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

by Amber V. Nicole

“Pinky promise, I will never abandon you, Your Highness.” More of those odd words of hers, but they meant something to me. Everyone I held dear had left me. I’d lost them and secluded myself, yet this creature… no, this woman, promised me something I had begged for. Such simple words, such a simple act, had fractured something in me and shifted my world. 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.

Liam was a shield I hid behind as if I could pretend to be anything other than the World Ender. Liam was my attempt at a new start, even if it was a broken one. And Liam cost me everything. If I had been the king I was meant to be, been the protector the old gods built monuments to, maybe I could have saved her, helped her more. 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.

Dianna glanced toward the flickering lights, then back to me. “When I burn this world to embers, and you paint me as the villain, remember, I really did try to be good… once.”

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.

Drake turned back to me. “Dianna is stronger now. Every Otherworld creature felt it when Gabby died. The world shifted, but she is still Dianna. She is still the girl I saved in the desert who cared so much about others that she followed a stranger into a terrible world. 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.”

“You will have to be more specific, akrai, on what exactly I ruined. Your mood?” I taunted her. “Your panties, perhaps?” Her brow furrowed, and I saw the shock in her eyes at hearing me call her my heart in Eorian. Satisfaction filled me and made the time spent learning the ancient language worth it.

I felt her through time and space, a heartbeat that matched my own. She walked around me, her footsteps more vibration than heard, as if she perched behind a thin veil. She sidestepped and thrust forward. My blade drove upward, stopping hers, and my free hand whipped out, grasping her wrist, holding her in this space. Her eyes went wide. “How?” “Always with the tone of surprise. There is no place in this world or the next that you can hide from me, akrai.”

“How many do I have to kill for you to give up on me?” There it was, a final split in the armor she built so diligently around herself. Her expression twisted, and I could see that she hadn’t meant to respond, the words slipping out. “You could make a river of blood run down these streets, and I would still try because I know you, the real you, not this version he created.” She lowered her blade just a fraction and huffed. “You’re wrong.” “If I’m wrong, then so was Gabby, and I know she wasn’t. She wouldn’t give up on you, and neither will I. We can do this dance until this world burns and the next takes its place, but I will still choose you.”

“I’ll carve that damned heart from your body,” she said breathlessly. “Then you’ll leave me alone.” But she stopped a fraction from my chest, her hands and arms trembling as she panted. “Do it.” I angled the tip of her blade above my heart. “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.”

I hate feeling so strongly for someone who does not feel the same. Every time a door opens, or I hear heels on the floor, I look for her, and I hate that, too. I hate that I think every dark-haired woman I see is her. She made me smile, made me laugh, and I hate it. I hate that she made me feel alive and whole for once. Dianna saw me for who I am, not a ruler or king. She made me feel normal, and then she left me. Abandoned me like it meant nothing.”

“I hate you.” “That’s good.” He lifted my hand and pressed a kiss to my palm. “At least you feel something. What else? Tell me more.” “Fuck you.” I yanked my hand from his grip.

“Do you need me to? Does it help? I assumed you had your fill on Onuna.” A ring of silver lined his irises, and I didn’t want to remember or think about what that meant. “But given how furiously you kissed me last time, I would wager you didn’t find release with the mortals you allowed to touch you. So my guess is that you are still deprived, my Dianna.”

“You weren’t planning to come back to me at all, were you?” I heard the pain in his voice, and a part of me ached, but I knew it had been the only choice. He deserved so much better. “No.” He nodded and turned away. “You would have been happy,” I said to his retreating back. “If you would have just let me go and kept your warriors out of my way. This would have been over, and you could have made this damned castle for your rightful queen.” Samkiel glanced at me over his shoulder, a small glow of silver dancing behind his storm-filled eyes. “You’re a fool if you think I would be happy in a world where you did not exist.”

“I am going to be perfectly clear with you. My feelings for you have not changed since Chasin, regardless of yours. Teasing is not fun for me. Do not do it again unless you wish for a different outcome.”

“And what outcome would that be, oh annoying one?” “I told you before I would show you eight ways to make you forget that hideous friend word. Tease me again, and I shall show you twelve, and after your little display, we’ll start in the bathroom,” he said, taking another bite. I watched as his lips closed over the fork.

“Walk in front of me,” I snapped. “I don’t want you staring at my ass.” He grinned that devastating grin I loathed and leaned down to whisper in my ear as he passed, “I don’t need to stare. I have it memorized. Now if you wanted to let me see it bare again⁠—” My hand shot out to smack him, but he dodged and continued along the trail, his laughter filling the air. “Don’t you ever get tired of flirting?” I snapped. “With you? Never. You are fun to play with, Dianna.”

He caught my gaze and held it. His eyes were soft and warm, and I swore he was staring into my soul. “I’d be a liar if I said I did not still have feelings for the woman who ripped her heart out to save me, her sister, and the world. The one who will risk everything for someone she cares about without ever thinking of herself. The one who likes loud music and overly sweetened treats and shares everything with me. The woman who ties promises to her small finger. The one who pretends she hates happy movies because she doesn’t think she can ever have her own happy ending. The woman who wields and breathes fire on a whim and loves flowers even when she tries to deny it. I have seen the best of you, Dianna, and now I have seen the worst. I am not leaving. You do not scare me.”

“You do not have to say anything, nor am I asking for anything, but I need you to understand that pushing me away will not work. I am a very patient immortal. Especially when it comes to those I care for.”