The Stolen Heir


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Holly Black
 Map and illustrations by Kathleen Jennings
 Cover art copyright © 2023 by Sean Freeman. Cover design by Karina Granda.
 Cover copyright © 2023 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
 Interior design by Karina Granda.
 Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
 The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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 First Edition: January 2023
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 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Black, Holly, author.
 Title: The stolen heir / Holly Black.
 Description: First edition. | New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2023. | Series: The stolen heir | Audience: Ages 14+. | Summary: “The changeling queen Suren must venture back into the Court of Teeth with the help of the Prince of Faerie, Oak.”—Provided by publisher.
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022037583 | ISBN 9780316592703 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780316422260 (ebook)
 Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy. | LCGFT: Fantasy fiction. | Novels.
 Classification: LCC PZ7.B52878 St 2023 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022037583
 ISBNs: 978-0-316-59270-3 (hardcover), 978-0-316-42226-0 (ebook), 978-0-316-54330-9 (int’l), 978-0-316-54351-4 (Walmart exclusive edition), 978-0-316-51904-5 (B&N exclusive edition)
 E3-20221201-JV-NF-ORI
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Map
 Epigraph
 Prologue
 Chapter 1
 Chapter 2
 Chapter 3
 Chapter 4
 Chapter 5
 Chapter 6
 Chapter 7
 Chapter 8
 Chapter 9
 Chapter 10
 Chapter 11
 Chapter 12
 Chapter 13
 Chapter 14
 Chapter 15
 Chapter 16
 Chapter 17
 Chapter 18
 Acknowledgments
 Discover More
 By Holly Black
 
 
 
 
 Begin Reading
 Table of Contents
 
 
 
 
 BY HOLLY BLACK
 THE FOLK OF THE AIR
 The Cruel Prince
 The Wicked King
 The Queen of Nothing
 How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories
 OTHER
 
 The Darkest Part of the Forest
 The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
 
 
 
 
 For Robin Wasserman, who has the curse (and blessing) of True Sight
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A passerby discovered a toddler sitting on the chilly concrete of an alley, playing with the wrapper of a cat-food container. By the time she was brought to the hospital, her limbs were blue with cold. She was a wizened little thing, too thin, made of sticks.
 She knew only one word, her name. Wren.
 As she grew, her skin retained a slight bluish cast, resembling skimmed milk. Her foster parents bundled her up in jackets and coats and mittens and gloves, but unlike her sister, she was never cold. Her lip color changed like a mood ring, staying bluish and purple even in summer, turning pink only when close to a fire. And she could play in the snow for hours, constructing elaborate tunnels and mock-fighting with icicles, coming inside only when called.
 Although she appeared bony and anemic, she was strong. By the time she was eight, she could lift bags of groceries that her adoptive mother struggled with.
 By the time she was nine, she was gone.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 As a child, Wren read lots of fairy tales. That’s why, when the monsters came, she knew it was because she had been wicked.
 They snuck in through her window, pushing up the jamb and slashing the screen so silently that she slept on, curled around her favorite stuffed fox. She woke only when she felt claws touch her ankle.
 Before she could get out the first scream, fingers covered her mouth. Before she could get out the first kick, her legs were pinned.
 “I am going to let you go,” said a harsh voice with an unfamiliar accent. “But if you wake anyone in this house, you will most assuredly be sorry for it.”
 That was like a fairy tale, too, which made Wren wary of breaking the rules. She stayed utterly quiet and still, even when they released her, although her heart beat so hard and fast that it seemed possible it would be loud enough to summon her mother.
 A selfish part of her wished it would, wished that her mother would come and turn on a light and banish the monsters. That wouldn’t be breaking the rules, would it, if it was only the thundering of her heart that did the waking?
 “Sit up,” commanded one of the monsters.
 Obediently, Wren did. But her trembling fingers buried her stuffed fox in the blankets.
 Looking at the three creatures flanking her bed made her shiver uncontrollably. Two were tall, elegant beings with skin the gray of stone. The first, a woman with a fall of pale hair caught in a crown of jagged obsidian, wearing a gown of some silvery material that wafted around her. She was beautiful, but the cruel set of her mouth warned Wren not to trust her. The man was matched to the woman as though they