Ada spoke again, “Lady Ren. What do we do?” Lynn was a baroness. By rights Ada should have deferred to her. I was about to say that when Lynn spoke. “Ren, do you have a plan?” “Me?” I said. “You alway...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter Forty-One: The Bishop

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The bishop pushed past us. He held his bloody staff forward like a lamp in the darkness.  “You men who have violated the laws of sanctuary. You risk damnation in this life and the next. Ask yourself, is your eternity worth obeying one rogue noble?” The swords wavered. A soldier next to Magnus looked at the noble. “My Lord, should we not obey the Bishop?” Magnus snarled and then drew his dagger and rammed the blade into the soldier’s throat. The soldier gurgled and dropped to his knees.  Magnus raised his bloody dagger. “Is anyone else still concerned with eternity?” “Are you really stupid enough to murder on holy ground?” I asked.  “Are you stupid enough to think holy ground will protect you?” Magnus countered. “I offer absolution and amnesty to all who lay down their weapons and exit the church now.” The Bishop said, his voice rising above the murmurs.  “We accept nothing! We take what we want!” Magnus grabbed at my wrist and yanked me forward. I stumbled towards hi...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter Forty: Doubts

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A hundred soldiers swarmed at the broken door to the church. They shifted and shuffled about, kicking dirt from the floor into the air. They murmured to each other, whispering doubts and worries about the current situation. Dust floated about me. The air of the church had begun to heat up from the crowd of soldiers. I had begun to sweat from the rising temperature. I felt the sweat trickle down my back as I stared at Sven. I stared at the three feet of tempered steel that he had pointed at my throat.  I resisted the urge to swallow.  “Killing me won’t get Laila married. How do you expect to marry her now that you’ve given her a concussion?” Sven glanced down at the fallen body of his daughter, and his face shifted from anger to frustration.  “You’ve got us.” I added. “We can’t run. We can’t fight. March us back to the castle and put us in our cells. Then you can get healing potions for the two women you’ve beaten.” “He won’t do anything of the sort.” Ada snorted as she st...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter Thirty-Nine: Scapegoats and Marriages

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Laila pushed forward, elbowing past me. She stepped right into Sven’s personal space. She stood, inches from Sven, glaring up at him.  “This is wrong, father. And you know it. You are dishonoring our house. You are dishonoring your father. And you are dishonoring Hyperborea.” She stood, hands on hips, face set in granite.  The soldiers around us murmured to each other. Sven took a step back and looked around at the men around him. I could hear whispered doubts. They were commoners and Sven was a noble, and they didn’t dare disobey him. But they mistrusted his judgment.  I inhaled and let the anise flavor of the smoke fill my lungs, and then I blew a smoke ring towards Sven. He turned and glared at me.  “Bind their arms.” Sven said to a nearby soldier.  “No! Father, listen to me. You will bring down our whole house if you do this. Ren is right, they will use you as a scapegoat. The whole family will fall with you.” None of the soldiers moved.  Sven wasn’t lo...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter Thirty-Eight: Sanctuary

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Dust from the rafters rained down upon us with each impact of the battering ram outside the front door. The whole structure shook as the battering ram hammered into the door. I could see the doors flexing as the ram slammed into them. The doors weren’t going to hold.  The sound of the hammering blows echoed in the church. The sound echoed, bouncing off walls and splitting my eardrums. I looked down at my hands. They wore blood spatters from the assassin, and they shook. I clenched my hands into fists and felt my nails digging into my palms, focusing my attention.  In another few moments, the doors would break under the stress of the battering ram’s strikes. And then well over a hundred soldiers would pour into the building. And that would be it. We would be out of options. We would have nowhere to run. We would have no moves left to play. I licked my lips and tasted pennies. Blood. I had bit my lip in the fight with the immortal. I could feel the split along the right side of ...
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Chapter Thirty-Seven: Silver Wounds Don’t Heal

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I stared up into the rafters of the pine wood stave church. The batlike immortal assassin dropped from the belfry towards us. The immortal’s wings spread like a vast leather cloak, slowing the creature’s descent. It aimed massive claws on its toes at me as it dropped towards us. I could hear cries of alarm from the priests. Somebody was yelling my name. I shifted my weight and felt the dirt sliding under my feet. I had forgotten that stave churches had dirt floors. I tried to steady myself and failed. I was too unsteady after so many visions and so much trauma. I wobbled in place, unable to dodge without falling over.  I realized that I was about to die. I didn’t want to die. I liked my new life. But what could I do? I had no way of stopping an immortal in combat. I couldn’t dodge, couldn’t even maintain my balance. Fiona and Vincent had been captured and couldn’t help me. I was going to die.  Lynn hammered into my right hip and knocked us both out of the downward path of the ...
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