Also by Melissa de la Cruz THE QUEEN’S ASSASSIN DUOLOGY The Queen’s Assassin The Queen’s Secret THE ALEX & ELIZA TRILOGY Book One: Alex & Eliza Book Two: Love & War Book Three: All for One HEART OF DREAD SERIES (with Michael Johnston) Book One: Frozen Book Two: Stolen Book Three: Golden WITCHES OF EAST END SERIES BLUE BLOODS SERIES BEACH LANE SERIES THE ASHLEY PROJECT SERIES DISNEY DESCENDANTS SERIES The Ring and the Crown Something in Between Someone to Love 29 Dates Because I Was a Girl: True Stories for Girls of All Ages (edited by Melissa de la Cruz) Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe Jo & Laurie and A Secret Princess (with Margaret Stohl) Surviving High School (with Lele Pons) G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York First published in the United States of America by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2022 Copyright © 2022 by Melissa de la Cruz Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. G. P. Putnam’s Sons is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC. Visit us online at penguinrandomhouse.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. ISBN 9780593326657 (hardcover) ISBN 9780593463086 (international edition) ISBN 9780593326671 (ebook) Photo Illustration © 2022 by Michael Heath Frame Courtesy of Shutterstock.com Cover Design by Jessica Jenkins Design by Marikka Tamura, adapted for ebook by Michelle Quintero This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. pid_prh_6.0_139379295_c0_r0 Contents Cover Also by Melissa de La Cruz Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Light Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Cinder Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Glass Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Magic Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Crown Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Chapter Forty Author’s Note Acknowledgments About the Author For Mike & Mattie, always, and for all the princesses in my life: Marie de la Cruz Sophia Evans Dagny Hartman Christina Hossain Caitlin and Whitney Jones Lois and Bonnie Robinson I wish you all the most magical happily ever afters Versailles, 1682 I believe that the histories that will be written about this court after we are all gone will be better and more entertaining than any novel, and I am afraid that those who come after us will not be able to believe them and will think that they are just fairy tales. —Lady Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d’Orléans, sister-in-law to Louis XIV, King of France Light O happy childhood! Blessed youth! But once we know thy potent power; But once we live all careless free; No cross to mar our love-lit bower. —Pablo Neruda