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“Out there, I will do anything you ask of me. Anything. But here, in private, do not expect me to hold my tongue while you give your heart to a man you had to beg to keep from walking away.” His glare sharpened. “A man who only agreed to marry you when you offered him a throne.”
He roughly cupped my face in his hands, his fingers clinging to my skin like he might fall to his death if he ever let me go. “Not even if you despise me. Not even if I am nothing to you. Because my calling comes from a higher authority than even you can claim, Your Majesty. As she guarded my heart, I will guard over yours. Even if it kills me.”
“It’s not easy for me to let go when I care about someone. To watch them choose something I know will hurt them.” “Teller would never hurt her.” “I wasn’t talking about Lily.”
“Never underestimate a violent male with a hurt ego.” Luther’s fingers tightened around my forearm, the movement faintly tugging me closer. His voice went low and gravelly. “Let me find him. I’ll return the favor.”
“Who did this to you?” I breathed, feeling as if flames might spew from my fangs like a gryvern. “It doesn’t matter. They can’t hurt me anymore, and I won’t let them hurt anyone else.” “Tell me,” I snarled.
“You’re my Queen. Everything I do is for you.”
They gifted me with a compass they claimed would point toward whatever my heart desired most.
“Let me make myself extremely clear. If you or anyone in your family makes a move against Diem, it will be the last thing you ever do. I will see to it personally that House Hanoverre is destroyed.” “Is that a threat?” Iléana hissed. “It’s a promise.” He paused, his voice turning dark. “And you know I always keep my promises.”
“Keep your hands off my Queen,” Luther snarled. “And you will address her by her title, or I will rip out your tongue with my hands and nail it to the door of House Hanoverre.”
“Patience, my Queen.” His thumb stroked a slow trail up my spine. “The most precious rewards come from the battles most fiercely fought.”
I was drowning in this man. From the moment I met him, I had been kicking against the current and holding my breath, struggling to get back to the safe, familiar surface—but every look, every touch, dragged me deeper still.
And maybe it made me weak, or a traitor, or a fool, but gods did I want to close my eyes and sink forever.
“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.” He took my palm and set it against his chest, just above the patch of unscarred skin that lay beneath his jacket. “You are the fate my heart was spared for. As long as it beats, you will never fight alone.”
“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 pledged you my loyalty, and you have it, no matter your choice. But I cannot keep lying to you or to myself. I want all of you, Diem.” His lips brushed against mine, his words breathing straight into my lungs. “You already have all of me.”
It’s a reminder that no challenge can destroy the parts of us that truly matter. We’re not reborn in the flames. We’re revealed.”
“You’re a wonderful advisor, Eleanor Corbois,” I said between sniffles, touching my forehead to hers. “And you’re an even better friend.” “Are you two about to kiss?” Eleanor let go of me as her eyes rolled to the ceiling with an exasperated groan. “I swear Taran, you really know how to ruin a moment.”
“Does your anger actually help those people, or does it make you feel righteous while the situation gets worse?”
Clock ittttt
This night—this was the fire that had forged me. And someday soon, when the burning glow of my grief cooled away, I would show my father’s killer, and all of Emarion, just how deeply my blade could cut.
“I’m not an idiot,” I shot back. “I’m giving him a fair chance. That doesn’t mean I don’t see his flirting for what it is.” “So you give ‘fair chances’ to the people who use you while you punish the ones who actually care?”
“Diem?” “Yes?” “We’re friends, aren’t we?” I cringed at the realization I’d pushed him so far away that he doubted even that. I squeezed his hand. “Of course we are. You mean a great deal to me, Taran.” “Then can I ask you a serious question?” “Sure.” I looked over and forced out a supportive smile. “Ask me anything.” “When are you and Luther going to put all of us out of our misery and fuck each other already?” “Taran,” I choked.
“You should keep it. It’s meant to be worn by a person sworn to protect House Corbois. My loyalty is now...” His eyes returned to mine. “...elsewhere.”
“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.”
prove his point, he dropped his hands from me and took a step back, and to my surprise, the shield held firm. He continued to retreat until he reached its edge. As he tried to move through it, the dome thickened and turned opaque where it connected with his body, halting him in place. His muscles pulled taut as he fought, and he failed, to break through. “Having some trouble, cousin?” Taran teased.
out. “I will pray to the gods
He paused, his gaze heavy on mine. “Perhaps, for the right person, we endure the pain, because the torture of never having them at all is the more unbearable fate.”
“How?” “I infused it with a spark of my light magic.” “You can do that?” “Any Descended can. But what we put in, we can never get back. It reduces our power forever.”
“Forgive me. They all need to see it.” “See what?” I rasped, barely able to speak. “Who will come for them if they dare to come for you.” Then his lips were on mine.
His mighty aura cascaded around me and within me, tasting me as deeply as his tongue. It spilled into my soul and branded me with his power, claiming me inside and out. 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.
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.
“You won’t have to do anything. I’ll handle it myself. I can make the magic look like it came from you.” Then I understood. Luther never wanted to fight me. He wanted to lose to me. He sank to his knees. His head drooped, his hands wrapping around the backs of my thighs. “Let me do this for you,” he begged. “I could hope for no greater death than this.”
His arms locked around me like he was bracing to stop fate from snatching me out of his grasp. “I need you, Diem.”
“It’s rude to kiss a man like that and then die, Your Majesty,” Luther panted, his breath hot against my swollen lips.
“Burn, my Queen. Glow so bright, the darkness trembles.”
Luther gazed at me like I was the embodiment of hope fulfilled. Like I was the answer to every question he had ever asked, the harmony to every song he’d ever sung. He looked at me like I was the sun and the moon and the stars, all the light in the world, shining a path for him out of the lonely dark.
I wrapped my fingers around the vine that led to his neck, gently tugging him down until his lips hovered over mine. “And what of House Corbois?” I murmured softly. His hand slid around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a deep, reverent kiss. “House Corbois will kneel, my Queen,” he breathed when we parted.
“Our vision,” he repeated softly. “My entire life, I’ve worked against the Crown in secret to protect the mortals and half-mortals. I always knew one day I would serve a Queen who shared that goal, but...” His gaze slid to me, bright and gleaming with feeling. “The reality is better than I ever could have imagined.”
