A Reign of Rose (The Sacred Stones, #3)

by Kate Golden

nothing humbles a man quite like teething in adulthood.

I knew the truth—that I’d give anything, any limb, any life, any realm, to bring Arwen back. That I would shear the skin from my own bones, tear the world to pulp to hold her in my arms even just one more time—

The kind of man you’d trust with your life, but perhaps not your woman.

And when doubt crept in as it had so viciously today, I thought of Kane’s crooked smile.

“Find the blade, Kane.”

Of course. Of course it rained fire in Solaris.

a moon, a sun, a wave, a leaf, and a flame.

Just a sprawling, hostile ocean of stark white snow.

Kane telling me I looked beautiful in my black silk dress; his body caged over mine as he protected me from a hail of wine barrels;

I longed for the hundredth time for Kane’s warm, cozy bedroom in Shadowhold, and those clean, dark cotton sheets. The way they smelled of lilac soap and him. I missed all his unexpected clutter, and those fat history books, and even the scratches Acorn had left across the wooden floorboards.

“I only make promises I intend to keep. I will rebuild Solaris to its former glory. And I’ll craft Evendell into the same for our offspring. The Fae here will throw themselves at my feet for what I’ll have built them. What we will have built them.” “At what cost? Look at what your attempts here in Solaris have already done! All your finery and weapons and palaces with baths large enough to wash ten cities…Your greed has ruined the realm. How can you not see how wrong it all is?”

Arwen—my Arwen—was alive.

Arwen flinched as he reached for her. Stroked her cheek. Her neck. Her arm. I dug my toes into the floor to keep from launching myself at him. From becoming a human barrier between her and his fucking hands. He was touching her with his fucking hands. Lazarus grinned as he cupped her backside with familiarity before a rabid audience. “Tonight,” he promised. No—no. A harvesting ceremony.

And those eyes, welling with tears, simmering softly on my own— My heart gave out completely.

Those massive hands spanning the length of my back was enough to set tears free like a river rushing away.

“Shh.” His words muffled against me. Those lips. That dark, bearded chin. “My love,” he murmured. “I’m here.”

My dragon, unable to shift.

I’d die for the realms. I’d die for my people. I’d die for Arwen, so she could go on living.

Nobody would stand between Kane and me.

That was my dragon. Tears burned my eyes.

All this time I’d fought to protect Arwen. But she was stronger than I’d given her credit for. She’d fought through an entire kingsguard to get to me. She’d freed us both. And I’d almost caged the bird I loved—had nearly clipped her wings. If we made it free from these mercenaries alive, I’d apologize for that. I’d apologize for a lot of things.

Screaming not just at the snarling, bug-eyed beast but at all the pain, all the suffering the woman I loved had been forced to endure.

“If I go to you…If I hold you…” His voice broke on the word and I began to cry in earnest. “Arwen…” His next words were said so low, his tormented expression was the only proof I’d not imagined them. “It will break me.”

“Come here,” I whispered, scooting to the side carefully. “And I will put you back together.”

Oh, no. Sometimes it surprised me how well Kane and I knew each other. We’d only met less than a year ago, and in that time gone with whiplash quickness from precarious allies to adversaries to friends, and now to something deeper, and much more profound than a couple. If I believed in such things, I would have called him my soulmate.

My weary eyes found Kane’s, and he reached for my hand.

I’d been through so much. I wasn’t sure all my new edges and angles would fit through the doors the same way.

Breathing it. Repeating it like a prayer. “Arwen. My Arwen.” And “My bird, my love—”

We hummed in perfect harmony.

Oh, Stones…“Kane—” “Yes, bird?” he breathed against my neck.

My Kane. Who had suffered so much. Had endured such torment to find me—

“I’m here. You’re here, and we’re together,” he mumbled, rocking his hips a little as if he weren’t fully in control. “Arwen, I love you. I’m here.” “I love you, too,” I said,

Shadowhold bundled me up and placed me into direct sunlight. I already felt my petals unfurling.

He’d washed my hair with the most delicious lilac and lemongrass soap, and then my entire body after that, kneading and rubbing every inch of me from my sore shoulders to the slick ache between my legs until I squirmed and sobbed with pleasure.

Artifacts of his love.

I changed silently, careful not to disturb either of my sleeping, winged boys,

I had survived.

Had I bypassed Acorn’s squawking and hurtled into the hallway with nothing but a decorative pillow to cover myself, dark-winged lighte surging from my bare shoulders and arms, and roared at the guard on duty to tell me that instant where the fuck my wife was—even though Arwen was not my wife and I’d never seen the shaking kid before? Yes, yes, and…yes.

“Not even pants?” Griffin asked,

We had to chase the joy when it presented itself to us.

She was ravishing like this. Determined, a little flushed, playful.

I had been going far too easy on her—she wasn’t a finch, but a falcon.

the woman I was now—walking past wrought-iron fences wreathed in greenery and corner taverns adorned with flowerpots—this woman was all the things I’d hoped one day I would be: a little more worldly, a little less afraid to ask for what I wanted, sympathetic to the ambiguities of life and the complicated choices we all faced.

“Anxiety lives only in the mind. If your thoughts are elsewhere, you can’t panic.”

this was my family.

nobody can triumph alone.

“Maybe I should be rewarded,” I said, arching my body up so that his fingers floated closer to my stomach. “Perhaps so.” His voice did riotous things to me. “What is it you’d like, bird?”

I also didn’t hesitate to admire his perfect round backside as he reached for a towel.

Those lean yet powerful hamstrings, sculpted calves, tan, boyish feet…He was a masterpiece.

“Always staring.” His laugh was rough as he wrapped the fabric low around his waist and sli...