For some girls, age eighteen is the magical age of freedom and independence. For Aerys, turning eighteen means an arranged marriage to a man she's never met before, leaving the only home she's ever known, and accidentally discovering things she never knew about the world, about her family, and about herself, things that have been lurking beneath the surface all along. However, each new discovery brings new questions with it, and the answers could lead in some very dangerous directions. She and her fiancé, Dmitri, must decide whether or not to find the answers to these questions and what to do with the knowledge they gain. To change the game instead of living by others' rules, they must look beyond what they see.

Look Beyond What You See

"So it is an elopement you re after, rather than an offer to help me to freedom," I say slowly, more to myself than to him as I sit down on a nearby bench, one hand on my forehead. This is all just too much to deal with right now. What I wouldn t give to be alone! "I should have suspected as much. You suggest I trade an engagement for a marriage on the run, with no ceremony and barely any legitimacy, to a man who has been only a combat tutor to me, and that with all the grudging my fiancé could muster."

"Not quite. He didn t kill me," Giacomo mutters. "In fact, he told me several times that you were engaged to him and that I must never forget that for a moment."

"And yet you seem to have forgotten it now, to make such a ludicrous offer to me."

Chapter 53 Blessings in Disguise