Two Twisted Crowns (The Shepherd King, #2)

by Rachel Gillig

“Elspeth Spindle,” he said quietly, his eyes—so strange and yellow—ensnaring me. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

And her eyes,” she murmured. “Black. Then, in a flash, yellow as dragon’s gold.”

To unite the Deck. To lift the mist and heal the infection.

“Aemmory Percyval Taxus.” He dragged his gauntlets across the sand. “That’s my name.”

“You’ll remember soon enough.” He glanced back at the dark horizon. “There is little else to do here but remember.”

“The girl, the King, and the monster they became.”

And it is she who guards it. She will have a price for the last Card of the Deck. Nothing comes free.”

The moment Elspeth touched that Nightmare Card and I slipped into her mind, her days were marked. I was her degeneration.”

which stated that anyone who used the pink Card too long would suffer coldheartedness. He imagined callousness, disinterest, even disdain.

“A place to rest. To recover.” “I don’t want to rest,” I whispered. “I want you to let me out.” His yellow eyes softened. “Soon, my dear.”

It was surprisingly heavy, her hair. Dense. Long enough to wrap around his fist and tug.

Ope

“Ione Hawthorn,” he said, his gaze finally moving to Elm. “I’m surprised to find you here.”

Even in the black fabric, a stain remained. Two bloody handprints.

Doesnt she heal bc of the maiden card? Whys he surprised

Healing her. “The Maiden.” The words scraped out of him.

Duh

“Neither Rowan nor Yew, but somewhere between. A pale tree in winter, neither red, gold, nor green. Black hides the bloodstain, forever his mark. Alone in the castle, Prince of the dark.”

until I am ready to announce your succession. And her execution.”

Elm noted them all. It seemed, despite her many protestations, Ione Hawthorn could feel some things.

“Beginning tomorrow night, there will be six feasts. On the sixth, you will choose a wife.”

He realized the thing cradled with delicate care upon the Nightmare’s lap— Was a crown.

“Why the hell would we need a Maiden?” The Nightmare tapped his fingernails over the crown in his lap. “Pray that we don’t.”

Healing

The indignation in her voice made the corner of Elm’s mouth curl. “A Chalice, Miss Hawthorn. I’m going to fetch us a Chalice Card.”

he would forever be laid bare, just as Ravyn had laid himself bare to Elspeth. And look where that had gotten him.

“Hauth,” he said, his voice dangerously low. “Hauth used his Scythe on you, didn’t he?” Slowly, Ione nodded. “He made sure I was drunk first.”

EW not only did he assault her while she was drunk he used magic

“Did he—” “He didn’t touch me. He made a point to tell me he hadn’t.

I doubt that tbh

“No one stopped him—no one was safe enough to tell?” And there it was. The coal deep within Elm. The beginning of his inferno, his rage. Anger, a lifetime in the making. “You’ve heard the rumors, then.” She nodded.

??

But then she took another drink of wine and said, “Desire. I can still feel desire.” Elm sat up on an exhale. “And how, Miss Hawthorn, did you discover that?”

Wherever that unquiet ache was, he wanted to find it. Touch it. Put his mouth on it.

“Go to hell, Prince.” Elm laughed, deep and loud enough to shake the barbs in him. “You have a wonderful mouth.”

Ione seemed to understand. “Tear it off,” she said. “Now.”

The quest to reclaim the final Providence Card was afforded no clamorous send-off.

But arent they missing the fourth scythe card

“How unfortunate,” he said with a sigh. “There is poison in the water.”

He’d wanted to go straight to Ione’s room and finish what they’d started, to obey her command and rip her out of her dress.

Which was why he’d been taking the contraceptive tonic since he was seventeen.

About time it was male birth control

Baldwyn was as pleasant to speak to as the inside of a chamber pot.

These fools had attended dozens of dinners together. If they didn’t know each other’s names by now, another screech from Baldwyn wasn’t going to do the trick.

Elm kissed the key and immediately regretted it, remembering too late the ring had been fastened to Baldwyn’s belt.

Providence Card, Hawthorn, marriage, heir.

But the dude cant sire an heir anymore right? So that makss it null and void?

Magic that made its user as beautiful and unblemished as a pink rose—Tilly’s favorite flower.

not knowing I would dig her up soon enough to forge the Mirror.

If you wish for that nightmare, give yourself to her, whole. For an eleventh Providence Card— The Spirit demands your soul.

When I looked up, evening light was smothered behind grayness. It cloistered around the chamber like a wool blanket, seeping into the meadow, reeking of salt. Mist.

Just as Ravyn had trained him to. Gorse. “We will have our payment, Captain,” Otho said. “Now.”

Good. Kill him

He crushed Gorse’s windpipe.

It did wonderful, horrible things to his imagination. He wondered where else she was that shade of pink.

“You’d like me to tell you all the things we might have done?” she asked. “Yes.”

One Maiden was stowed deep in his father’s vaults. Another, it seemed, belonged to Yvette Laburnum. Two down. One more to go.

There were three Cards, nestled in my palm. The Maiden, the Scythe—” Her hazel eyes lifted. “And the Twin Alders.”

But this is still Elspeth’s body. Any Card I touch—she will absorb the object I paid to forge it.”

He was starting to think it wasn’t an accident, that all of her necklines resembled a collar.

The stone was old, cracked. But there was no mistaking the man carved into marble. Brutus Rowan. The first Rowan King.