More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
For every spark that has lost its light and needs a little help remembering how to glow.
“But rest assured, my Queen, when I do kiss you, there will be no confusion. You will know that I have claimed you—and I won’t have any desire to deny it.”
“Or maybe you prefer me in muddy pants and a borrowed tunic.” “Only when it’s mine.”
“Do you have some thoughts, cousin Taran?” “None that I’m going to say out loud.”
“Unleash, my Queen. Show this world what it means to Challenge Diem Bellator.”
You nearly made my dear friend cry. That calls for some serious groveling.” I dipped my head. “Down there. On your knees.” He shot me a dark look. “With all due respect to my lovely cousin, the only person I’m getting down on my knees for is you, my Queen.”
“If a kiss is the reward, my Queen, I’ll get on my knees for you whenever you want.”
“A scar is a sign of survival,” I continued. “Of endurance. It’s a sign that its bearer triumphed over what might have killed a lesser person. To show off your scars is to tell the world you’re not ashamed of what you’ve overcome. Frankly, I can’t imagine any better symbol of strength.
There was a dominance to his tone, something less than possessive but far more than protective.
“Good girl,” he murmured.
Time has a way of erasing the pain and leaving behind the laughter.”
My place is with you. Wherever that leads.” His fingers curled around mine. “Whatever it costs.”
“You are my Queen, and I am your sword. Point me at your enemies, and watch them fall. Lead this world, Diem, and I will follow you—into war, into death, into the tundra of hell itself.”
“You are the fate my heart was spared for. As long as it beats, you will never fight alone.”
I never wanted to become just another person who wanted to steal a piece of you for themselves.” He let out a shuddering sigh. “And I have failed. Completely, irreversibly failed. I don’t just want a piece of you—I want them all.”
“I want every breath, every laugh, every tear. Every taste of your mouth, every inch of your skin. I want to kneel at your feet, soaked in the blood of your enemies, then worship your body until you scream my name.”
“I want to burn alive in that fire in your eyes. I want it to melt me down and forge me into the weapon you need me to be. I want to stand by your side for the rest of my life, and I don’t need you to marry me and make me a fucking king to do it.”
I didn’t feel as if the gods were asking anything of me—I felt they’d abandoned me entirely.
“Luther will stand by your side, and he will love you for every single day of it. And he won’t say a word. He’ll spend his entire miserable life protecting your happiness, hoping that someday you finally see him.
“If I try to help you, are you going to fight me?” His grip tightened as he leaned down to my ear, his gravelly voice dropping low. “Or will you be a good girl for me again and obey?”
“I would have walked into the flaming heart of the sun itself,” he shot back. “If you are suffering, nothing will keep me from coming to your aid. Least of all something as trivial as death.”
“Perhaps, for the right person, we endure the pain, because the torture of never having them at all is the more unbearable fate.”
