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The night was clear, the stars twinkling, and above her the twin moons glowed as matching crescents in the sky—one gold, one silver.
Caged beast. Chains. She needed freedom as much as she needed the air she breathed.
Love is a weakness.
“Do not act with brashness when secrecy is your goal. Move quickly, but always with intention, and sometimes that intention will be to wait.”
His eyes were the color of tanzanite.
“I present to you all, for the very first time, the new Queen Apparent of Onita: Mariah Salis.”
Where the silver threads had emitted feelings of wild darkness, these golden threads felt only of tamed light.
They could be her armor, but they could never have her heart.
She was intoxicating, dangerous, beautiful, the source of new obsession he couldn’t quell even if he tried. And he hated her for it.
Repeated, over and over again across that page, was the phrase, “Love is my strength.”
“The only way something can ever catch you off guard,” he would say, “is if you choose to let it stay hidden.”
I dreamed of that which was feared, saving us all. And I dreamed that without darkness, we can never appreciate the light.
“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.
All he knew was that she was his, and someone had hurt her.
“Fine. Call my bluff.” Her eyes took in his hooded lids, the lust in his eyes, the fullness of his lips. She pulled his head closer to hers until she was whispering against his mouth. “But I’m calling yours, too.”
“You will be my undoing, nio. Whenever you think it was you who lost control, remember—it was me who lost control first.”
Somewhere, deep in the dark recesses of her mind, Mariah knew there would never be anyone else.
The entire room was lit up by sparkling silver-gold light, the threads of her magic floating idly and peacefully about the room.
Svass, he’d said to her last night. Another word from the language of his mother’s people. It meant sweet. Like honey.
“You are one of the reykr, aren’t you? One of the shadow-wielders from Luexrith?”
She looked like a fallen star, adorned in darkness yet still shining with light and power.
“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.”
“Dance with me.” It wasn’t a question. There were no thoughts in Mariah’s mind as she grasped Andrian’s hand and let him lead her down the dais toward the dance floor beyond.
Girls are worth very little in a world where money and magic and power reign supreme.
“We don’t worship a goddess because she is weak.”
He would gladly take the heat of her wrath if it meant guaranteeing himself five minutes alone with her.
“And I don’t care about your past, or your future, or any of it. Because you are fucking mine.”
For what is life, of living, without the knowledge and wildness and uncertainty of death?
I love you more than I love the stars in the sky, my light. Never forget that.
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.
She’d fallen into a deep sleep, curled against Andrian’s chest as if his presence were the only thing in the world that could bring her peace. It was at that moment Andrian knew he loved her, heart and soul.
“Show me how good death can feel, Andrian.”
“Seven. Not including Scourge, there are seven gods. And the queen has seven members of her Armature.”
“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.”
“I love you, nio. No matter what happens, that will always be true.”
