More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Claim me, Daughter of the Forgotten.
Luther pushed to his feet, and we strode toward each other, pulled together by a soul-born, irresistible draw. “My love,” he whispered, “you are so much more than we ever dreamed.” “Show me?”
my Crown had changed. A new peak had formed, and woven among the thorny, star-dotted vines and glittering crystal was a ring of throbbing, tangled veins.
“Your Majesty... you just became the Queen of Fortos.”
“Don’t mistake the pain of change for failure.”
“You may not be the Queen anyone expected, but you are the Queen they need.”
I searched and found Luther’s aura, trapped within a hard cocoon, and shattered it to bits. A tidal wave of him flowed free, and I welcomed its caress with bittersweet relief. He sucked in a breath, eyes glowing with the sudden return of his magic. “It’s true, then. You are the Queen of Fortos.”
“If something happens to you, I’ll suffocate this entire fucking realm in darkness.”
“You went with me even though you knew you would be exiled from your home?” His brows knit to a deep crease, as if my question made no sense. “Diem... you’re my home.”
It wouldn’t be so scary, giving myself to him forever.
He leaned his mouth to my ear, his voice dominant with command. “Dream of me.”
“You think I wouldn’t notice your aura disappearing, like you’d died at my side?” Luther snarled, his voice rising. “You think that wouldn’t pull me out of the deepest sleep and reach for you in a panic to make sure you’re alright?”
Luther had told me that I was enough. He deserved to know that he was, too.
“Who knows, my dark Prince, maybe you’ll become a king someday yet.”
“What are the Forgotten Lands?” “An area of the realm we do not enter,” one Councilor said, twisting his face in disgust. “That land is evil. Cursed. Few Descended are willing to go, and most who do are never seen again.”
“Your Majesty... you are our Crown.”
Eleven must fall for one to rise. Share the gift to pay the cost. A dying star will rekindle the spark. What is forgotten is not lost. Remember my sister’s words. Beware my brother’s wrath.
“Seeing the two most important people in my life hate each other hurts me more than you can imagine.”
Ophiucae was unlike anyone I’d ever met. The simplest stories would fascinate him, and he spoke of his dreams to change our world for the better. He was charming, and I was... lonely.”
“Ophiucae wanted my blood?” “He said he wanted me to pour it on a rock and break some curse. All of it was nonsense, utter madness.”
“You see it as a lie, I see it as unconditional trust. Andrei knew there were things I couldn’t tell him, and he chose to love me anyway. I pray you find that in your own partner someday.”
his heart had drawn me toward him, knowing my injured soul needed the balm of his touch.
“This is just a taste of what I have planned for you. Our night is coming, and when it does, I’ll be the last first time you ever have.”
I’d hated Luther, I’d run from him, I’d shielded my heart and built walls that I warned him might never come down, and he’d never swayed an inch. He was steady and unyielding, the island of calm in my tumultuous sea.
He challenges me without trying to change me, and he sees me in a way no one ever has. When I’m with him, I feel safe and cherished and...” I glanced at him, surprised to find his mask down, his feelings for me laid bare on his face. “...and loved. He makes me feel loved.” I looked back at her. “And I love him, too.”
“Then she demanded I tell her why I love you. What I love about you.”
“Your heart,” he said gruffly. “I told her I love your heart. Your kindness. Your selflessness. The lengths you’ll go to help those in need. There are many things to love about you, Diem Bellator, but that remains my favorite.”
I might lose my humanity, but I couldn’t bear to lose him.
Omnos.
This name felt like it owned me, like it was written on my flesh.
“When you truly love someone, you hold on and you never let go, no matter what stands in your way. If your brother isn’t willing to fight to hell and back to be with my sister, then he’s right—he doesn’t deserve her.”
A promise to love, eternally and unconditionally. A promise to give your heart without reserve and be bound as one, in this life and the next.
If my magic was a spark, hers was the gods-damned sun.
Her magic forever called out to mine.
She looked... stunning. Lethal. Unconquerable. A goddess of war. Darkness eternal and the brightest light. She looked like a Queen. My Queen.
Sometimes it feels like the Kindred are taking the one thing that brings me joy and dangling it over a cliff, waiting to see how many times they can pretend to drop you before I throw myself over just to make it stop.” “If they drop me, I’ll just grow wings and fly.” He took my hand and raised it to my chest, then pressed something metallic into my palm—the pendant he’d given me, etched with the sigil of House Corbois. “I’m a phoenix, remember? I’ll rise again and again. As many times as it takes to get back to your side.”
“I’m sorry for worrying you.” His lip twitched. “In my defense, you worry me every time you leave a room. And half the time you’re in the room.”
His touch was a blade of the best kind, a sword that felled the nagging beast on my heart. The smallest brush of his finger could slice through my fears and set me at ease.
“What I was really waiting for was the woman I loved. I waited, and I waited. Then I found her, and she made me wait even more.” He set a kiss on my spine. “I would have waited a lifetime, if that’s what it took.”
“You look free,” I murmured. He smiled, easy and radiant. “I am. You freed me.”
But you and I have a lifetime to be together.
“If finding you has taught me anything, it’s that love is well worth the wait.” Something shifted in my heart. Something foundational. Something permanent.
Love. It detonated in my chest. It destroyed me, reduced me to bone and ash. It rebuilt me, a bird of flame and passion. Love, like I’d never felt. Love, like I’d never believed myself capable of feeling. Love, like I didn’t think existed but in storybooks and dreams.
A home, a marriage, a mate—I wanted it all. But only with him.
I’d sacrifice it all to keep him at my side.
I no longer feared giving my heart away, either. Gods, I craved it. I wanted to carve out half my heart and nest it inside his ribs, let it beat in rhythm with his own, keep it company, hold it in sorrow, dance with it in delight.
I wanted him inside me. Not just between my legs—I wanted his blood coursing through my veins, his bones fused to mine to make me strong. I wanted to tear myself open and keep a piece of him hidden away inside me from this vicious world that kept trying to tear us apart. My need for him burned in my lungs, hammered in my heart, slicked between my clenching thighs.
“Very well. When we are alone, you are not my Queen. You are my heart. And I am yours.”
“My strong, brave, beautiful heart... tell me what you want.”
I thought you’d taste like the forest.” He laughed darkly, the deep rumble vibrating through every nerve. “But you taste like fire.”
