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“You may remain here with me at the temple,” the Reverend Mother said. “But I do not believe this is your place. Today I learned that my oldest and most trusted servant has died. I believe your purpose is to replace her as the temple emissary to His Majesty Kian Hannibal Mortara.”
Oooooh
“I have Seen more than the death of the king’s emissary. I have foreseen a possible end to the curses.”
OOOOOH go on mi'lady
“As above, so below,” Cerise repeated. “The flame you seek to dampen will consume you. Is that what you meant by the flame? Is it one of the trials?”
The place where the Great Betrayal happened. The very same mountain peak on which the four noble dynasties had gathered together and conspired to slay the goddess. Conspired and failed, resulting in a thousand years of curses for the noble firstborns and the lands of Mortara.
“Well, there’s an old rumor,” Daerick went on, “that the Solon seducer was a woman and that Shiera impregnated her and sired a race of demigods. The Triad believes that Shiera’s descendants should be in control, not the priests or even the king. They have followers in all four lands, but the sect is especially popular here.”
For his body to follow the pull of his spirit was an oddly romantic element of his curse that she hadn’t anticipated.
That was when she met His Majesty Kian Hannibal Mortara.
The Mortara dynasty had used their dominion over the priests to unify the four lands and create the Allied Realm.
You will find evil here, in the most unexpected places. By the time the shadows consume me and I dissolve into nothing, you’ll wish you could forget all the things the temple has hidden from you.
the soothsayer told us that blood spilled requires blood given.”
Nothing at court is as it seems. Behind every honest word, you should expect a hidden meaning. No one will be transparent with you. They’ve learned it’s not safe to be.
Now that she paid special attention, she could see how the outer edge of each nonsensical drawing along the margin aligned with the inner edge of the drawing on the next page. Mother Strout hadn’t scribbled in her journal out of boredom. She had left a message for her replacement, and Cerise had nearly missed it.
“She claimed the runes will present themselves to a worshipper of pure faith who makes an offering of darkness and light at the Blighted Shrine.”
“But are you saying the king has never tried to produce an heir?” Delora tilted her head to the side, her eyes softening. “You’ve seen the way he suffers, my lady. Do you believe he would pass that agony on to a child?”
Something wasn’t right.
I KNEW IT. KIAN!!!!! Has to be!
The door was unlocked.
“If I resented you, too.” Kian rubbed Blue’s ear, and while doing so, he reached up with his thumb to touch her chin. “But I don’t. And you’re more blindly devoted to that goddess of yours than any priest under my command.”
“Neither,” she teased, smiling and blinking her eyes dry. “The goddess achieved perfection when she created women. We want for nothing.”
There’s no such thing as an unnatural tendency. If something occurs within nature, it is by default natural. What’s unnatural is to vilify it and criminalize it and force people into hiding for being born the way they are.”
“Let me worry about Lady Champlain’s safety. I’ll see you at sunrise, my lady of the temple.”
BC HE HAS BEEN DRAWN TO HER AT DAWN. I knew it!!
“He will be sorry.” The Reverend Mother spoke in a voice as hard as steel. “The flame he seeks to dampen will consume him, Cerise.” “Yes, Your Grace,” she repeated. “Cerise.”
Kian hadn’t appeared at Delora’s bedside because his spirit was drawn to someone else now—to her—and it had been for days.
“I should have told you,” he said. “Kings are stubborn creatures. But now that my secret is out, you might as well know that I like you, my lady of the temple. I like you very much.”
Wow, I love a man that's straightforward
That she liked the way she felt around him, and the low timbre of his voice, and his storm-cloud eyes, and even the way her chest erupted into flutters whenever he stood too near.
“Fire blood,” Nero corrected. He jutted his chin at her. “You’re a descendent of the goddess. Her life force runs in your veins.”
He will be sorry. The flame he seeks to dampen will consume him
consider herself a demigoddess was heresy,
countered in a low, wicked voice that caused her pulse to hitch. “Would you like me to put you to bed, my lady of the temple? Or would you prefer that I take you to bed?”
The mere suggestion of Kian in her bed stirred her blood and sent it rushing to the juncture of her thighs.
“I was hoping to keep this private,” she said. She avoided their eyes, doing her best to look embarrassed as she pressed a hand to her lower abdomen. “This is what happens during my courses. Some women have a hard time of it, you know.”
The best way to use period pain
She could tell from the way he kept rubbing his face and forgetting to breathe that he was worried about her.
“I’m sorry I was cold to you,” he whispered. “What I said in that place…I meant it. My spirit doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to the girl with too much love inside her, the girl whose light scatters the darkness. My spirit wants the patron saint of ugly pups, toxic frogs, and foolish half kings.” His gaze moved over her face, burning her everywhere it landed. “I want you, Cerise. I’m sorry I gave you any reason to doubt that.”
This was no dream, no strange vision. The king was kissing her…if she could call it that, because the way he used his mouth redefined the act of kissing as she had known it.
“Cerise, I respect your decision,” he whispered. “But as a king, I know a thing or two about control. The kings who came before me ruled by fear. My father was one of them. And strictly speaking, fear works. It’s a powerful motivator. But anyone who has to terrorize their people into submission is a poor and unimaginative leader. A strong ruler inspires others to follow them. The same is true of faith. Any order worth your prayers will lead by inspiration, but a false order will create illusions of fear to control you. They’ll make you confused, just like you’re confused now. They’ll tell you
...more
“You could be his concubine
I didnt like father Padron from the start. Especially when he was harming himself - grotesquerie much? But to diminish women is such a wild power play.
“What you did today at the shrine,” he murmured. “It took my breath away. You have a light inside you.” He nuzzled the side of her neck. “And in the moments when you let yourself shine…” He paused to lick a sensitive patch of skin, sending her blood rushing to the juncture of her thighs. “You’re so radiant I can hardly bear it. You didn’t perform a miracle. You are the miracle.”
I wish I was spoke to like this :/
It was then that she fell completely in love.
“You glowed,” Kian reminded her, and then an impish grin played on his lips. “And not just because of my superior lovemaking skills.”
“The body doesn’t lie,” he said. “When you’re dripping into my palm like this, I know that you want me more than your next heartbeat.”
“You asked me to show you my favorite, and this is it.” He withdrew his fingers and sucked them clean. “The taste of you, the slippery feel of you. I want to drown in it. I’ve been dying to do this ever since the first time I kissed you.”
Will you forgive me, my love?”
OH
He didn’t know that he was umbra sangi, that he had the blood of the goddess in addition to the priesthood.
Mama was her grandmother. And Father was her grandfather, which meant she was a Solon after all.
Is Cerise a fost born Solon then?
That was where she would find her sibling.
My mother
“But I am my father’s daughter.”
“She was a twin. The first baby was born sleeping.” She looked to Cerise. “You were the second.”
Holy hell. That just made me sad.
“Shiera’s priests colluded with house Mortara,” she said as her blood flowed into the blade, “to usurp her holy authority and rule in her place. For their treachery, they were cursed to serve the whims of others. The priests are still undeserving, but this priestess is repentant.”
The compulsion blinked out.
She had done it. She’d broken the curses.
