Crown of Earth and Sky (Secrets of the Faerie Crown, #1)

by Emberly Ash

What do I want? A quick death. Barring that, I only dream of one thing—revenge.

“I agree with the queen.” The captain’s surprised eyes swung to me, rebuff on his lips. But I forestalled him, looking directly at Veyka as I said, “I will guard your door.”

“When I come to your bed, it will be because you beg me for it,” Arran breathed. “Not because you are trying to distract me to get your way.”

“That is your mistake, Arran. You assume that your soul is the only one that is ruined. But listen when I tell you… this thing within me, if it is a soul, is blacker than the starless night above the Split Sea. And no one can save me—not even you. Because I do not wish to be saved.”

With wretched slowness, he twisted it up above my head and slowly guided me backward until I was pinned against the wall. Then he crushed his mouth down upon mine.

“Then comes a queen, in the age of uncertainty, when shadows cast doubt upon the realm. Born under a double moon and marked by a radiant star, a faerie queen shall rise to command the depths of the voids of darkness.”

Twice blessed, the realm of shift

and mist, when comes the awaited queen who shall possess ethereal might. With a touch, she will feel the heartbeat of her subjects, and she will unlock the secrets they guard within.”

The darkness tried to consume me. But this time, I looked up and saw the stars.

“Touch her, speak to her, breathe in her direction—and I will hold you down while she shreds the skin from your body slice by slice.”

“When you emerged from the water gardens. He ordered that the hearth here always burn,” Cyara explained. I still struggled to understand. “Why?” Cyara’s shoulders tensed as if she might shrug, but then thought better of it with her still-healing wings. “It

is charmed. A protective fire, to guard you while you are in this room.”