The Dawn of the Cursed Queen (Gods & Monsters, #3)

by Amber V. Nicole

Maybe I did deserve her after the way I had betrayed my family.

“The World Ender had a lover and not just a fling like in his past. They say she is a beast made of flame and hate, and she followed you lot back. His beast. The female Ig’Morruthen.” Dianna. He meant Dianna.

Samkiel was a light. He promised peace and change, and I had helped snuff it out. A part of me hoped I burned in Iassulyn for eternity for it. Another part of me knew Dianna would hunt me, hunt us all like she did for her sister. I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t welcome it.

hair clipped close to the scalp with shaved markings on the side—markings of rebels.

I didn’t need to see Imogen’s fingers to know they were bare. Nismera had those silver rings melted down the second she had a chance.

“I have a blade,” I said, and Isaiah sat up straighter. “It has runes engraved on the sides. Think the words of Ezalan, but more. I could erase all her memories and replace them.

“Fuck,” I gasped. “You’re supposed to be eating breakfast.” Another swipe of his tongue had my body bucking with helpless pleasure. “I am,” he practically purred against my swollen, wet flesh.

“This is what I need. You. Just you. I want to bury my cock in you balls deep. Then I want to fuck you until you can’t walk. I want you to feel me for days, akrai.”

“Treacherous.” Thrust “Filthy.” Thrust “Woman.”

“Resurrection is forbidden for a reason. It has not been performed for any reason. Even the strongest, most deadly necromancer can only revive tissue, not the soul. Who knows what it has done to you and him? What if it is not permanent? If he is not permanent?”

Whatever you did in that tunnel altered more than you think. The universe will always have its balance. There will always be consequences. I know mine, but what are yours?”

She is my everything. The words floated across my mind, a truth that lived deeper than my flesh and bone, one buried in my very atoms.

If he was the sun, by the old gods, she was the moon.

“With all due respect, akrai, do not compare me to him or what you’ve experienced with your past lovers. I don’t need nor want any other form but the one you wear daily. Do you understand?”

“Because we are not dealing with Ayla. Ayla died the second Kaden got a hold of her. We are talking about Dianna. We are not dealing with Samkiel’s mate. We are dealing with Kaden’s.”

With his arm pressed between my breasts and his hips spreading my thighs, I struggled to ignore the brief flash of heat that burned deep in my belly. I shook my head. What was wrong with me?

She held up that small finger, wiggling it at me as she grinned. “Your burdens are my burdens, and we take care of each other, okay?” I clasped her pinkie with mine and nodded. “Promise.”

He opened his palm to reveal my rings.

I worried about their hooves with this terrain. Even as hard as they were, the jagged rocks could cut the soft underside after a while.

On brand for him

“What’s he saying?” “With all due respect, he thinks you’re a psychotic bitch,” Reggie said and cleared his throat.

“Oh, so you expect him to take another as queen? You are his, correct? Is it not what you both scream relentlessly in the dead of the night?”

“My eye does not work on you, so I ask, what does the King of Rashearim mean to you?” “Everything.” I didn’t hesitate or pause.

“Oh, I would level the universe for him, but he told me to be good, so I’ll stick to saving him instead.”

My body responded to orders I wished it didn’t.

“If you look at her like that again, speak to her in that same tone, or threaten her, I do not care about any partnership or alliance we may form. I will kill you,” I said, meaning every word.

“Logan, if you can hear me, know that Samkiel is alive. We will not stop fighting for you and the rest of our family. We will bring you home, okay?”

It wasn’t until lights-out and a hush fell across the prison that I knew Dianna had lied to me.

They were hard to see, but there were two indentations on his wrist. My lust-clouded brain raged, thinking another had marked him, but then I realized.

You can’t hurt me. I only hurt when you hurt. Your burdens are mine, such as your pain is.

was the most erotic thing in the world to see the realm’s most powerful man kneeling between my legs.

Samkiel leaned in, sliding his lips along my neck, his breath a hot wash over my ear as he said, “I want you to bite me while I fuck you. Truly bite me.”

I asked Hilma who he was, but she just mumbled something about him being a brother to a powerful queen and shushed me back to work.

Think of it as a tool to absorb bad dreams or things of that nature. It will protect the one who owns it.” I cradled it in my palm. “You made this for me?”

“This is for Samkiel, for Logan and Neverra, and Imogen. For Xavier, for Cameron, and everyone else you’ve ever hurt, you traitorous bastard,”

“Quiet, Dianna. Or I will have to put something in your mouth to make you quiet.”

“The lack of their mark forms a hollow ache. It is a desire to be completed. Mated pairs usually settle after the mark has sealed, but until then, they tend to mate furiously. It’s natural. Nature demands its completion and seeks to seal their souls.”

I spun my magic into a leash and dragged Kaden from his room.

I FEEL SO OVERDRESSED here,” I said from behind my drink. “I’m glad you are outside. I’ve seen eight areolas, but on the plus side, no one is really looking at me.”

“An empty, empty shell,” the oracle barked and laughed, slumping in the chains. “Hollow. Void.”

“I wouldn’t follow her, headless boy, or you’ll have a twin to match.”

“You’re both fools to think you can stop what’s coming. Fools to think you’ll make a difference. Chaos wants this world again, and chaos will have it.”

“The most powerful being in the entire realm is not the World Ender, but the one who protects the World Ender. The one who brought him back from the dead,”

I lost us our mark. That was my price. He’s not mine anymore.”

“That’s not your price, Dianna, trust me. I’ve lived with you both and heard the way he speaks about you when you aren’t even around. Gods, the way he looks at you. It’s as if you have hung the stars themselves. He’s tied to you now, Dianna. Trust me when I say that you don’t need the mark.”

“There is nothing more important to me than you.”

“You know me,” he tapped my nose, “I’ll make it fit.”

“I just want to be what you and Gabby see in me. Not what he made me.”

I have seen your heart, physically held it, and I have never met an evil being who loves as you do.

“You give me the best memories.”

“Your soul. The cost of saving me was your soul,” Samkiel