Fearless (The Powerless Trilogy, #3)

by Lauren Roberts

“You know, you are quite the pretty prince. In a different life of mine, perhaps I would have kept you for myself.”

“You should know better than most that looks can be deceiving, Paedyn Gray.”

“Oh, and Paedyn?” She turns, her long fingers wrapped around the handle. “Don’t fear power. Wield it. Perhaps even let it control you.” The queen smiles sharply. “Being an Ordinary is not what makes you weak. It’s your heart.”

“I’m not sure if it will be you or this unbearable heat that has me jumping into the Shallows.”

“Your arrogance is astounding as always, Kai.” “Thank you.” I cut him a glance. “That wasn’t a compliment.” “Then don’t say my name, and I won’t thank you for the sound.”

him—“there is no us. There can never be an us, Kai. Not really.”

We promised to have no masks between us, and yet, I’ve forced him to wedge one atop the hurt I caused.

This”—I gesture between the two of us—“is a fantasy.”

“Nothing about the way I feel is pretend, but…” I lift my hand, letting the diamond there catch the streaky light. “I’m still marrying your brother.” And I hate that.

“You think so little of me?” “I wish I did.” His eyes are icy. “I wish I could think about anything else.”

“What did you think we were going to do? Hide for the rest of our lives beneath the willow tree?”

“I’m selfish, Paedyn. I burned your home to the ground just to have you and now it is all of Ilya standing in my way, tempting me to light a match.”

“It was all a fantasy anyway. Kitt is who you, the Silver Savior, were destined for.” I watch him stand to his feet in one swift movement. “I was nothing more than a distraction.”

“Maybe I should distance myself from this distraction.” A muscle twitches in his jaw. “Maybe you should.” “Fine.” “Fine.”

Because if I have to choose between you or Kitt…” “I know,”

“Do you?” Those gray eyes glide over me in that way I’m certain I’ll never get used to. “Because I sure as hell don’t.”

Marrying Myla Rowe will earn him power. Earn him a son he can mold into a weapon. This is all it takes for the king to claim the child as his own. All the power. All the glory.

Omfg Kai is not his sonnn

the unbearable part is likely due to my lack of her.

The hours have dragged on without her to brighten them, leaving me with nothing to do but gamble away my shillings and drink enough rum to convince myself it tastes good.

that is the root of it all—truth. Something I am not strong enough to hear.

It is selfish of me to be angry with her, I know. But it is easier that way, as though I’m looking for a reason to lose her that isn’t my brother.

He can hear it. I can feel it. And we may not live long enough to say we had.

Elites rendered completely powerless. I am rendered completely powerless.

“I can’t leave you!” she yells back, bending to pick up a forgotten spear. “I won’t!”

I’m falling. Paedyn screams my name. Falling.

Paedyn’s silver hair glints over the ship’s railing. And that is the last I see before my body collides with the sea.

I strain for salvation. Beg for life. Beg to live it with her.

For her, I pull myself up that rope.

“I thought I lost you,”

“You c-can’t get rid of me that easily, Gray.”

“Damn fate, and duty, and every other word meant to keep us apart.”

“I want to hide with you beneath the willow tree. You are the secret I will spend the rest of my life keeping.” Her voice quivers benea...

So I nod. Her face in my hands, my h...

“You forget, Kai.” Her fingers wrap tightly around the spear. “This is my Trial.”

I’ve watched this beast. Learned its strengths. Discovered its weakness. And this is not the first monster I have faced.

do not fail, or falter, or feel remorse. Every beast can be defeated. A creature. A Trial. A king.

A weak chant begins to rise from their collective throats, one I thought I would never hear again. “Silver Savior!” “Silver Savior!” “Silver Savior!” And I might have liked the sound of it.

“I don’t think he wants to be looked after.” “He should be grateful that someone cares enough to do so,”

“You knew different versions of the same man.”

“Why he lived to please him while I lived to spite him.”

now he’s marrying the Ordinary your father hated,” I murmur. “The same one that killed him.”

“Kitt has always feared failing our father. But I think… I think he also fears turning into the one I hated.

Adena’s presence in that final Trial never fails to keep me up at night, mocking me in my dreams with ways I might have saved her.

you didn’t tell me?” “Would you have believed me?”

“I’m scared of what could happen to you. What I could do to you.” A muscle twitches in his jaw. “I fear every swipe of my sword and every command from my mouth. It haunts me.”

“It might just all be worth it if it means I can protect you.”

“It seems you’ll make a fine queen.” The diamond on my finger grows heavy. “It’s as though you were born for this.”

For a moment, it feels as though we are seated back in time at that dinner before the Purging Trials, the one where I all but forced her to eat. The night she became my weakness.

cannot seem to shake the gnawing envy in my gut, the jealousy that flares with every look shared and word exchanged.

“Stop staring at what you can’t have.”