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Wildness didn’t belong in a woman; not when everyone around her stared her down like she was a beast in need of taming. For that was all she was. A cornered animal, snapping at her chains, itching for the day when she could finally be set free.
She needed freedom as much as she needed the air she breathed.
Love is a weakness.
Allume, the raw magic native to the realm of the gods, collected and transported all throughout the kingdom through a complex system of piping and panels made of lunestair, or moonstone, provided warmth and light and energy to every building and structure in Onita.
It wasn’t often she was cheerful, but it was quite difficult for her to be upset with a glass of smooth whiskey in her hand.
For some, Mariah imagined it felt like a parade of hope, towards some new beginning or unfulfilled destiny. For her, it only felt like a funeral procession.
That great, eerie pit deep in her stomach stirred suddenly, like a big cat opening an eye before stretching out its claws, curious about the gathering energy in the air.
Qhohena, the Golden Goddess, the giver of life and the mother of their world. The great patroness of Onita, her favored people, and the benefactor of the queen and her magic.
She looked like herself. And she loved it.
every sword needs a shield, every great power must be grounded, and even the strongest need protecting.”
Love is weakness.
They could be her armor, but they could never have her heart.
And in that moment, he knew he hated her.
But when his eyes met hers, he forgot, for the most fleeting of moments, that he hated her.
Suddenly, he had the strange urge to leap up from where he knelt, to bury his fingers into those near-black tresses, to know exactly how good it would feel to wind his hands in the lengths and pull—
Andrian hated her eyes most of all.
It was positively terrifying and beautiful all at once. A dark goddess stood before him. A goddess he hated.
No matter what, life had taught him that hatred was preferable to fear. Preferable to anything. After all, hatred was the only thing that guaranteed survival in this world.
He still hated her. But he couldn’t deny that he was curious.
He wanted nothing more to do with her, but by the Goddess there was something about those emerald eyes that made him want to rise to her challenge, to meet her head-on, to break her and make her his. Wait … what?
She was intoxicating, dangerous, beautiful, the source of new obsession he couldn’t quell even if he tried. And he hated her for it.
“Love is my strength.”
“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.”
This man, this devil, had secrets of his own, and she wanted to know them.
She couldn’t stop the flush that crept up her neck. She despised him. So much.
In Mariah’s experience, the most interesting of finds could be discovered behind the most unassuming of doorways.
I dreamed of that which was feared, saving us all. And I dreamed that without darkness, we can never appreciate the light.
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.
“You will be my undoing, nio. Whenever you think it was you who lost control, remember—it was me who lost control first.”
The second he’d stalked into her life, she’d been ruined.
Andrian shrugged. “I find myself lying about many things lately. Mostly to myself.”
Queen Mariah. No one had called her that yet. She decided she rather liked it.
“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.”
Eyes of forest green and tanzanite blue clashed together, screaming silent words across the short distance separating them, words that wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t be said.
And yet, here she was, getting lost with him while the entire continent watched on.
He still hated her, he’d reminded himself. Hated her. Hated her. But words, when you start to repeat them often enough to yourself, begin to lose all their meaning. Begin to sound like nothing at all.
“When I saw you in that courtyard, I saw a woman who had everything that I never had. You were free, confident, powerful in your femininity.
We don’t worship a goddess because she’s weak, and I think it’s time this kingdom remembers that.”
From the second she’d stepped out of that carriage, a part of him had known she would be both his damnation … and his salvation.
Those words—that voice—were both Mariah’s temptation and her salvation.
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.
It was at that moment Andrian knew he loved her, heart and soul.
“Don’t get in my way.” Her voice was cold and foreign. “Wouldn’t dream of it, princess.”
Mariah would’ve been thankful for all those mornings spent training if that otherworldly power hadn’t been thrumming through her veins, a power that whispered of how this was barely scraping the surface of what she could do.
And with that one, simple move, Mariah felt a piece of her soul stain a touch darker forever.
Without darkness, we can never experience the light
“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.”
None of this made her feel weak. In fact, what she felt right now was a surge of strength, more powerful than any she’d felt in her entire life.
Like a caged bird finally set free, the truth of what had long resided in their hearts and souls was out, and it filled Mariah with a weightlessness she couldn’t hope to describe.
