I’m grateful for my friends—Lydia, Brigid, Amber, Sue, Claudine, Jackie, Paul, and Jim—in different ways, each of you lifts me up and guides me closer to being my best self. Without you I’d be lost. To my parents and my sisters, thank you for your unconditional love. To my children . . . Asher, thank you for your enthusiasm and critique as I read this book aloud to you. Alma, you are my inspiration, warrior girl.
And to my readers, thank you for caring about my characters and worlds. Thank you for telling others about my books. Thank you for reaching out. Thank you for existing in the world.
SARAH FINE is the author of Of Metal and Wishes, Of Dreams and Rust, The Impostor Queen, and the Guards of the Shadowlands series. She was born on the West Coast, raised in the Midwest, and is now firmly entrenched on the East Coast, where she lives with her husband and two children. When she’s not writing, she’s working as a child psychologist. Visit her at sarahfinebooks.com.
MARGARET K. MCELDERRY BOOKS
SIMON & SCHUSTER
NEW YORK
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen
authors.simonandschuster.com/Sarah-Fine
ALSO BY SARAH FINE
Of Metal and Wishes
Of Dreams and Rust
Of Shadows and Obsession, an e-short story prequel to Of Metal and Wishes
The Impostor Queen
MARGARET K. McELDERRY BOOKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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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.
Text copyright © 2017 by Sarah Fine
Jacket photograph of girl copyright © 2017 by Zlatina Zareva; photograph of fire copyright © 2017 by Olga Nikonova
Artwork and map copyright © 2017 by Leo Hartas
MARGARET K. MCELDERRY BOOKS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Book design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover
The text for this book was set in Goudy Oldstyle Std.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fine, Sarah, author.
Title: The cursed queen / Sarah Fine.
Description: First Edition. | New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, [2017]
Summary: “Ansa has always been a fighter. As a child, she fought the invaders who murdered her parents and snatched her as a raid prize. She fought for her status as a warrior in her tribe, but the day the Krigere cross the great lake and threaten the witch queen of the Kupari, everything changes”— Provided by publisher. | Companion to The Impostor Queen.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015045312
ISBN 978-1-4814-4193-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4814-4195-7 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Fantasy. | Kings, queens, rulers, etc.—Fiction. | War—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.F495678 Cu 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2015045312