Reign of Stars and Fire (The Broken Kingdoms, #8)

by L.J. Andrews

“Do seers and fate workers ever sound coherent?” I tilted my head to one side. Fair point. “Who is this enemy?” “She called him darkness, that was all.”

“But she did say the darkness is only defeated if the final truth is found.”

I missed him. Not a slow ache of longing. This missing was a molten blade stuck between the ribs. Always there, always burning, always pleading for me to rip it out and either heal the hole or bleed out.

the Golden King to just sit there while we do all the work.” “Golden King?” “That’s what I’m calling your chatty lover now. Stand-in King worked for a time, but now . . . I don’t know, Golden King came to me and I’m keeping it.”

“There is something, some truth, you were meant to discover once you unlocked your curse. It feels as if your fate singer brother had some . . . destiny for you to reach as the queen. But this sleep feels as if it wasn’t meant to happen. Knowledge was meant to be gained before facing this old lover. Now, we must find a way back to the old story.”

“So long as the things on your mind have a great deal to do with my mouth and the power it wields.”

Near a wild lilac tree, a man touched the petals of one blossom. His hair was the shade of tilled soil before planting and was shorn on the sides with black tattooed runes on his scalp. The ridge of his hair was braided down his neck to his shoulders. A sharp apprehension clung to my heart. I didn’t know him. Over one side of his face was a black mask. A shape fitted to the ridges of his cheekbones, half the slope of his nose, until it ended down one half of his face. The facemask hid one brow and his left profile, but it didn’t cover his eyes. Whatever scars and pain the stitching on the black fabric hid away, it hadn’t damaged his eye.

“Is this the part where two lost crowns find each other?” Two lost crowns? “Mad old bitty,” Calista muttered.

He didn’t protest, even muttered, “Keep close, My Princess.” I didn’t dwell on the title, didn’t even think much on the fact that he’d claimed me as his princess.

He was keener to proper semantics than his sister, or so it seemed, and it likely was nothing more than a rough man from the dregs of the West trying to be polite. To those in the South I was more queen than princess since Riot was gone, but I enjoyed the title of princess. It made it seem like my brother was not watching from the Otherworld, like he still held the throne.

“Is this the part where it begins?” “Where what begins?” Forbi looked over her shoulder, a vicious smirk on her lips. “The end.”

“What do you mean the end?” I flicked my fingers at my sides, my pulse racing. Forbi shuffled around the table to her sisters. “This is the part where the third gift returns, and lies hide the last.”

“A falcon’s game for which he plays brightens deep your heart of pain.”

“Makers of shadows and mountains, come them all. Patience you need when darkness feeds, lest all thrones fall.” Danna hummed. “A king will rise, but only to his heart’s cries.” “A caution follows with this tale, should the first bond break, you will fail.” Oviss blinked her eyes open at the final word. She glanced at Calista. “This is the part where she takes our words.” “It made little sense,” I whispered. “Never does, Raven Queen,” Calista said with a touch of sadness. “A final word for the royal her.” Oviss took my hand tightly. “Strike the flesh. Dim the foe. When the moment is right, you will know.”

Ah, sweet menace, speak true. The rage you feel is not from missing me, but from missing the things my hands can do. Be honest.

She, the raven fair, grows cold till North winds rise. He, the peasant king, wakes her from the endless night.

Hand in hand, band by band, they join a fated fight.

hate this conversation, and will throw the mightiest of tantrums should it continue.”

The same captain from the last vision marched with four others between lines of men and women, barking clipped commands. He pinched an herb roll between his teeth and helped adjust the footing of a young warrior.

“She challenges you for she is safe with you. The Raven Queen knows she can fall, and you will catch her. She knows she can fight, and you will sharpen her blade. She knows she can speak,

and you will give her the room. Again, use these strengths to your benefit.”

“I was only talking about the broken kingdoms.”

“Not at all,” Riot insisted. “The boy—” “The raven’s mark burns across a golden king who hails from folk of the night,”

loyal heart lost in the dark, misspoken words bring the start. A few spaces down, Calista had drawn a sunburst shape and an added note that read: Eyes closed, safe and sound. Eyes open—found.

“To take from the fated gifts found in other kingdoms would make him strong as the fate king.” Stefan rolled an herb roll between his thumb and finger, but never lit the end. “Fate King?” Niklas pressed. “My brother,” I told him. “A true fate king connects to all the magicks. He could write fate for anyone, no matter if they were mortal, Night Folk, forest fae, or Alver.”

A few breaths after the room emptied, the boy crawled out from the table. “Hurry, little rose. We need to go. Something . . . something’s happening. We need to help your daj.” The boy fumbled with a little cloak and hood over the child’s head, took the small hand in his, then hurried after the king.

“Walk among the stars to sing the song of the king of scars.” Eryka’s eyes had gone pale. She rocked side to side in her seat and repeated the same line three times.

My breath caught in my throat when his face came into full sight. Bright eyes, alive with curiosity. Hair like dusty wheat tied in a knot at the back of his head. Sturdy in his build, but not a sign of age coated his face. One hand pressed against the thud of my heart. “Daj?” Riot stepped off the dais and walked toward my bleeding father. Long before he was the burly Petter Sekundär I remembered.

“Everyone always keeps their eyes on the king.” Her lips were close to my ear, what felt like a knee jabbed into my spine. The unmanaged anger on her tongue quivered in every word. “Fine with me. It leaves room for the queen.”

spun the blade in my grip. “Strange for a man to admit the only way he could wake his limp manhood was by watching others take his lover for themselves.”

The ward locked the doors behind the child, muttering a quick, “Good words, little rose.” Then, the boy took hold of the queen’s arm. He sang the words, low and soft, “Live now, fade tomorrow when roses take the song of sorrow.”

have her song, my friend. You must be part of it, you must lead her to her truth at the right time. Then, on that night, you will join me at the table, and we will share tales again.”

“Not a moment longer. Grant me that honor, Riot. Swear it. I fall for House Ode to live. That is all I ever asked.” “Do this, and I swear to you, I shall see you in the hall of the gods when she is ready. Now, let it be,” he said. “I can give this last gift to her, to our people.”

“My voice will be with her until it becomes hers, over and over again. Her path is different, but the same in many ways. The bond will call her back until she remembers the truth of her inheritance.”

Riot smiled and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Perfect. When they are found and restored, your bond will return. As I have taught you to use your voice, now you must do the same until you are found. She will never stop looking for the bond that draws her closer. She’ll find you.”

Halvar ignored him and scrambled to his wife. He had her in his arms in the next breath. “Tell me the truth, lovey, do you really wish to see me in the quarries? Or is it because you like me bare-chested and sweat soaked?” Kari’s pale hair was tangled and spilled over her eyes, but the way she snorted and buried her face in her hands, it didn’t take much to guess she was laughing and crying at once. “Really wish me dead for being a Raven, you sod?”

The children opened the paths? All this time, I thought the king had written the curse that created the broken kingdoms, but the paths that would split to different worlds, only to bring us back together again, were caused by . . . the littles. I jumped

“The king did not sing the song of a beast and his rogue queen, nor of a thief and her dark love. He did not sing of a broken-hearted raven and her golden king. Riot Ode’s song divided his power over magicks. He gave his gifts to the land to hide for others to find. He sacrificed his life for a curse that went against a natural order. It destroyed him but allowed another’s song to take shape.”

“Our song was to protect the raven princess from more pain. I didn’t realize by singing her a tale of a love that would be gentle and passionate and honorable would unravel a world.” Wraith stepped closer to me. “But I wouldn’t take it back. It gave King Riot a new way to defeat a powerful enemy. When the battle lord grew too powerful, the fate king realized he had a new way for his power to live on, a hope that the gods-magic could

“Does it surprise you? Seidr was the vein where all the magicks were held. Even the gift of memory walking like the shadow queen you know. The lands are more connected than you’ve realized, and now you have seen that you were the catalyst for uniting them. The Golden King and his Raven Queen were the first song of a new path. The first tale that opened the way for others.” “Uniting them for

“You are my every sunrise,” he breathed against my ear.

Ari’s chest rumbled in a kind of growl. “Woman,” he whispered, nipping at the lobe of my ear. “If I do not have your mouth on mine in the next moment, I will opt to go back to sleep and try all this again.”

“Then let it take you,” he said dragging his tongue between the cleavage of my chest. “Fall apart, I swear I’ll be there to catch you. Your pleasure is my pleasure.”

love you, Saga,” he said softly. “Life with you is my greatest honor.”

I turned to face him. My thumb tugged on his bottom lip. I kissed him sweetly. “The honor is mine. Forever.”

We were carved from the same land, even if I lived a world apart. The borders I had always studied in the four kingdoms were shaped by Petter Sekundär. He’d never known. In his mind, my father hailed from Etta, the Night Folk province.

figured my presence had been missed long enough and you all knew how to truly appreciate me now.” I sobered.

At the sounds of the door lock clicking, she turned over her shoulder. A wry grin lifted her cheeks. “Good my husband remembered he had a wife and stopped chatting.” “Your husband does not remember his name at the moment.” I kicked off my boots. “Tell me why you’re pressing those perfect breasts to the window for anyone to see? Those belong to me, or must I remind you?” Saga had the audacity to turn back to the window, sipping her drink as though nothing bothered her in the slightest.

“Tell me why my confession brought you to such a silence, unless you are simply stunned from the melodic tune of my voice.”

When Annon falls, she is ready. Guide her to the first bond and all the songs will be revealed, so a broken kingdom can be healed.