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“They want us to feel small, Eleanor. They want us to be quiet, be predictable, be unimportant, behave. Then they make us think we deserve it. But I think they’re just terrified we’ll stop listening to them and start listening to each other. And do you know why they’re so scared of women like us?”
“I didn’t know,” I pleaded. “I swear, Henri.” “Didn’t know?” he spat.
Girl fck him, why do we care he is mad
“I’m still me, Henri. I’m still Diem. And... I still love you.” I’d never said those words to him before. And, if I was being honest, saying them now filled me with something closer to shame than affection.
Once again girl fuck him
“Please, Henri,” I begged. “Stay with me. Rule with me. Be my King.”
No no no no
“Say it again,” he said gruffly. “Be my King,” I rushed out, cupping his face in my hands. “The first mortal King of Lumnos.”
Nooooooooo
“My love life is none of your concern.” “You are the Queen of Lumnos. Your love life is the entire realm’s concern.”
“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.”
There were pages and pages of them. Most were newborns, but a few were older—adolescents mixed with the rare teenager, and one that had passed into adulthood.
“You accused me of executing the half-mortal children as the Keeper of the Laws, and I denied it.” “You smuggled them out,” I breathed. “All these children... you didn’t kill them—you got them out of Lumnos.”
“This book is my death warrant,” Luther said quietly. “It’s evidence of treason a hundred times over. Even if you would forgive it as Queen, others would ensure I paid the price.”
“I never imagined you to be such a romantic,” I said, offering up a weak smile that he returned, though it was achingly glum on both sides. “There’s much you don’t yet know about me, Your Majesty.” I’m beginning to see that, I mused to myself.
Despite every reason I had to consider him my enemy, something in me yearned to trust him. Like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to his glow, even as my wings burned and curled in the intensity of his fire.
“Teller,” I started, and my voice cracked. “I know,” he murmured, squeezing me with all his strength. “I love you, too.” “Even if I’m a soulless Descended monster like the rest of them?” I whispered. “Even then.”
“I, more than anyone, know how not fragile you are,” he growled, his calm slipping. “But it is my sworn duty to protect you in whatever ways I can.” “Protect me from what, myself?” I narrowed my eyes, expecting him to back down, but his gaze danced with a stubborn fire that matched my own. “I’m not a child, Luther, I am a grown woman.” “Believe me, Your Majesty, I am well aware.”
As I scrutinized him now, I came to a sudden, alarming realization. I didn’t hate Luther. Against my better judgment, I had begun to genuinely trust him. I was even—Everflame forgive me—enjoying his company. I liked the way he unsettled me, the way he challenged me. I liked that he was a riddle I couldn’t quite solve. I liked... him. Oh, gods. I liked him.
“You may refer to me as Your Majesty,” I said coolly. “I must admit, I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you.” “You know what they say,” she said with a shrug. “Bad news travels so much faster than good.”
She shrugged, light glinting from the many hoops and studs that adorned her face. “I keep out of it. I only know he broke it off.” I swallowed. “When?” “Recently. A month ago, I think.”
“I thought my not inheriting the Crown would finally put her off me for good,” he muttered. “Maybe she thinks you’ll get another shot. She didn’t seem to have much confidence in me.” “Then she’s even more foolish than I thought.”
“A Descended mate is forever. We do not give our heart away unless we are certain, beyond all doubt, that the person we choose will stand by our side no matter what fate the Kindred have in store for us, in this life and all that comes after.” Shards of his magic clashed in his gaze. “I will not presume to tell you who to choose, I can only hope that you have friends, as I did, who care about you enough to tell you when you’re being a blind fool.”
“You could try to look a little less pleased with yourself every time you turn a new member of my family against me. Sorae used to adore me. Now when I use the front entrance, she tries to take a bite out of my arm.”
“That if a man made you doubt whether his love for you would survive anything, he does not deserve you.”
Fuckibg mic drop
The comment irked me on Eleanor’s behalf, but I held my tongue. Let him underestimate her—and me. After the Challenging, he would learn what we both were capable of.
I might have been dressed like a songbird, but inside I was still a hawk.
My heart squeezed—Sorae was kneeling. This incredible creature was claiming me as her Queen, offering a fierce vote of confidence when I needed it most—as well as a deadly warning to anyone who might plan to do me harm. Movement caught my eye. I looked up to see Luther mimicking her bow, his fist beating across his chest as he sank to one knee and lowered his gaze to the floor. Lily followed immediately, then Taran and Alixe, then the rest of House Corbois, until it surged across the arena like a rolling storm.
“So Your Majesty, how does it feel to be sandwiched between two handsome, single Corbois Princes?” “Taran,” Luther warned, shooting him a look. Taran ignored him. “A lot of women would pay good money for that, you know. Though there would be far less clothing involved. And less of a crowd.” He leaned in close to me. “Unless having an audience is your thing.”
“You’re not going to die because I won’t let it happen.” Luther’s attention stayed fixed on the arena floor, his shoulders drawn tight. “We have a number of tools at our disposal to ensure you are coronated. I’ll use as many of them as I have to. You belong on that throne.”
“She didn’t. That’s where it gets worse. Her bargain was clever, but not clever enough, because it only bound Ulther and not the rest of House Corbois. The King couldn’t take revenge—but his brothers could.”
“The Crown decides what information mortals are allowed to know. And if we try to learn more than we’re supposed to, we wind up on the end of a Descended blade.” I gestured to Remis and Garath. “So you can take up your thoughts on my inadequate education with those two and their Keeper of the Laws.”
“Any two Descended can attempt the mating ritual, but the bonding magic will only work if your love is genuine and unconditional, and if you freely commit to stand by your mate forever, in life and in death. Once you’re mated, your heart is bound to your mate for eternity. You can never love anyone else.”
“Being mated isn’t just a relationship,” Taran said, his expression equally aglow. “It changes you physically. Your bodies become two halves of a whole. If you’re away from your mate for too long, you get ill and your magic weakens. They say you can even die from it.”
“Diem is lifting Garath’s ban on royals mating without permission.” Eleanor smirked. “And all in the name of good sex.” Taran pulled me into his side as he beamed up at his cousin. “We love a woman with her priorities in order, don’t we Lu?”
“No, she and her family chased me for years. She wanted to be my Queen Consort, and my father wanted an alliance with House Hanoverre. What I want...” His jaw ticked as he stopped himself short. “What do you want, Luther?” His eyes dragged slowly to me. He held me there like a butterfly cupped between his hands, fluttering against his touch and wondering if he would be my doom. Every hair on my neck stood on end as he turned his lips to my ear, his voice low and rough. “Something I cannot have.”
“Careful, Uncle,” Luther rumbled. “She is Queen, and I am still Keeper of the Laws. Executions are my specialty.”
“I’m not afraid of Garath,” I gritted out. “He might be dangerous, but I’m gods-damned fatal.”
“Diem.” She nudged me with her arm. “There isn’t a man with more self-control in the nine realms, but he can’t keep his hands off you. He was about to take Garath’s head off for insulting you. And you were getting jealous over Iléana—” “I was not jealous!”
Eleanor might be my only true ally outside of Mortal City, and if this was how she reacted... Luther was right. The Descended were never going to willingly accept a mortal as King Consort.
Mortal or Descended, Queen or not, my heart was mine alone to give.
“My son led me to believe you have both light and shadow magic,” Remis said, frowning. “She does,” Luther cut in.
“Garath has a point. A significant display of power here would go a long way in preventing a Challenge, especially after—” He grimaced at my dress. “—this. If we can’t convince them to trust you, we can at least make them fear you.”
“Unleash, my Queen. Show this world what it means to Challenge Diem Bellator.”
My eyes lifted to Luther. Despite our very public surroundings, he had dropped his mask, revealing that same genuine, wholly unguarded smile he had given me after I released my magic for the first time. My heart sang at its sight.
center. Of course. She was the official palace healer. She had tended to the King for months. If any mortal would be invited to his funeral, it would be her. Her eyes bulged, her face drained of all color. Her hands wrung fretfully in her lap. She stared at me as if she didn’t know me at all—as if I were some beast about to devour her whole. My power flickered and dimmed as I grappled to
Straight to the eyes of my father. My magic vanished on the wind. My skin turned dull. My palms emptied. My dress faded to plain, unremarkable cloth. Our last conversation played over and over in my ears. You are not my father.
He was crying. Even at this distance, I could see it—the bright sun glinting off the wetness on his cheeks. It shattered me. Cracked me wide open. I had never seen my father cry. Never. Not when Teller was born, not even after my mother had disappeared. He was steady, he was sure, an immovable force. For our family, he was the mighty shield no arrow could pierce. But this had broken him. I had broken him.
whimper. I looked up and met Sorae’s golden eyes. With a growl that could crack bones, Sorae reared back and unlocked her jaws. She whipped her head to the side, and a stream of pale blue dragonfyre shot from between her razor-sharp fangs, curling around the pyre.
“You know none of this changes how I feel about you, right?” he asked. “You’re my little girl. You always will be, whether you’re Descended or mortal or anything else.”
“A battle is a battle.” He tapped a finger on my temple. “The weapon in your head is more important than the weapon in your hands.
I beamed. “It’s settled. You’re my newest advisor.”
“And you trust him?” It was a question I had been asking myself over and over, reaching a different answer every time. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I think maybe I do.”
But this was no reassuring caress. This was Luther laying his claim on what I hadn’t dared to reveal. Asking for what I hadn’t yet offered.
