Two Twisted Crowns (The Shepherd King, #2)

by Rachel Gillig

If he ever grew old enough to do so, he would tell this story to his children, with the firm lesson being don’t ever strike bargains with beautiful women.

“Trees, Hawthorn. What a Queen you’d make.”

“I’d be your King, but always your servant.

There were not enough pages in all the books Elm had read, in all the libraries he’d wandered, in all the notebooks he’d scrawled, that could measure—denote or describe—just how beautiful she was.

“I’m yours. Even if you won’t be Queen—I’m yours.”

“A hundred years,” he said to her, as if she were the only one in the room. “I’ll love you for a hundred years—and an eternity after.”