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The doors were secured with bloodlocks that only opened with “royal blood, willingly given.” When I’d pricked my finger and placed it on the smooth black disc, the click of the latch felt more like a door opening in my soul than in front of my eyes.
I just liked this description a lot.
I jerked to a halt. “Absolutely not,” I said, shaking my head. “I am not sharing a horse with you.” “It’s only a brief ride.” “Then I’ll walk. Actually, I’m the Crown. You can walk.” “You’ve taken to authority quickly for someone who swears she doesn’t want it.”
The banter between these two is the best.
As I admired the beautiful creature, I felt a tug at the hem of my memory. Something about it seemed familiar. But that was impossible—I’d never seen a horse like this before.
“I should put all four of your heads on a pike for treason. I just assaulted the Queen, and you cowards stood there and watched me do it. The next time someone lays a hand on her and you don’t kill them where they stand, I’ll carve out your eyeballs and feed them to the fucking hounds. It doesn’t matter if it’s me or the Regent or Blessed Mother Lumnos herself. Do your damn jobs and protect our Queen.”
😮💨 I LOVE him.
Once upon a time, I had been a person of happiness and joy. I’d laughed as deeply as I’d loved. I’d made lighthearted jokes instead of cruel insults or threats. I’d been patient and compassionate, quick to forgive. This woman I had become now... I despised her.
“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?”
My answering grin was positively wicked. “Because they damn well should be.”
“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.”
🫠🫠
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.
Took you entirely too long to come to this realization, Diem!
I let out a frustrated sigh. “And you... if you were my friend and nothing more, what would you tell me?” His answer came without missing a beat. “That if a man made you doubt whether his love for you would survive anything, he does not deserve you.”
Amen. To. That!
“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.”
His hand curled into a fist, tugging at my hair—gently, but enough to pull a gasp from my lips and an arch from my back. He leaned into my ear. “If a kiss is the reward, my Queen, I’ll get on my knees for you whenever you want.”
There was an answer written in his features, but it wasn’t one I understood. It was an answer loaded with secrets and hard truths and pain he had yet to share. A door he had locked up tight, welded closed, and covered in chains. A door he was daring me to open.
His thumb stroked my ankle, tender and feather light. “Good girl,” he murmured. My thighs clenched. Diem one, Luther ten.
This time, he made quick work of unwinding the straps and discarding my shoe. He started at the sore ball of my foot and worked his thumbs in slow circles over my flesh, smiling wider with every whimper and mewl I couldn’t hold in. Diem one, Luther one thousand.
The score tally is killing me 😂
I refused to flinch at his outburst, raising my jaw to him with an unrelenting glare. “You’re all using me. This whole gods-damned House is using me. Just because I’m choosing to play nice for now doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten that I’m a mouse in a pit of hungry vipers.” “A mouse?” He leaned in, strands of my hair swaying in the gust of his ragged breaths. “We may be vipers, but you’re no mouse. You’re a fucking dragon.”
Oookay, Luther, you are my favorite. 🫠😮💨
When I gave it an initial glance, it pointed vaguely at the back of the palace—perhaps toward Mortal City, or my family’s home on the marsh, or the island where I might be coronated, or adventure on the Sacred Sea. My heart yearned for so many things I couldn’t have, even I wasn’t sure which of them I most desired.
Where was Luther when she looked at the compass? 👀
“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.” His hands slid to my hips and tugged me closer. “Yes, Diem, I want to serve you—in every way a man can.”
“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 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.”
“Remember who you are, Diem Bellator.” He clasped the medallion at my neck. “But remember you are a phoenix, too. We do not fear the flames, for the hotter we burn, the higher we fly.” He gave me a final, smoldering kiss, then whispered against my lips. “Burn, my Queen. Glow so bright, the darkness trembles.”
