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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 36

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The sky was a sea of snowflakes. The night looked like static on a TV. My hands bloomed bright pink from the cold. The wind picked up. And the sound of the rushing wind absorbed all other noises, and even the sound of my breathing was lost. The snow whirled into tiny slicing blades against my skin. My skin stung from the cold and prickled up and down my neck and arms.  We are out in Hyperborea in the dead of winter. We weren’t dressed for the cold. We were pursued by the enemy and we had lost two members of our group already. I didn’t like our current status, if I was honest with myself. “Where do we even go now?” I asked as we stumbled through the cold night.  Laila looked back at me. She had stopped dragging Amy, who now trudged beside Laila and Ada.  “The only thing I can think of,” Laila said, “Is that we head to the church and declare sanctuary.” I raised my eyebrows and then nodded. Declaring sanctuary would protect us from arrest. It was heresy to violate the churc...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 35

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My fingers bled as we struggled to dig Vincent out of the cave-in with our bare hands. I feared he was already dead, but I wasn’t going to leave him. And neither were the rest of us. We labored, scooping frozen earth with our hands and lifting rocks. I have no idea how long this took. It felt like hours. The only consolation was that the soldiers had also been caught in the cave-in. “I’ve found his hand.” Amy called.  We circled around Amy and helped to unearth the rest of Vincent. I prayed to the Twice Dead Gods that he was still alive. I’d have never prayed back on Earth. But I’d seen things in Ossedei. Amy joined me in prayer and the five of us continued digging.  Vincent’s head came free and he coughed up a bucket load of dirt. “Let’s not do that again.” Vincent scratched as we worked to free him.  “We must hurry.” Ada said. “Once they realize that their own men are dead, they will send pursuers from the other entrances. And we will be trapped.” “I’m not going to be r...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 34

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Fiona unstrapped her saber. She removed her bandoliers of flintlock pistols. One by one she set her throwing knives and daggers on a nearby table. Then she hefted the pile of weapons and dropped them into a bed box. I noticed that she had retained her concealed garrote and hidden clasp dagger. “I do not wish to give them a reason to kill me.” She said.  “We aren’t leaving you.” I said.  “Somebody must find a way to clear our name and save Leon. We cannot all escape.” “Yes, we can. Let’s go.” “They will be loath to kill a countess, especially if I am surrendering. We do not have time to discuss this. Go.” Vincent grabbed Amy and I and pulled us back to the opening of the tunnel. “If she has a plan, we have to trust her. Let’s go.” I gritted my teeth. I was in no position to stop Fiona. I was too weak from my vision. And even if I weren’t, I couldn’t stop Fiona if she didn’t want to be stopped. I looked at Amy. She was crying. I felt a tear start to roll down my own cheek. ...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 33

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The longhouse had no windows. I didn’t know how many troops stood outside the barred door. But I suspected that it was more than even Fiona could take in a fight. The fire in the center of the longhouse crackled behind me. The flames cast twisting shadows on the wall of the longhouse.  The residents of the longhouse whispered behind me.  “They wouldn’t burn the longhouse, would they?” “Of course not. There are women here.” “They might. This is becoming a fiasco that they want under control.” “I am the Duke’s battle-brother. They would never do such a thing.” That last voice I recognized as Sven. Turning to face him, I shook my head. “You think that you’re that important? Duke Xander is trying to prevent a war that would tear across the whole of the Boro Sea. You’re trying to start the war that he’s trying to prevent. You think he cares that you’re battle-brother with a dead man? You’re a problem that he has to deal with now. If he burns down the longhouse, he solves two proble...
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