The Queen of the Dawn (Shadows and Crowns #5)

by S.M. Gaither

“When we rebuild our palace—our forever home, after the war—we can move it away from the Lotheran River. Just to be safe. I’ve always felt most at home in the mountains, anyhow. So, somewhere far away from the water, far away from the memories of it and that original palace it ran alongside.”

I don’t dream of death and bloodshed often. But for her, my heart seems to have made an exception. And I will be glad to introduce my sword to her neck.”

“My vicious queen.” His eyes were distant, gazing into the moon that turned their usual pale blue to a haunting shade of red. “You will have to beat me to it.”

“This isn’t real.” Not real, not real, NOT REAL.

She looked as though she was sleeping now. But she wasn’t. Never would be again. And something inside of Cas snapped at this thought.

She had a tenaciousness about her, Elander had to admit, and he was starting to admire it.

“It is dark,” he agreed quietly. “But the dawn is coming soon, I think.”

“Fear has long been a tool of evil,”

“They’re mistaken if they think it’s a tool that will work against me,” she said, as much to herself as them. “I’ve been carrying on in spite of my fear for my entire life, and I don’t plan to stop now.”

“I don’t doubt he’s trying,” he told her. “But I don’t think he can extinguish the sun.”

he finally said the three words Elander had been waiting to hear for what felt like an eternity— “She’s close by.”

“I’m here for you, not them,” Elander said, backing her toward the nearest wall. “Drag this out as long as you like. It still ends the same way, I promise you.”

He only knew he wanted to kill the one responsible for spilling that blood. When his awareness returned, he had her by the throat, her body lifted and pinned to the wall. Her eyes were wide with panic. Good.

He wanted her to feel fear, and despair, and sheer agony along with the pain up until her very last breath—every single damn feeling that she had inflicted upon Casia. He would repay it all tenfold.

“She’s dead,”

“And you’re next.”

I’m going to take a bath in the meantime and wash the filth and memory of your niece from my skin.”

And to her surprise, the beginnings of a smile soon twitched his lips. “What is that look for?” “You don’t like blood. I don’t like water. Yet here we are.”

found it incredibly arousing, watching you wipe the blood of our enemies from your cheek earlier.”

“Probably that you’re a twisted, questionable soul.” “Maybe so.” “But I’m not complaining, so long as you’re my twisted, questionable soul.”

Surviving. That was all they’d both been doing for so long. They’d grown so talented at it. But surviving was not the same thing as living,

thinking of all she’d been through to get to the point of being able to command everything from elven kings to ancient goddesses without flinching.

you would have stood by my side through all of it. I believe that.”

“Yes. I would have.”

he whispered those three simple words against her lips. I love you, I love you, I love you.

“So despite the weight of this burden, you don’t hesitate to carry it,” he said, “even if it pains you.”

The light cannot always overcome the dark, but it must rise to meet it.

“The darkness seems to have lightened a bit.”

“And you have that effect on the darkness.”

but none of that makes a difference to me, really, as long as you’re my wife at the end of the day.”

He was her guardian, her king, her anchor. And now she would be his wife.

He seemed genuinely happy—they all did. More happy than Cas remembered them being in a very long time, which made her happy. Ridiculously, deliriously happy.

“Don’t assume I won’t beat him up just because he’s going to be your husband now. I’m still going to be close by to take care of you if necessary.”

the smile spreading slowly across Elander’s face as he caught sight of her walking toward him. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to look upon him and that smile for all the rest of her days, however many or few they were.

“I assume he was trying to talk you out of this while escorting you down here,” he whispered. Cas smiled. “For the entire walk.” He shook with quiet laughter. “But I’m stubborn. So I still made it back to you.”

They resembled trees with curved trunks, intricate roots, and branches curling to one side and catching what looked like a small sun.

all she truly cared about was the fact that they matched—an outward sign of the inward connection she’d felt to Elander for so long.

May sun and solace rise to meet you Blade and courage always keep you Through wealth of light or depths of night Until time takes your final breaths and both your souls find rest

“Across lifetimes, through endings and beginnings, with all that I have, all that I’ve ever had…”

“I never stopped loving you. And I never will. I’ve made that vow before—nearly every time I’ve looked at you in this lifetime and every other—and I make it again now.”

“Always. Every beat of my heart and breath from my lungs is yours now.”

He kissed her and everything else fell away—the world, the wars, all her worries about the right words and everything else.

She clutched her wine glass to her chest, toward her heart that felt close to bursting. “To everything now, to everyone present.”

“To tonight, then.”

Everything after was important. Hope was important. But more than this, it came down to surviving—no, living—and feeling each of these waves, these moments as they broke over her.

There is always an after, she had told Elander. On to the other side, as her friends had grown so fond of saying.

even if they never made it to after, they had made it to now, and this was worth celebrating even without...

“Now arch your back and lift your hips,”

One side of his mouth lifted at this—that all he had to do was look at her and it nearly sent her over the edge.

He wrapped her legs around his waist, lifted her, and had her pressed up against the nearest wall a moment later.