Fearless (The Powerless Trilogy, #3)

by Lauren Roberts

I would spend the rest of my days making her flower crowns if she wanted to be a queen. My queen. Not Kitt’s. Not Ilya’s. Mine.

I can’t see the shape of her in this pressing darkness, so I’ll simply have to settle with feeling every inch of it.

“So damn the Trials. Pae, let me force every person in this kingdom to their knees for you.”

I kick the door shut behind me. “Where else would I be?” “Your own room, maybe?” “My room doesn’t have you in it.”

“Don’t do that,” I breathe. “Do what?” I duck my head. “Ruin me.” “I thought that is what you wanted?” she reminds me slyly. “Not like this.” I tuck a damp strand of hair behind her ear. “Not with him.”

I smile, tasting blood on my cracked lips. “So I look like hell?” “If you look like hell,” he whispers with a sly grin, “then I’m fortunate to be going there.”

“I would lose my life for you before finding something else worth living for.” His fingers weave into my hair, slide along the back of my neck. “You are my inevitable. In life and in death.”

I’m breathless at the sight of her, doomed by the hope of having her. It’s a beautiful ruin, a devastating devotion. This girl holds my heart in her hands, could crush it between her fingers and still have me thanking her for the touch. And I hold her shoes.

And I will gladly drown, gladly burn, gladly fall into those blue eyes until the day she looks at me for the last time.

Now, please entertain me, darling. I’m bored. What am I to do if not count your freckles?

“Paedyn, I love you. Like nothing else before, I love you. And I’ve been waiting to tell you since I realized your eyes are my favorite color and your freckles the only constellation worth looking at. I could lie—say that you’ve stolen my every thought and heartbeat like the thief you are, but all of me was already yours. Pae, you are my inevitable.”

“You are my inevitable. In death, and in love.”

“No part of you will go unloved.”

love you, Pae.” I say this sternly, unforgivingly. “And I am honored to get the chance to.”

“Marry me, Pae. I’m already on one knee, but I’ll get down on both and beg for you, if you like.”