A Twist of the Blade (Shadows and Crowns, #2)

by S.M. Gaither

“It wasn’t all lies, was it? Everything that happened between us?” He stared back at her. Hesitated so long that the waiting caused an actual, physical pain in her chest. “No, Thorn. It wasn’t.”

Everyone has their own battles. Their different hells. Different demons. And you don’t have to apologize for the things that hurt you, as I said, or for what you have to do to survive these things—not to me or to anyone else.”

All he knew for certain was that he had fallen in love with her twice now. I answer to a higher power, he’d told her. But perhaps there was no higher power than this. Than her.

“I love you,” he said. She dropped the bag she’d started to rifle through. “What did you just say?” “I love you. And I always have—in this lifetime and in every other.”

“I don’t know what happens next, either. But I am certain of one thing: If you are going to war, then I am going with you.”

“It had been a gift to Malaphar centuries ago. Solatis created it with the intention of giving it to the Rook God for reasons I can only guess at. But he used it for far more nefarious purposes than she intended.” “So she took it away?” He nodded. “And it was the beginning of a war that has waged between those two for centuries. One that continues to wage.”

A woman reincarnated with the very powers Malaphar wanted to steal, born into a family that the gods could not touch because of a deal he made, and that also had a connection to the servant he had hoped to use to circumvent said deal.”

And now, she could truly decide who she was going to be.

“I have spent decades missing you, trying to find a way back to you, and now I have you back, but…”