The Rivaled Crown (The Veiled Kingdom, #3)

by Holly Renee

I bit down on my lip until blood flooded my mouth, and my nails dug into my palms as my chest heaved. I had stolen that guard’s life, had taken it as if it had never truly belonged to him. I had siphoned his power, and I had no idea how I’d done it. And that terrified me. I tried to think about the times I had used my power since I had first felt it, thought of how I hadn’t been able to feel it until Dacre, how I felt weaker without him, without our bond. Had I been siphoning from him all this time? Dacre. I let myself whisper his name in my mind over and over, my heart pounding so quickly that the rhythm ached in my chest, and for a moment, I felt him. A thread of warmth, fragile and distant, but undeniably there. I clung to it, to him, like a lifeline. It didn’t matter if I was imagining it, it was the only thing I had. I had believed I was stronger with Dacre because of our bond, because we were mates, but now I feared what I truly was. I feared that I had become the one thing my father always wanted me to be. I was a siphon. I was just like him. I was powerless on my own. “We move her tonight.” My father’s voice cut through my thoughts, sharp and decisive. “This is my heir.”