The Throne of Broken Gods (Gods & Monsters, #2)

by Amber V. Nicole

I stared at the empty night sky, watching her dark wings beat across the sky, her sleek form disappearing into the roiling clouds. Away from me. “You promised,” I whispered as the sirens continued to wail.

So, no, Samkiel was who I was, who I would forever be, and Liam died with whatever part of Dianna’s heart fractured that night.

Fake a smile. Look presentable, as if your entire world is not in shambles.

“When I burn this world to embers, and you paint me as the villain, remember, I really did try to be good… once.”

“Maybe death will be a mercy after everything we have done.”

Mer-Ka was my birth name. Ain was Gabby’s, and Eoria was the home where we knew peace so long ago.

“You have taken someone from me with your actions—someone very precious to me. And now you have helped a lunatic corrupt her already damaged heart, shattering it into a million pieces. They are pieces I will pick up and fix, but what you have done is unforgivable. I plan to make you suffer for that transgression. Death would be a kindness, and you deserve none.”

Years of war had steeled my stomach to gruesome atrocities, but seeing her so casually holding the head of Ethan’s wife in her palm had my gut twisting.

She is still the girl who likes flowers and pretty gifts from overbearing god kings. She is sweet, kind, funny, and loves with her entire being. That’s why she is like this. She’s hurt. She’s in pain. If you love her, truly love her, don’t give up. True love is worth it. It’s worth fighting for. Remember that.”

Webster Malone was one of Kaden’s lackeys. Now he was an arms dealer with no arms.

The only wounds I carried were within me.

Because there are no boundaries I will not cross if it means keeping her safe, especially after everything you all have taken from her. It is the highest law not to touch anyone in my court or what I consider mine. That act alone is punishable by death, and she is mine. It will be your end.”

I have never felt for another how I feel about her. She makes me feral and possessive, but not in the way your master is. I would never hurt her, and I cannot allow her to keep hurting herself.

Beautiful, she was beautiful even now. Not one single part of her scared me, no matter how hard she tried.

A part of me missed this, and all of me missed her. It felt so right being in her presence, hearing her voice, bantering, the way we had worked together, all of it.

“If you wanted me on my knees, Dianna, all you had to do was ask. You know that.”

No one could stop me now. No one could touch me. I would be a force of nature, ruin, and destruction. I would never be her again, never that weak emotional excuse of a person ever, ever again.

One moment I felt as if we couldn’t stand the sight of each other, and the next…” I glanced at the cup in my hand as if it would give me answers. “The next, I couldn’t stand the thought of being away from her.”

Their world kept spinning as if mine hadn’t stopped at all.

They would be unstoppable if it weren’t for one thing. I had nothing left to live for, and they did.

You could burn stars, conquer worlds, all of it if you should wish it.

Long ago, I wished for someone to free me from my chains to Kaden. No one came, so instead, I grew claws and fangs and freed myself.

had a crown thrust upon me from the moment of my birth. My life is not my own. It never was.

Above all, she is a woman who had no choice in the life thrust upon her. Dianna survived against all odds for Gabby, and Kaden ripped her away. Dianna is not a monster. She never was. She loves, cares, and feels, and right now, all she feels is grief, pain, and loss.

I realized this was what Reggie was, everything and the nothing in between.

You see death and assume it is against you, but death is natural. It is not cruel or kind. Death takes no sides. Death does not discriminate or hate. It just is and has remained since the first living being existed and will be here long after.

Dangerous. A beautiful, dangerous stranger I had met in a desert. A sand viper is what I’d thought of him, and that was precisely what he was.

“I think this act you portray will only suffocate you. Burying feelings hurts no one but yourself. You will drown in the tide you are trying to subdue, slowly and painfully. You will end up truly numb. That will be a grand mistake and not only just for you.”

I have learned from watching so many that grief comes in waves and patterns. It flows, ebbs, and returns, claiming its way through the chest, the heart, and the brain. It seeks what they bury, aching for release from emotions pushed down far too deep.

I had never really counted the number of floors we had in this building until I fell through each and every one of them.

There is no place in this world or the next that you can hide from me, akrai.”

We can do this dance until this world burns and the next takes its place, but I will still choose you.”

“If you are truly gone, I refuse to live in a world without you, so you’ll have to angle it farther to the right. That’s where a god’s heart lies, and mine already belongs to you, so do with it what you will.”

He had whispered lies to tear her from me, and by the old gods, I wished for his death above any creature in this world or the next.

Pure and simple, grief is a product of love, Vincent.

“Love is such a dangerous and powerful emotion. The gods curse it, for it has power. Empires have fallen for it, reduced to sand and scriptures. Worlds have burned for it, and they will once more. Love has the power to touch even the untouchable. Use it.”

“Neverra, do you need a break?” Samkiel asked, and I had never respected or loved him so much.

I didn’t know if I wanted to kill or kiss him, and I hated wanting the latter for even a second.

“You’re a fool if you think I would be happy in a world where you did not exist.”

If I had to be in a prison, at least this was a pretty one.

Samkiel’s eyes followed my every movement, a moth drawn to a flame, and I wanted him to burn.

Surprisingly, it was quite challenging to drown a god.

“Of course, fate is a nosy bitch.” “I see all.” “Creeper.”

Kindness, when not deserved, was truly a mark of strength.

I want you to stay close to the ones who feel like sunshine, Dianna.”

Lights to lead us out of the most heinous darkness—that was what Cameron was to him and what Samkiel was to me. Sunshine.

Elianna may be a self-righteous bitch, but she could suck cock like a goddess when she wanted to.

My heart, the jaded and cracked thing it was, fluttered with hope.

I would rip Onuna to pieces for you. If Kaden had taken you, I would turn mountains to sand to find you. I’ve reduced worlds to desolate wastes before, and I’d do it again for you.”

After everything he put Dianna through, how he had broken her, if he were here, I would bring his head back to Rashearim on a spike for her as a gift.