Fearless (The Powerless Trilogy, #3)

by Lauren Roberts

Though these odd contradictories are rare, they are consistently tragic.

“Every brutal act is born of love.”

His is the hand my bloody fingers reach for because there is comfort in his imminence.

Honey. It’s only honey.

may have created something far worse than his father.

A criminal without a father, and a son forever trying to please his. Just as we were, and just as we always will be.

“The future queen of Ilya bows her head to no one.”

And for the first time since stealing those silvers from him on Loot Alley, I feel utterly alone.

“And if we wish for our great kingdom to remain, we will welcome Ordinaries back into it.”

Because that ring in his shaking hand represents everything he was taught to hate.

am the sacrifice that Ordinaries have bled and died for. I am the power they lack.

Every moment of my life has built up to this one. This one fleeting second of bravery.

In love with a girl I’d have bowed to long before she became my queen.

can’t fathom drowning if she is not the anchor I’m sinking with.

Why couldn’t we have just stayed in that field of poppies? 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.

And my reputation sure as hell can’t get any worse.

“No,” she repeats, voice lethal. “I will be the one to ensure that the next breath you take to insult me, or my people, will be the very last one you ever taste. And it will be me, an Ordinary, that ends your Elite life.”

My future queen has just made her first decree.

It was her I was meant to adore in this world

now she’s tethered to a king, and I am nothing more than her killer.

“Focus on this ring,” I urge, spinning the band on her thumb. “Your father’s, not my brother’s. Until I figure this out, spin it li...

“You’ve already survived worse,” I remind her sternly.

“I don’t need you to fight my battles.” “Oh, darling,” I murmur, “I know you don’t.

“I am no one’s queen.”

Because if she truly becomes Kitt’s, I will spend the rest of my life mourning her.

I don’t dare look in a mirror because what stares back is a mosaic of every mistake, every tragedy traced into my skin, and the looming shadow of each one to come.

Because I am the very object of weakness. I am loathed by all of Ilya. And if I am to be put on a pedestal, even to save their kingdom, they will gladly push me off.

entire existence has been reduced to appearances.

fortunately for me, I doubt my reputation could get any worse.

“A cockroach,” he chuckles, head shaking. “You’re a damn cockroach, Princess.”

She is confusion itself, a feeling unplaced, a color between black and white. Hell, she is my Silver Savior. And hating her is not as simple as it may seem.

“I’m sorry that I killed your father. But I will never apologize for killing a tyrant.”

And when words finally spill from her lips, she might as well have plunged a dagger into my back like she promised so long ago. “Then I will marry you, Kitt. To save this kingdom from itself.”

Will it be the broken girl staring back, or the traitor queen I’ll soon become?

“You look… hardened, in a way.”

“In fact, you look like a queen.”

It will be the slow death of us, spending every day alongside each other but never truly together.

“I heard you scream. And nothing… nothing has terrified me more.”

“And it didn’t stop. You just kept screaming. So…” A pause. “We both know it will take more than a locked door to keep me from you.”

So, I flick the tip of his nose with a soft “You’re quite the poet, Prince.” Moonlight pools in the dimple that accompanies his grin. “And you the muse, darling.”

Our brotherly bond falters in the face of her.

These screaming Slummers chose me to go into the Purging Trials, because they saw hope for one of them to become something more. And I have become so much more.

My home is in shambles. And so is my heart.

“Then they will have been right about me. I’m a weakness.”

She looks equally youthful and thoroughly weathered by the world. It’s a contradiction she wears confidently.

“I will show you my bravery, my benevolence, my brutality. I will survive these Trials and so much more. Still, you will likely hate me.” She lifts her chin, expression deceitfully calm. “So bow at my feet with a sneer, if you must. I won’t see it with your face to the ground.”

A left me to decorate the sky. And I don’t know how to live, how to survive, without her at my side.

What if I’m forced to kill? Coat my hands with more blood? I don’t know what I’m capable of without Adena’s light to scatter my darkness.

“I don’t want that for us. What I want is to be brothers again, without orders you detest shoved between us. And with the Ilya I am rebuilding, you won’t need to hunt down Ordinaries anymore.” Knowing his brother more than most, he reassures, “I won’t make you hurt anyone.”

In this moment, their bond resembles the one I thought I had broken. And the realization that they are stronger than my vengeance makes me smile.