Two Twisted Crowns (The Shepherd King, #2)

by Rachel Gillig

“Does that make me wicked?” “If it does, you and I are the same kind of wicked.”

“You shouldn’t be so cavalier about what happened to you, Prince.” “What would you have me do? Burn the castle down with everyone in it?” “That would be a start.” A laugh rose up Elm’s throat. “Trees, Hawthorn. What a Queen you’d make.”

“I think about how easy it would be to do horrible things if I felt I had a good reason.” “So do I.”

“The way you’re looking at me,” he said, cupping her chin, “terrifies me.” “Why?” She ran a hand down his neck, his chest, the line between his abdomen muscles. “Did no one ever love you before, Elm?” “Not like this.” Closer. He needed her closer. “There’s never been anything like this.”

And it was so heartbreakingly perfect, that moment with her, that Elm told her everything.

“Your family will be safe someday. I’m going to change things. I’m going to be the worst Rowan King in five hundred years.” The tips of his lips curled. “I might even enjoy it.”

Your cousin Elm has done more than Brutus Rowan or I ever could. He has looked pain in the eye—and refused to let it make a monster of him.”