The Songbird & the Heart of Stone (Crowns of Nyaxia, #3)

by Carissa Broadbent

In times of great darkness, humans crawl to light like flies to the gleaming silver of a spider’s silk. These are the souls that gods feast upon. No one loves you more than someone who has no one else.

Or perhaps gods, like mortals, are simply mesmerized by their own damnation.

I see you, little one. Reach out your hand.

This is the tale of how a chosen one falls. She does it screaming, clawing for her old life with broken fingernails. She does it slowly, over the course of decades. And in the end, she takes the whole forsaken world with her.

No walls. No bars. No guards. No windows. Not even a horizon line, a sky, a ceiling, a floor. Just nothing.

“One cannot kill what is not alive.

But I have grown fond of her, and now, when she speaks of great plans of bigger worlds, I see them reflected in the eternity of her eyes.

The last thing I heard was Asar’s shout. The last thing I saw was Ophelia’s face, tear-streaked, as she dragged me down.

It was dark. So dark. Panic climbed up my throat. Light the candle. I called to the sun. But there was no answer. I tried again, again, again⁠—

“And now, look at you. I raised you. I protected you. You were my child, not just my sister.”

into his chest. The two of us went up in flames together, god and traitor. It shakes the world when a god dies. It rearranges histories in mortal and immortal realms alike.