Vows & Ruins (The Legends of Thezmarr, #2)

by Helen Scheuerer

Girl. Alchemist. Shieldbearer. Woman. Guardian. Apprentice. Wraith slayer. Heir. Each marker had burned hot and bright, and faded in her wake like ash as she strived for the only name she cared about: Warsword.

Wilder Hawthorne, the Hand of Death and the most infamous warrior in all the midrealms, had abandoned her.

‘You were given an order, Alchemist,’ sounded a deep, commanding voice. Thea would have known that voice anywhere. It had pulled her back from the brink of death, had whispered her name against her lips, had broken her heart in more ways than one… Silver eyes met hers and Thea’s breath caught. The Hand of Death towered above her, his powerfully built frame clad in black armour that dripped red. Against all reason, despite all her fury, that rich timbre skittered along her bones as Wilder Hawthorne leant in close and murmured, ‘Or should I call you “Princess” now?’

‘Death comes for us all, Princess. One way or another. You’re no use to anyone if you keel over because a broken rib punctured your lung. And those knuckles? If they’re not set, you could do permanent damage to your hand.’

‘Then stop looking at me like that,’ she snapped. ‘Like what?’ ‘Like you’ve seen me naked.’

‘You’re a bastard.’ ‘You knew that from the start,’ he growled. That tight coil of desire within him unravelled as his focus honed in on every point of contact between them, on the friction between their bodies, on her heat pressing into him.

‘You’ll be moving into the cabin after the evening meal tonight.’ ‘I will do no such thing.’

🤣🥵

Wilder felt the flicker of lightning from her. He met her incredulous glare with a challenging one of his own. ‘You’re the one who wanted to be an apprentice so badly. This is it, Princess.’

PRINCESSSSSSS!

Thea sought the arrow he’d shot at her all those months ago, embedded in the tree. Only it wasn’t there. Wilder himself had removed it weeks ago. It was currently stashed away in his cabin. It had been a stupid idea to keep it.

But Wilder was in the mood to surprise her, so he rubbed the back of his neck and considered her.

Let them see, Wilder thought irrationally. Let them see that she belongs with me.

👏🏻👏🏻

The rest of the arena fell away and it was just the two of them, moving as one, sharing the same breath, blades carving through the air.

hawt

‘Cyrens, teerah panthers, arachnes, sea and mountain drakes, sea serpents, reef dwellers… I read about a cyren queen who has a host of drakes at her call…

‘And what of Warswords?’ ‘What of them?’ ‘Have any of them… gone bad?’ Wilder froze. ‘Have any of them become… monsters?’ Thea pressed.

‘Let’s spar, Princess,’ he commanded, voice low. Thea’s answering grin was manic. ‘Thought you’d never ask.’

How had he never felt power like this before? Magic rippled from each of the stars as one by one, his apprentice, a lost princess of Delmira, the woman he loved, plucked them from the wall, freeing him.

EEEEK I LOVE THEM

‘You have no idea how much I want you. How I burn for you. You lit an inferno within me and it won’t stop. I can’t stop —’

‘I can’t fight this anymore,’ he groaned against her lips. ‘Not tonight.’ His arms snaked around her, pressing every part of her to him as he returned her kiss fiercely.

getting to his knees before her

‘I have many regrets in this life,’ he murmured against her skin, kissing a path down to her navel. ‘But not tasting you that night in the woods is one of the biggest. I need to rectify that now. Let me show you how much I don’t want you, Thea.’

pushing the door open with such force that it collided with Seb’s face. The apprentice gave a cry of pain, clutching at his nose. ‘Didn’t see you there,’

For in the corner of the room, displayed on a mannequin, was a set of armour.

‘This is mine?’ she dared to ask in a near-whisper. ‘It’s yours,’ Hawthorne said from behind her. ‘All new Guardians are due to be measured for armour next week, but the current smith doesn’t make women’s pieces, so we had to improvise.’

‘Try it on,’ Hawthorne said quietly. ‘I’ll leave —’ ‘Don’t,’ Thea said, too quickly, her face heating again as she caught his gaze. ‘I… I don’t know how… how to put it on.’

Obsessed with this scene

‘Can’t have you chasing danger without armour, Princess.’

Wilder ended his explanation there. He wasn’t about to tell her of his experiences with half-wraiths – or, as some preferred to be called, the shadow-touched.

It was all he could do not to throw his arms around her and hold her close. If he did that, he’d never let her go.

Gods, Wilder would have to report this to Dratos.

Wilder shook his head. ‘Not now,’ he told her. He wasn’t ready to explore the nuances of wraiths and those who were shadow-touched, and he wasn’t sure she was ready to hear it.

Every part of Wilder longed to pull her close, to reassure her that she could master her magic, that the storms were hers to wield. But that was not the role he’d claimed. No, he had claimed the role of mentor and master, of a hardened teacher.

There are fates worse than death.

And then she grabbed him by the shirt and dragged his mouth to hers.

‘I knew you’d be my ruin,’ Wilder muttered against her lips,

‘You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. There’s no coming back from you, no end to this wanting…’

‘I knew you’d be my ruin, too,’ Thea whispered.

Althea Zoltaire had destroyed him. And it was the greatest privilege of his life.

That after the Great Rite, they could travel the midrealms together, fighting monsters as a pair for the little time she had left?

Yes please

And so Wilder held his apprentice through the night.

For beyond everything he knew about Thea – her beauty, her sharp tongue, her determination – he thoroughly enjoyed her company. She made him laugh, made him want to participate in the world around him, not just carve out wraith hearts alone in the dark. Even the silence between them was easy and comfortable; each other’s company was more than enough, and words weren’t always needed.

He was fucked. Well and truly fucked. Because the way he burned for her… No vows, no notion of duty – nothing – could stop it.

While the lost heir of Delmira defended him against the darkness.

‘Jealous you don’t have any friends?’ she teased. Wilder chuckled. ‘Says my self-proclaimed friend.’ ‘You saying I’m not your friend, Warsword?’ A deep laugh burst from him then. ‘I’d say you’re probably my best friend, Apprentice.’ ‘That’s depressing,’ she said, but warmth swelled in her chest. He gave her a crooked smile. ‘I don’t mind it so much.’

Screaming!!! ugh I love them but when we fuckin lol

He laughed, and Thea didn’t think there was a sound in the entire world she loved more.

‘You and I are a team now. What hurts you, hurts me. And we’ll take it on together. Do you understand?’

he urged her, gripping her chin gently and tilting her face to his. Apprentice, friend, lover… The titles didn’t matter. Only the tether between them did, drawing them back to one another, over and over again.

‘That they are the servants of someone they call the Shadow Prince…’

There was only one bed.

Of course it hurt to wash her hair. ‘Let me,’ he said. Wilder knelt at the head of the tub and threaded his fingers through her hair, massaging the soap into her scalp.

SWOOOOOON

Princess. Thea was a Princess of Delmira. And he was so deeply in love with her it might just consume him.

He’d been wrong. Thea wasn’t a princess. She was a queen.