Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor

Author:Rosiee Thor [Thor, Rosiee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult
ISBN: 9781338312287
Google: TJKCDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07MLH1LHC
Goodreads: 43319680
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2019-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Any ruined evening could be salvaged with a knife fight.

Eliza had thought her visit to Earth Adjacent might be dull—infiltration rarely required use of a blade—but thus far, it had exceeded expectations.

“How do you propose we do that, exactly?” Anna asked, lowering her voice. “Overthrow the Commissioner, I mean.”

Eliza frowned, flipping the girl’s blade back and forth between her hands. It looked to be of the kitchen variety, sporting remnants of piecrust, but still sufficiently sharp. It hardly measured up to Eliza’s weaponry, but it would do its job well enough—not unlike the disheveled girl before her.

Anna was, in a word, a disaster. From her too-red head to her too-worn shoes, nothing about her was remotely decent—not even for something as undignified as a coup—but with a bit of polishing, Eliza could make use of her.

Tucking the knife into her bodice, Eliza pushed herself away from the hedge. “Let’s begin by finding you a change of clothes.”

“What’s wrong with—” Anna paused, glancing at her bloodstained clothes. “Right.”

“Nathaniel?” Eliza nudged his shoulder.

“Yes. What?” He startled with each word, as though the sound of his own voice frightened him.

“Care to lead the way inside? We can’t very well do all our plotting in the garden.” Eliza gestured up at the manor, the windows now dark.

He complied, albeit slowly. Clearly, he’d experienced something of a shock, the ramifications of which Eliza would tend to eventually. For now, she needed to get Anna out of sight and into a clean shirt.

From the moment Eliza laid eyes on their attacker, she knew she wanted to tame her. Another operative might have simply eliminated the threat. But for better or worse, Eliza had decided to let Anna live.

The eyes are the window to the soul, fragile like glass, the Queen had often said. Toss the right stone, and you may well break through. She spoke of interrogation, of course, but the same principle applied now. Though Anna’s blade had been sharp, something in her face had softened Eliza. Behind the rage, there had been pain in Anna’s eyes—the kind of pain that came with loss. Eliza knew that pain, and so she’d made a choice based on instinct rather than tactics.

It was the choice Marla would have made.

Mercy was never a weapon in Marla’s hands, but Eliza learned to wield it from her just the same. Marla would have made a terrible set of Eyes for the Queen, too kind and honest to deal in secrets, to deliver death. Still, she’d made Eliza what she was—and paid dearly for it.

“Not the salon,” Eliza hissed as Nathaniel led them on toward the sitting room they’d occupied earlier. “Somewhere less conspicuous, like your bedroom.”

“M-my room?” Nathaniel withered before her.

Eliza huffed. “We don’t have time for modesty. Look at her!” She gestured to Anna’s unseemly appearance. “She’s positively repellant!”

“I’m standing right here.”

But Anna made no further argument, following as Nathaniel ushered them into his bedroom.

It was a smaller room than Eliza expected—larger than her apartment on the Tower but smaller than her guest room in the manor.

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