A Kingdom This Cursed and Empty (Kingdom of Lies, #2)

by Stacia Stark

And if our dreams get broken along the way, we have to make new ones from the pieces. — Derry Girls.

mom pick me up I'm scared

Men. So utterly predictable with their insistence on diminishing women to girls in an attempt to belittle us.

Wait is this queen icon?

He knew. Without a doubt, the Bloodthirsty Prince knew exactly what that meant. But he was a man with secrets. According to my spies, Prisca hadn’t even known he was fae. Which meant he was still keeping her in the dark.

IN THE DARK ABOUT WHAT

The boy’s gaze dropped to the amulet in his uncle’s hand. And he knew.

knew what

I could practically feel Lorian bristling behind me. That strange connection still remained between us. It was an unusual kind of awareness that made it impossible to hide from his presence on this ship.

Side eye

“I know you can handle it. Because I trained you to handle it. That doesn’t mean I won’t wait with my gut in knots until I see you’re still breathing.”

I’d thought he…cared. I’d thought we had something. That night, when I’d galloped through the city streets, I hadn’t just been fleeing to my friends, my family. I’d been aiming for him.

The angst

The wildcat was mine, and I would protect her until she came to that exact realization.

Because I was tired of seeing the shadows beneath her eyes. Tired of seeing my wildcat grow depressed and withdrawn. I wanted to see her smile just once, even if she would never again smile at me.

This was my chance to learn about what Prisca enjoyed. The small things that made her happy. Her habits. How she relaxed.

In my darkest moments, when I missed her the most—even as she sat right next to me—I listed what I did know. And I wondered if those small details would be enough to carry me through the rest of my life.

“You can tell yourself whatever makes it easiest for you to hate me, wildcat. But it was real. All of it.”

Nothing hardened a woman like betrayal from a man she’d trusted. And then men had the audacity to call us cold.

“I thought you were a fighter.” “I am,” I said. “When I find something worth fighting for.”

Thought I could deal with the way she’d refused to even ask me to explain.

I cant

“Hate me, rage against me, refuse to admit what you feel. But don’t you dare treat me like a stranger.”

“This is never going to work. You and I. We’re doomed. You know that.”

No one pushed me to be better like this man.

#collin

Why is it that the young like to take one piece of information and use it to change everything else their instincts tell them to be true?”

Facts

I’d walked away, assuming that if I needed time, she likely did too. But she may have assumed I’d abandoned her instead. I needed to make it right.

No fr stop doing this

I found Prisca walking toward her own tent, an apple in her hand. Colors were suddenly brighter. The air smelled sweeter. I was beginning to loathe it when she was out of my sight.

Awww

I was surrounded by people with egos larger than their brains.

I was desperate for a hot meal, a warm bath, and my woman.

I wasn’t entirely sure when this woman had become as necessary to me as the air in my lungs.

I was tired of fighting it. It was time to make sure my wildcat knew I’d wanted her from the start. And I would want her until the end.

“I told you why. Because you’re mine.” He said the words as if he were commenting on the weather. As if they were simply fact.

“You can raise all the walls between us that you like. I’ll knock them down one by one. In the end, it will be us, wildcat.”

“I’ve gone my whole life feeling like I’m holding my breath. Like my lungs are burning. Like I’m desperately fighting for each gasp of air. But when you’re around, I can…breathe. And I’m furious at you, because when that ends…when we’re forced apart, I don’t know how I’ll take a full breath without you.”

But I was becoming less and less interested in whether the powerful men I was coming into contact with found me acceptable.

“No one gets to choose if you’re worthy of that crown except you.”

He’s short-tempered and brutal, but I’ve never seen a man look at a woman the way he looks at you. As if you’re his entire reason for breathing.”

I smiled sunnily at him. “Why is it that men are considered to be cunning planners, while women are usually called conniving schemers, do you think?”

I would become every bit as ruthless as these old kings and twice as conniving.

The difference was that I was a born killer. Prisca was a born protector.

Everything in me urged me to return upstairs. To shake Prisca from this depression. To dote on her. To do anything to see her smile.

There was no use denying it anymore. The dreams that both of us had shared, the killing calm that had overtaken me when I’d learned of Conreth’s duplicity, the deep knowing that had settled in my chest when I looked at Prisca. She was my mate. And I couldn’t tell her.

WHAT LIKE I KNEW THAT BUT THAT WAS FROM WAY OUT OF LEFT FIELD

Prisca didn’t choose to be born the hybrid heir. She didn’t choose to go to war. She’d had so few choices in her life so far, I refused to take any further choices from her. Oh, she knew mates didn’t have to stay together. But I wouldn’t place the weight of more expectation on her shoulders.

Bro get out

And…some part of me, a part I’d never acknowledged before…it needed her to choose me. Of her own free will. Not because the fates had decided we would be best for each other, or because we’d been thrown together by those same fates. But because she looked at me and saw me as a man who was more than just the Bloodthirsty Prince. Because she saw a man who was worth tying herself to for the rest of her life.

“Oh, wildcat. Don’t you know by now? I would have found you. No matter what happens, I will always find you.”

It wasn’t triumph in her eyes. No, she looked as if she was already mourning. As if she already missed me. No one had ever looked at me like that before.

“I told you, wildcat. I’ll always find you.”

“Something in me died the night I lost my parents. And then I met you. You brought me back to life, Prisca.”

I met Thol’s eyes. “You’re going to be fine. You’re fine. Just keep breathing.” He attempted a smile. His eyes turned blank. He was gone.

Noooo

And my reality is this—I’m in love with you.”

SCREAMING

“When you say it…when you feel it, and you will,” he said, as arrogant as ever, “I want you to be sure. I need that from you.”

One side of his face was covered with a spider web. The mark glowed black and gold beneath his skin. The king’s web. No. Not Cavis. Fury clawed at my throat. Regner couldn’t have him.

NO

“Kill me, Lorian,” Cavis snarled. “Hurry. I can’t hold off for much longer.”

NO