Night of Masks and Knives (The Broken Kingdoms, #4)

by L.J. Andrews

Those were nights when the girl told the boy he was valiant and steady like a raven, and he said she looked as pretty as a rose. The boy whittled them, a raven and rose, then tied the raven to her neck, the rose to his, and told her he’d always keep her secrets. Always.

Well goobye already im gone (aka obsessed and the hypefixation continues)

the one who fit the glass ring would wear the crown.

“There are secrets at the Masque av Aska like there are in memories, Hob. And a girl must have her secrets.”

Oh i love her

I’d find Kase again. And, no mistake, my first kill would be the one who took him.

I’d know my fantasy prince anywhere. As a girl, I’d shaped his face after the boy who slept near me in the hayloft. Different eyes, but if I’d given Prince Fell gold eyes like the sunrise, Kase would’ve known who’d inspired the tale.

TEARS

I sniffed and hugged the horse against my chest. “We’ll find him, Asger,” I whispered. “Want to know something? I think even as a man, he’ll keep you beside him.”

The Guild of Kryv belonged to the Nightrender, a wraith of a man. A crook who hated the Lord Magnate and folk of status. Some called him the dark faerie. A man who’d appear when one’s darkest desires needed to become reality.

Hehe

I scoffed. Always excuses. Littles could survive without fathers. I did.

Lmao

Our destinies were tangling together, and I could not stop it. Wasn’t entirely certain I wanted to stop it.

A man would be a fool to risk drinking his poison. To knowingly weaken his resolve. I was becoming the fool.

Still, it did not mean anything would change. I would be the villain in her eyes. It would be better for her to hate me, to hate us all.

Mhm sure

“Malin, don’t do this. The Nightrender will own you.”

👀

Your hair looks like the sunset, Mallie. Yours looks like dirt. But the good kind of dirt. What the hells is the good kind of dirt? You’d know it if you saw it, Kase. But there is. There just is.

Blood pounded in my head. She feared me, and I should want it. But I could not deny there was a dull pain at the thought.

He was vicious. Terrifying. He was perfect.

LMFAO REAL

Those inky eyes narrowed as he glanced to where my hand held his, as if the stun of being touched stopped him more than the pressure.

😩

The old Alver woman had flipped over one of her mystic wooden runes and told Kase he needed to guard my heart—it’d be his to vow with someday.

STOP

“I already decided I’m takin’ vows with you, stupid. You gotta kiss during the vow stuff, and I already have with you.”

My decision had lashed out so swiftly. A heady desire to hear my name from her mouth, a desire to break her;

Malin Strom was a thorn in my side. A hope in my heart.

His eyes lowered to the horse and the raven charm. When he looked at me again it was as if I’d taken my sharpest knife and carved out his heart through his spine. A look I’d never forget, and one he promptly buried beneath those strange shadows.

So, it made little sense to me how a few harrowed glances from a woman who couldn’t even strap her knives correctly had me unsettled and wanting to lash out at anything that moved.

Truth be told, the girl who’d been the whole of my boyish soul would be simpler to avoid if she’d grown to smell like hog piss and not . . . this.

THE WHOLE OF MY BOYISH SOUL????

Cold as I tried to be, I wished I felt less when she came too close. Fewer dips in my belly, fewer leaps in my chest. Most days I couldn’t decide if I should flee or reach out and touch her.

She should not say my name. It stirred too much.

Hehe

She smiled. A small grin, but a grin all the same. “You killed him.” I flicked my eyes to Helgi’s lifeless body. Gore and death soaked the stones, the wood floors. Nothing pleasant was here.

Lmfao this dynamic

“He wanted to sell me.” Her grin took on an aggravating smugness. “And you killed him for it.”

“I recall nothing, and would not consider slitting a man’s throat the same as killing web weavers.” I recalled every sound, smell, and emotion of the battle with the web weavers.

SKFDJAKDKS SIR YOU AINT FOOLING ANYONE, LEAST OFALL MALIN

This was needed. Let me become her monster. Her nightmare.

I did not want to think too long on what motivated me to slaughter in the name of Malin Strom. No mistake, she’d figure it all out and keep grinning at me like I was some sort of dark hero.

Kase cleared his throat. In truth, it was wholly satisfying to see him discomposed. “Do you still tell stories with the stars?”

Im gonna cry

″Malevolent mesmer,” he said in his gritty rasp, “means power over fear. Likely the inspiration behind dark sprites and fae in old legends.”

I drew in a sharp breath when, for a moment, Kase curled the tips of his fingers around mine. Only a breath, a mere heartbeat, then he released me, stretching his hand as if something irritated his skin.

HAND FLEX

″Crack your sharp tongue all you want. To me you’ll always be nothing but a skinny boy, crying for his girl.” My chest squeezed hard enough I thought it might snap a rib. His girl. The way Kase spared the briefest glance over his shoulder, told me what I needed to know. He’d cried out for me, and I never came.

i am unwell

“Breathe with me. I’ll be here until it passes.”

I tried, gods knew I tried, to despise everything about her. Tried to forget her strange breathy laugh when she thought she said something funny. Tried to forget the way she used to practice her braids on my hair. Hells, I tried to forget the peace that came from falling asleep beside her even as a boy.

I’d lived a wretched life but had only one regret. I should’ve found a way to tell Malin Strom the truth. About everything.

He would not die. I would go to battle against the All Father himself if the gods tried to take Kase from me.

The wooden raven I’d returned, but the second pendant was a terribly shaped rose with rough-cut petals.

😭😭

He wouldn’t die here today. He’d live, and by the gods, if he wanted vengeance against those who’d harmed him, I would be the first to lift a blade on his behalf.

Truth be told, I didn’t know how to be Kase. Not anymore. But for the first time in turns, I wanted to be.

STOP

My eyes closed when Malin pressed her brow to mine. ″Why do you hate me?” Her voice croaked.

Kase you better be sweet to her

She’d been my first love; my only love. All these wicked turns later and she’d found the ability to command me once again and didn’t even know it.

Sleeping on the freeway

“You’ve always been my undoing.”

“I heard you, you know. I heard you calling my name. When they had me alone in a cage, I called for you too. Until I lost my voice.”

″Because they’re oracles,” Eero blurted out. “They’re the Kind who once ruled this bleeding kingdom.”

Malins bloodlines sounding pretty sus rn

If he would only let me care for him—hells, if he would let me love him as I did—there were a great many things besides touching I would do to Kase Eriksson.

RETWEET

A wickedness lived in Kase’s golden eyes. One that spun a web of heated delight low in my stomach. “Twice now you’ve asked me to turn away. There won’t be a third.”

SIR

“Do you take pleasure in commanding me?”

Oh my god

″Fit for a future queen,” Kase said. “Do you agree?” What was this about? “It is beautiful, but I am no queen.”

A h a