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two grey eyes, so much like my own, staring back at me. Their corners crinkled as if in a smile.
There was no more cold veneer—this was Luther unmasked, and he was boldly, unreservedly happy. I barely recognized him.
“I knew you had it in there,” he breathed.
I was Descended. I had magic. I was strong, and I was fast. I could heal.
“I’ll claim House Corbois,” I said hoarsely. “But only if you protect my friends and family for as long as they live. Even if I die in the Challenging.” My hands began to tremble. “Promise me that, and I’ll do it.”
“Diem...” His voice was soft and painfully tender. He arched his head down in an effort to catch my gaze. “What’s wrong?”
A tear escaped, streaming like a river down my cheeks. I’d once been horrified at the idea of crying in front of him. Now, I was simply trying not to shatter. “Please, Luther,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “Of course.” He brushed the tear away and nodded earnestly. “I won’t let anything happen to them. I promise.”
He rose and strolled around the table, then leaned down to brace his hands on the arms of my chair, caging me in place. My heartbeat stumbled at his nearness.
“Please, Luther. She’s my mother. I need her.” Something in both of us broke.
My mother was spying on the King. And Luther had helped her. He could have had her killed for treason—but he’d helped her.
The smirk that peeked through whenever he found a way to get under my skin. Eleanor was right—there was something else hiding beneath Luther’s facade. Someone else.
But for Luther, perhaps it had been like discovering his chains were finally broken.
“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?”
“Diem Corbois, I’m so very glad that you’re my Queen.”
That was my fate. Life in this palace. Alone.
“Please do. Let him know that his Queen does not appreciate him withholding vital information that she would dearly like to know.” I flashed a smirk of my own. “Be sure and use those exact words.”
“A Queen must know every inch of her palace!”
mate
Stumbling upon Henri, my mortal best-friend-turned-lover, in the middle of the royal palace with the Crown of Lumnos on my head felt exactly like that moment.
“I didn’t know,” I pleaded. “I swear, Henri.”
An awkward awareness passed between us—and a question.
“I’m still me, Henri. I’m still Diem. And... I still love you.” I’d never said those words to him before.
“Please, Henri,” I begged. “Stay with me. Rule with me. Be my King.”
“Say it again,” he said gruffly. “Be my King,” I rushed out, cupping his face in my hands. “The first mortal King of Lumnos.”
Luther was standing at the entrance.
Oh shit LOL
I had every right to be intimate with the man I had just convinced to marry me.
So why did I suddenly wish I could take it back?
I stared down the hall. I could still feel his touch on my thighs, my lips still swollen from his kiss. But now, without the warmth of him against me, I felt... Confused. Unsure.
“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 swallowed. I hadn’t missed his choice of words. Not if I kiss you. Not in the rare and unlikely event I kiss you. When I kiss you.
Our eyes met, and the pain in them sliced through me as sharp as any blade.
“Let me be clearer. If you present him as your betrothed at the Ascension Ball, Henri will not survive to see the Rite of Coronation. The Houses will stop at nothing to prevent a mortal taking the throne. They have killed Crowns’ mates for far less.”
And I do not wish to see one more person in this realm buried because of their bloodline.”
“You’re saying I have to let him go,” I said numbly.
A spark of amusement gleamed in his eyes. “Just like her daughter.”
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.
I felt his tears, warm and wet, against my cheek, or maybe they were my own. And I felt the tremors of his fear, the dying light of his hope.
“If Lumnos chose you, there must be a reason. There’s something she sees in you, something you’re meant to do. You have to trust her.”
“Believe me, Your Majesty, I am well aware.”
His voice was low and rough, heavy with implication. My body flushed, tightening deep in my core. The want in his tone felt nothing like Aemonn’s empty flattery, and all at once I was too hot, too sensitive, too breathless.
But something about the recent secrets we’d shared made these interactions between us now feel dangerously intimate.
Luther’s pupils dilated as he watched me, a predator on the hunt. I could see him fighting against his desire to take another look—or perhaps do more than look.
Fighting with him, teasing him—it was like lighting a fuse and closing my eyes, never knowing just how close I was to destruction.
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.
His hand slid to my back to nudge me forward and lingered there as I resumed my pace.
He smiled at me—a new smile, this one warm and humble, but also a little bit triumphant. I was so surprised at the casual sweetness of it that I nearly stumbled.
His expression heated, and the flush in my cheeks plummeted straight down to my belly. I laughed nervously and looked away. “Or maybe you prefer me in muddy pants and a borrowed tunic.” “Only when it’s mine.” The warmth drifted... lower.
Bruh oh my gosh
“Let’s just hope we don’t run into any more of my angry lovers on the way there.”
She looked like the kind of woman that was as deadly in a bedroom as a battlefield.
“I would be honored,” she said with a genuine smile.
