More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
His eyes roamed downward, but didn’t quite make it past my lips. “Beautiful,” he said quietly.
“A reminder,” Luther murmured in my ear from behind me. “That, Challenged or Unchallenged, you are our Queen.”
He barely even stopped, Henri had said. Gods, he was swearing at the boy for getting mud on his pretty bejeweled saddle.
Aemonn, who was now Keeper of the Laws.
As if he’d heard my thoughts, his familiar aura swirled around me and brushed against my skin. Despite the deadly odds I marched to meet, a smile spread across my face.
I walked to the balcony at the front and closed my eyes as a soft breeze kissed my face.
“Apparently, your little brother kissed my little sister.”
“You swore,” he protested, now fully laughing as he pressed me close. “If you make a scene, she’ll never tell me anything again.”
“Perhaps, for the right person, we endure the pain, because the torture of never having them at all is the more unbearable fate.”
A smile danced at the corners of his mouth. “Like yours,” he murmured proudly.
“I infused it with a spark of my light magic.”
“Because you may claim House Corbois,” Luther said gruffly, “but you’ll always be Diem Bellator to me.”
Then his lips were on mine. And nothing else existed. There was no Crown, no Challenging.
There was only the two of us—the loyal Prince and his cherished Queen.
The kiss was a warning to the crowd, but this was a threat to the gods themselves: If you take her from me, I will come for you, too.
That was an inferno. This was a hearth.
Carefully tended over weeks of friendship, the traumas we’d endured, and the secrets we shared. A smaller flame, perhaps, but steadier. Strong. A fire that didn’t burn to consume, but to endure—to keep us warm through the perils of the dark, cold night.
“If anyone you loved was going through this, you would be there for every step of it, no matter how dangerous it was. You deserve someone who’s willing to do the same for you.”
The time had come to show all of Lumnos that I was not afraid to fight.
But this gesture was no salute. This was a Descended battle cry. This was a call for blood.
Light and dark. The two sides of Lumnos’s magic.
he had walked away bleeding, and I had walked away alive, an ending neither of us could have predicted.
This wasn’t just a Challenging—this was a Humiliating.
A vote of no confidence. A declaration of war.
The sign of a bonded bargain breaking. “On behalf of House Corbois, I, Luther Corbois, wish to Challenge the Queen.”
“I’ll have to fight him,” I mumbled in a daze. “Remis has to choose the most powerful Challenger. That’s Luther. I... I have to fight Luther.” And one of us has to die. “You can’t. Talk to Remis, there has to be another way.”
“My agreement with Remis is broken. His magic is gone.”
“You fucking betrayed me!”
“Can you give me a Crown?” Luther snarled. “I’m meant to be King, and she is standing in my way. I’ve been waiting for this moment for thirty days. I will not risk another Challenger failing and keeping me from my throne now.” His eyes sharpened on his father. “Taking your magic in the process is just a happy surprise.”
There was no trace of the loyal man I thought I’d known. There was not even the frosty indifference of the Prince.
“If you hadn’t noticed, they already don’t accept me.”
An explosive silence fell between us, the air thick with violent threat. “Was any of it real?”
Veins rose on his throat as he let me go and looked away. “You will choose me,” he rumbled. “End of discussion.”
“I’ll choose whoever I want,” I bit back. “I don’t answer to you, Prince. I’m the fucking Queen.”
“My brilliant little brother, you are going to do such great things...” I fell silent as my voice broke and tears slipped in rivers down my cheeks.
“Tell me,” he roared, fingers squeezing around my throat. “Because it wasn’t a lie for me!” Hot tears sprang up anew. I let my head drop back against the pole, shutting my eyes in shame.
When I looked at him again, his fury had vanished. His shoulders sagged, his sharp features melting into anguish. He looked exhausted and utterly, desperately broken.
Then I understood. Luther never wanted to fight me. He wanted to lose to me.
“I don’t put my faith in gods and goddesses.” I smiled sadly. “But I do put it in you. You were born to be King.”
“I need you, Diem.” Deep within my heart, a long-overdue decision was finally put to rest. One door opened—the other locked forever. “You have me, Luther,” I vowed. “All of me.”
“I am yours, Luther Corbois. Scars and all.”
We were two ravenous souls, yearning to be lonely no more, and after months of denying ourselves this precious thing that we craved most, this was the breaking of our fast—and he devoured me. His mouth crushed against mine, his tongue seeking me out like a taste he could never get enough of.
“Don’t be afraid of your godhood. The magic doesn’t just answer to you, it’s part of you. Be proud of who you are, and embrace it.”
“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.”
“Burn, my Queen. Glow so bright, the darkness trembles.”
“I already have the Crown.”
Now, Daughter of the Forgotten, the voice whispered. Now, you are ready.
The magic doesn’t just answer to you, it’s part of you. Be proud of who you are, and embrace it.
All this time, I had been waiting for the godhood to embrace me, when what I really needed to do was embrace myself.
The Challenging was over. I had won. All that was left now was to take a life.
