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I lived with a foot in two worlds, each a mirror image of the other, never fitting quite right into either one. In a world of black and white, I was trying to find my place in shades of grey.
Auralie can resume her post as the leader of the Guardians.”
“She’s in a prison cell in Fortos, awaiting execution. She was captured trying to protect you.”
Your kind are my kind.
“I intend to be a Queen that works for the good of all her people, regardless of their blood.”
The rage on his face could have leveled the continent.
Though I yearned to see that brilliant smile he reserved only for me, he was too far gone in his rage for my banter. Instead, in the crystal pools of his eyes, I saw the profound depth of his devotion. The intensity of it nearly brought me to my knees.
Its energy felt entirely other—something that did not belong to me and would one day return to the source from which it came.
I fear you’ve not yet come to terms with the sacrifices this war will require before it’s over—from everyone involved.”
We’re not reborn in the flames, Eleanor had told me. We’re revealed.
“If it were anyone but you, Luther would commend them for being so selfless in battle. You’re a credit to your father.”
My heart swelled, her words as sweet as they were excruciating.
I don’t need their support—just their submission.
My mountain in the windstorm, my island in a turbulent sea.
His heat seeped into mine, and mine into his. For the first time since my coronation, I was warm, and safe, and content.
I was covered in scars of my own, on my skin and in my heart. In a Descended world that demanded perfection, it was our imperfections that had bonded us together.
“Don’t you dare mistake compassion for lack of courage,” he growled. “Anyone can slaughter their enemies. Hate is easy—it’s mercy that requires the greater strength. I’ll be damned if I let you believe that beautiful heart of yours is a weakness. Trust your instincts, my Queen—above all else, trust yourself.”
“Diem, when you and I finally get a night alone together, looking will be the least of what I do to you.”
“I don’t need some duty to protect you, Luther, because we both know the Crown isn’t why you protect me.”
I didn’t know what to do. You were missing, and I... I was...”
“I was lost,” he whispered.
“My heart desires you too, Luther Corbois.”
“There are many kinds of medicines,” I said gently. “Some of them are easier to understand, like herbs and salves, but others are unexplainable. Faith. Happiness and laughter. Confidence in a positive outcome. Skin contact with loved ones. I’ve seen these things make a difference in patients that I thought were lost forever.”
“Many people have reasons to feel guilty. Few are willing to sacrifice themselves to make it right.”
“One of mine, and yet not. You’re something different. Something new. Even the sand doesn’t know what to think of you. Where you walk, the Forging magic doesn’t bend. It shatters.”
The possibility of life without him had been a suffocating fate. Finding him alive was like learning how to breathe again.
The fighting exhilarated me, galvanized me. It mended the cracks in my broken spirit.
“Let me do this one last thing for you.”
“Go, my Queen. Live.”
Something stirred in my chest. A forgotten intuition, a memory you know exists but can’t quite recall.
The pain, the discomfort, the fear—in the caress of his magic, it all faded away.
“Is that Lumnos light?”
“You will remake this world. You will be the voice they never had and the sword they were never allowed to wield.”
the depths of my feelings for him overcame me.
Suddenly, the kind of commitment I’d always feared no longer felt so alarming. A life with this man—this kind, selfless, fiercely loving man, who had been fighting for the vulnerable with zero fanfare and at great personal risk long before I ever met him, who believed in me and my dream and was willing to sacrifice everything for it, who would walk to the ends of the continent and back just to put the briefest smile on my face—I didn’t just envision a future with him. I wanted it.
“I gave myself to her the moment I met her, and I have not regretted it for a second. I have laid my life at her feet, and I would do it again and again, a thousand times over. She has my faith, my loyalty, my vow... I believe in her with everything that I am. There is nothing I would not do to see her fulfill her destiny. No matter the cost.”
“I would fight for her until the world was ash, if the Kindred allowed it.”
I was better equipped to start a war than to end one.
“I could look at you forever, and it wouldn’t be nearly long enough.”
I clung to him as if his touch were the only thing keeping me whole.
“I did not know what it was to need until I met you. One look from you—just the fucking sound of your voice—and my cock gets hard. One touch of your skin, and I can barely think beyond dragging you into the nearest bed. Every second I’m not inside you is another wasted moment of my miserable life.”
“There is no place in all of existence I would rather be than between your legs, and there’s no part of you I do not long to consume. With my eyes.”
“With my hands.”
“With my ...
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“It is not just my body that craves you, Diem. It is my heart.” He clutched at his chest. “My scarred, ruined scrap of a soul. Your smiles, your affection, the way you look at me, the way you see me... that is my lifeblood. I would sooner wither without food or water, sink into the sea until my lungs burst, abandon my magic
and let my godhood burn me alive from within than endure one more day of life without you in it.”
“Desire is a pathetic word for what I feel for you. I require you. I am sustained by you. You are the flame that fuels my fire. Don’t you dare question that—not for a second.”
‘Devourer of Crowns. Ravager of Realms. Herald of Vengeance.’ Then he said ‘They told me your blood would shatter our—’” I paused, sucking in a sharp breath in realization. “‘—shatter our stone and lay waste to our borders.’ I guess that part is coming true, too.”
Give him our gift, Daughter of the Forgotten. When the end has come, and the blood has spilled, give our gift to my faithful heir, and tell him this is my command.’” His eyes went wide.
“It’s time to get used to having them at your side, not me.” He gave me a fleeting stare. “A compromise for a compromise, Your Majesty.”
