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Would I return to find him gone forever? Would I burn the world to the ground if I did?
“He might be a better man than me. But if he is, do you really deserve him?”
Every day, he grows stronger. Soon, even you will not be able to stop him—and if that happens, this entire world will fall, and so will everyone in it.”
“I am Diem Bellator.” I stared up through my lashes, the glow of the Crown casting ominous shadows down my face. “And I kneel for no one.”
My mental shield dropped, and her thought magic crashed in from every angle. But instead of controlling me—it ignited me.
“You asked how much of my soul I was willing to set ablaze to see my plans through.” My chin rose. “And do you remember my answer?” Yrselle’s eyes grew. “Diem—” I spread my arms wide. “All of it.” I tilted my head back, and I fell.
But that’s only what happens when you’re pushed. When you jump—when you stand on the ledge, look down, and embrace what you see with arms wide open—there’s nothing helpless about it at all. Instead of terrifying, it’s liberating. You’re not in freefall... you’re in flight.
“All of it,” Luther murmured. “I knew it. You can wield all the Kindred’s magic.”
He loved me.
How could I ever have questioned it? It was as sure as the sunset, as steady as the dawn. Even now, even hurt, even dying, the strength of his heart was a force to behold. He believed in me, right down to his marrow, in a way I’d never believed in myself. He was my rock. My cove. My sword and my shield. My guiding light and my calming dark. My Prince. My love. He was my everything.
“You are the greatest gift,” he murmured in my ear. “To everyone you meet, and to this continent and all its people.” He placed a kiss on my shoulder. “But especially to me. I only wish...”
“I only wish I could be there to see all that you will become.”
A better woman might have been glad to see him finally find the peace he so deserved. I was not a better woman. “Stop looking at me like that,” I hissed. “I am not doing this without you. It’s us, or it’s nothing.”
So I gave them something better to do. I grabbed his lapels and smothered his protests with a kiss—not a desperate prayer, but a declaration of war. An echo of his vow to the gods at my Challenging: Take him from me, and I will come for you, too.
But Yrselle and her gryvern were still there. They dropped into freefall and hurtled toward the sea. They were screaming, wailing, tumbling... burning. Bright, roaring flames coated them both. Lavender flames.
He’d seen it in me before I’d seen it in myself. All the way back to Ignios, when he’d braved the flames engulfing me to get to my side, knowing they were mine—and knowing they would not hurt the man I loved.
it pulsed with a shared urgency, as if it knew some essential part of us burned in him, and if it extinguished, so too might we.
I felt the godstone in him, too. It was death given physical form, a ruinous substance that leeched the life from all it touched.
even if he doesn’t make it, he’ll die knowing what it means to be happy. That’s what he deserves.”
“You thought you failed me. You never did. Never. I’m so very sorry, my love. I was the one who failed you.”
“Careful with my scars. I’ve grown fond of them, thanks to you.”
“Impossible,” I breathed. His smile could have lit the realm. “Around you, ‘impossible’ seems merely a suggestion.”
“I couldn’t leave my Queen when she needed me.”
I’d offered up my soul for his, and I had no regrets.
It was as if the godstone’s defeat had also destroyed some deep-rooted veil that had kept him muted and withdrawn all his life. Now, the light in him blazed with wild abandon, not a wisp of shadow in sight. “I love you, Diem Bellator.”
Happiness consumed me, overwhelmed me, restored me. It flourished and bloomed, filling the dark fractures in my broken soul and welding them back together with gold. The joy filled me near to bursting, and a blissful laugh bubbled out by surprise.
“That is my favorite sound,” he said with a reverent sigh. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear it again.” “If you had died, I’m not sure anyone would have ever heard it again.”
“I’ve never cared for anyone the way I care for you. When I think of something happening to you, I can barely breathe. It’s a constant war against my instincts to lock you up somewhere safe, where no one can ever hurt you. But a phoenix isn’t meant to be caged—it’s meant to fly.” He let out a long sigh. “I will never stop trying to protect you, but I know I can’t keep you from danger, either. All I ask is that you don’t do it alone. From now on, we face it together.”
“You gave us something to believe in, a reason to feel like we’re not in this alone,” he said, “We were always related—but you made us family.”
Though I hated the thought of using my father’s ashes for tools of war, it felt fitting to know he would be with me in battle.
“My mother, Auralie... she taught me to heal—to save lives every chance I get. My father, Andrei, taught me to fight—to end lives, but only when I must. And my brother, Teller, taught me to think—to lead with reason, not prejudice. That is the Queen I strive to be. I will not demand that you bend your knee. Past Crowns have done enough of that. I will only vow, on my blood and my soul, on all that I am, and all that I hold dear, if you give me your faith, I will do my best to earn it—” I crossed my swords at my chest. “—and I won’t stop until my dying breath.”
Unlike the female Fortos Descended, who all had healing magic like the kind I’d used on Luther, the Fortos men wielded a rotting, deadly force that decayed their victims’ bodies from within.
Alixe once told me that godhoods fed on our emotions—perhaps that’s why mine was so strong and so frequently out of control—and with each brush of magic, I caught glimpses of its wielder. Some hateful, some angry. Some terrified of my reaction. Some wishing they could just go home.
In the dirty, downtrodden square of my beloved Mortal City, one by one, the mortals lowered to their knees.
“Some days, I pray for these surprises to end. I beg for time to stop and the world to still so I know that, at least for a moment, you are safe. Then you do something like this...” He laughed softly. “And I thank the Blessed Kindred I’m lucky enough to see it.”
All of you’ means I want Diem the Queen and Diem the woman. The Diem that’s courageous and bold and inspiring. The Diem that taunts Crowns and armies into battle, then leaves them wondering what the hell they just faced.” We both laughed, and his fingers brushed across my cheek. “But I also want the Diem that worries and cries. The Diem that’s scared. The Diem with a temper hot enough to melt Fortosian steel.” He shot me a pointed look. “The Diem who doubts herself too damn much.”
“I want there to be no part of you that you hide from me because you fear it’s a part I will not love. I treasure your darkness as much as your light.”
“Show me your worst, my darling, and I’ll show you how far my love can go.”
But this was a promise that I was enough, and that was the promise I’d needed most of all.
“What would you say to her if you met her?” I asked. “The same thing I say when I pray. I’d thank her for bringing you into my life.”
the godstone’s repellant nature had an uncanny effect. The longer it touched my skin, the more my bleakest emotions bubbled to the surface—hatred and anger, sorrow and gloom.
felt like the worst thing I’d ever touched, like death and wrongness given tangible form.
My usual magic flowed from my godhood, but this power seemed imbued in my blood itself. And when it brushed against the toxic bleakness of the godstone’s touch, it did not cower. It merged. It fulfilled.
I thought I’d been destroying the godstone. But it was never destruction—it was balance. Hot and cold, light and shadow, life and death.
and yet his heart had once again been miraculously spared. It was defiant, that warrior heart of his. Just like the woman it loved.
To be disarmed is to court death. By wits or by weapon, be ready at all times.
“Daughter of the Forgotten.”
“Never before have I made this choice,” his voice boomed throughout the hall. “It was not an easy one for me. Nor will it be an easy one for you.”
“Guard my people well,” the King said.
“Remember my sister’s words. Beware my brother’s wrath.”
