Threaded (The Solstice Cycle, #1)

by Tay Rose

Chaos didn’t fit in a quiet, antiquated place like Andburgh. Wildness didn’t belong in a woman; not when everyone around her stared her down like she was a beast in need of taming.

Caged beast. Chains. She needed freedom as much as she needed the air she breathed.

“I love you more than the stars in the sky, my light. Never forget that.”

“I would say that I now feel excitement, joy … and, if I may be honest, a healthy dose of fear. Power may be extraordinary, but always carries burdens with it as well.”

Wex

may also be the most valuable lesson we have to learn from Qhohena: that every sword needs a shield, every great power must be grounded, and even the strongest need protecting.”

“There is always a need for seduction, High Priestess,” she said, her voice dripping with a mockery of tantalization. “Nothing quite inspires men and brings them to their knees before you like the promise of something more.”

His hair was short and medium brown, and the planes of his face were classically handsome.

Sebastian

His medium length, shaggy hair was a bright red, his skin freckled so thoroughly it gave him the appearance of a golden tan. Eyes of bottle green met her own, and a fiery grin spread across his roguishly handsome face.

Quentin

younger man with shaggy, tawny hair like a lion’s man, his rich brown eyes filled with steady, watchful strength as he introduced himself to his queen as Drystan.

another man with dark hair and hazel eyes who looked very much like Sebastian, only slightly younger, was chosen by the wild silver magic and called himself Matheo.

Trefor, whose short blonde hair and sea-green eyes easily placed him as having ties to the c...

Feran was selected by the silver threads, a caramel-skinned man of obvious Kreah heritage, his braided dark hair pulled ba...

And on his knees before her was that same stunning, dark-haired male from the palace courtyard, his eyes of ravenous tanzanite burning up at

Somehow, someway, this girl who had to be just barely twenty-one gave him a smile that screamed of knowledge, power, and dark promises. It was positively terrifying and beautiful all at once. A dark goddess stood before him.

“I look forward to learning more about you, Andrian. I am especially eager to hear why you said those words, when the only emotion I can see on your face is contempt.”

She was intoxicating, dangerous, beautiful, the source of new obsession he couldn’t quell even if he tried. And he hated her for it.

I had a dream last night. I dreamed of silver and gold flames, of leathery wings, both blazing and shadowed. I dreamed of that which was feared, saving us all. And I dreamed that without darkness, we can never experience the light.

“I want to know more about the well-read boy who came to be Marked, left his home for the capital, and now serves a homesick, unstable queen.”

“I’m not sure if this is the only night you’ll give me. And since it very well may be, I intend to take this opportunity to worship you fully.”

“Looks like I got the freaky, new, potentially blasphemous magic, baby. Only for you.”

“A good ruler cannot afford to dismiss options that may help her in the name of pride.”

No. This was not a matter of pride. This was a matter of taking back power from men who never deserved to wield it.

“Perhaps this is why the magic left me early. It no longer wanted to be kept a captive in this palace and wished to find one who possessed the strength to do what it had been created to do.”

At least he had whiskey.

“Your body betrays you, nio. You say you despise me, that you shouldn’t have come here tonight—yet you made that choice, not me. And now I’m here”—he slipped a finger beneath her underwear, pressing it ever so slightly into her as if in emphasis, drawing a whispered moan from her throat—“and I’m calling your bluff.”

“I hated the fire I saw in your eyes. I hated how that fire heated me, melted the wall of ice I’d worked for years to build. I hated how easily you were able to worm your way into my thoughts without even trying.”

“You will be my undoing, nio. Whenever you think it was you who lost control, remember—it was me who lost control first.”

Andrian stood at the edge of the bed, grinning down at her with a look dripping of pure male satisfaction. Even in her pleasure-addled state, Mariah had a sudden and distinct urge to kick him in the throat. He must’ve read the thought in her eyes, his grin widening even further. “No need to look at me like that, nio. After all, you’re much more tolerable to me like this. On your back and screaming my name.”

“You can stare as much as you want, as long as you promise to keep blushing like that.”

Svass, he’d said to her last night. Another word from the language of his mother’s people. It meant sweet. Like honey.

“Good girl.”

“Utter one more foul word about her and I will slit your throat from ear to ear. I’m sure the red of your blood will look like a work of art pooling at her feet.”

Andrian

“If you so much as think about accepting the bond from her, or of assisting her in any way towards the growth of that useless power she stole from a family far more deserving, then I will personally assure her death. In fact … I will force you to be the one to serve as her executioner.”

Laurent

Sure, I know I hide behind a convincing mask, but that’s all it is … a mask. Inside, I’m just a heaping lump of scar tissue, just like so many other women in this country without magic to protect them. Because at the end of the day, even if the priestesshood is nothing more than a prison, at least it gets girls like me out.

C

We don’t worship a goddess because she’s weak, and I think it’s time this kingdom remembers that.”

Ciana

“And I don’t care about your past, or your future, or any of it. Because you are fucking mine.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I did once say I would only ever be a distraction for you. But then you went and turned yourself into mine. And now, I think we both know that I will never just be a distraction to you again.”

She only rolled onto her side, clutching a pillow to her chest, and continued to cry. Utterly unacceptable. Andrian quickly shucked off his boots and crawled into the bed beside her, pulling that pillow from her grasp and letting her use him instead.

All he knew now was that he would go to the ends of the earth for this wild girl crafted from moonlight and the darkness between the stars, even if it killed him.

Never wish to change an evolution that was always destined to occur.”

“Show me how good death can feel, Andrian.”

“Fear me, nio. I am not a place of refuge or safety for you.”

“The southern jungles of Vatha, and later Idrix, worship Ydros of the Earth. The voyagers who docked in the Kizar Islands claim Krilene of the Seas, whose consort is Ydros. The settlers of the Kreah desert honor Rulene of the Day Sky, and my people, in our dark northern Luexrithian mountains, follow her Consort, Callamus of the Night Sky. And, of course, we cannot forget Flétrir, the Scourge who calls the pit of Enfara home.

I couldn’t stand that there might actually be someone in this world who would complete me so fully that every fucked up thought I’d ever had would suddenly make sense.”

Andrian

“You brought me back to life, Mariah. And I don’t care if this means our very existence is now damned, or if this makes me the weakest man in the entire kingdom. But I love you. And I will love you until the stars blink out of existence and the moons drop from the sky. I love you with everything I am, and everything I will ever be.”

“Let’s go show them what moonlight really looks like, nio.”

“I believe you sit in my throne, Consort. I should like it back.”

“I lay claim to this throne by the magic in my veins, the magic of the first queen, the blessing of the Golden Goddess that carries with it the lifeblood of our world. It chose me, and I choose it, and as long as it sings its song in my soul my seat upon this throne shall never be denied.”

A shudder of power wracked through the earth, a tremor strong enough to wake the dragons of the world that had long since gone to sleep.

“Come, my queen. Let me fuck you on your throne.”