More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“You saw what your father did to you. Do you think he’ll do anything less to Dacre?” I tried to shake my head, tried to fight against the images his words forced into my mind, but they were already there. Dacre on his knees. Dacre bleeding out on the cold marble of my father’s throne room. Dacre gasping my name before his world went dark. No. I refused to let that happen.
“Why are you doing this?” He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he leaned back on his heels, his gaze fixed on the floor, his shoulders tense. “You think I had a choice?” His voice was low, his jaw tight. “You think this is what I want?”
“I should have run instead of looking for you.” The words stole my breath. “Your father would have never been able to take me if I hadn’t been looking after you. He wouldn’t be able to use us…”
Was he in love with her? I had suspected it before
“Micah, I…” “It doesn’t matter.” He looked at me then, and I noticed the deep circles under his eyes. He looked…older. As if the weight of the world had settled on his shoulders and refused to let go. “Where is your sister?” He flinched, his body going rigid, and, for a moment, I thought he might leave, might turn his back and walk away.
“Don’t speak of her. Don’t you dare fucking speak of her.” I swallowed hard, the weight of guilt pressing heavily on me. “I’m sorry,” I whispered as I shook my head. I couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening, on how he could be standing in front of me so different than the man I knew. “I never wanted this for you.” Micah let out a soft, bitter laugh. “Well. Here we are.”
“Your father won’t stop.” His hand lifted slightly, hovering in the space between us, as if he meant to touch my face. I recoiled before I could stop myself, a sharp, instinctual reaction, and Micah froze. For the briefest moment, pain flashed across his face, then, just as quickly, it was gone. “He’s not going to stop, and if you keep defying him, you’re only going to make things worse for yourself—and for them.” The mention of them sent a chill up my spine, and I shook my head. “What will it take for you to listen to me?” I said nothing, and Micah’s hands curled into tight fists at his
...more
“Would you like for me to enter your cell late at night when you whimper Dacre’s name in your sleep and make you trust me then?”
Oh no he was in love with her!
“Get out,” I spat, my voice shaking with fury as I looked at the stranger in front of me. “I don’t want you here.” His gaze darkened. “You’re not in a position to refuse, Verena.” That regret slipped from his face, replaced instead with something colder. “Neither of us are.” He hesitated for another second, shaking his head. “Your father will…” “You did all of this for my father?” Panic flared in my chest, even though I already knew the truth. “For the man who took your parents?”
I hadn’t been able to feel my magic since I arrived back at the palace, hadn’t been able to find it no matter how hard I begged it to return, but I could feel power within me now, a violent storm churning and thundering beneath my skin. My vision blurred, the world a dizzying whirlpool of light and darkness. It was frenzied and out of my control, and I realized that this wasn’t my magic at all. It belonged to another, and when it finally cleared, when I felt as if I could breathe again, I saw with horror what I had done. The guard lay slumped against the far wall, his body unnaturally still,
...more
Cold, cruel laughter rang out from the doorway, and my head snapped up just as my father stepped inside, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. “There it is.”
“What…what did I do?” My voice trembled with the rest of my body. “You took his power,” my father answered, his smile widening. “I didn’t…” I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to control my ragged breath. “You did.” His words were dripping with triumph, and his eyes, gods, his eyes looked crazed as he said the next words. “A siphon is a rarity. A weapon.”
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
...more
“The heir to this kingdom doesn’t belong in a dungeon. She belongs by my side, where I can watch her.”
The cell door groaned open, and I didn’t allow my eyes to blink open until the sound of his familiar, measured voice reached me. “You’re making a mistake.” Eiran.
“I feel like I’ve heard this from you before,” I muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Perhaps it’s time to try something new.” “You’re choosing her over us,” he accused, stepping farther inside. His words should have struck deep, just as he intended them to, and there was a time when they would have. But now, it was just another reminder of how much we had changed. “Over the rebellion,” he continued. “Over the people we both swore to protect.”
“And who exactly have you protected, Eiran?” I asked, my tone sharp. “Being my father’s mouthpiece doesn’t make you a warrior. It makes you a puppet.”
“This isn’t a joke,” he spat. “The council is done indulging your recklessness. You’ve endangered all of us, and you know it.”
“What I know,” I said finally, my voice low, “is that you’d sell your own father for a seat at the council’s table.” “You mean my father that you attacked?” he sneered. “The man can’t even walk without a cane now because of you.”
“I did you a favor then. One step closer.”
“Let me be clear,” I said, my voice like a whip. “I will choose her over every one of you.”
YEA!!!!
“Verena, Wren, and Kai are the only ones who have my loyalty.” I took a slow step forward, the weight of my chains dragging across the stone floor. “I have spent my life fighting for this rebellion, but it’s a rebellion that has forgotten what it’s fighting for.”
“It’s full of people like you who would rather watch the world burn than stop for a second to think…” I narrowed my eyes, letting the next words strike deep. “That Verena may be the very person who saves us all.” He scoffed, shaking his head. “You think she’s our savior?” His voice was laced with mockery. “She’s born of Marmoris, born of the king.” His lips curled in disgust. “Her blood is poison, just like her father’s.”
“And in the forest?” I asked, my voice deceptively calm. “When you were helping her? Eiran stilled, but I saw it, the flicker of uncertainty. “Was she poison then, too?” “I know my place, Dacre.” His voice was tight, his knuckles white where they curled into fists. ”It’s you and the heir who need to learn yours.”
”You were born to fight for your people, and she was born to die for that same cause.”
“Don’t ever speak of her again.” I growled out the words. “You do not decide her fate.”
“You may have forgotten your duty, Dacre, but I have not.” “You can cling to your delusions all you want,” he continued, his tone turning to ice. ”But the reality is that in choosing her, you have become our enemy.” I let out a low, humorless laugh. “And you will regret it.”
“I am not an enemy you want, Eiran, but for her, I will become whatever I have to.”
YEA!!
“You think you’re invincible, Dacre.” His voice was quieter now, but no less venomous. ”But you underestimate the lengths your father will go to in order to ensure the rebellion’s success.” I tilted my head, voice cold. “No.” I let the word linger. “I know exactly the lengths he will go to, and I refuse to allow Verena to be another casualty in his war.” “Her blood in our soil will do nothing but strengthen our people,” he spat out, and it was almost like looking at my father. “Get out of my cell,” I growled, and I could feel my power swirling in my veins begging for me to spill Eiran’s blood
...more
“You’re not in a position to give orders, Dacre. You’ve thrown away every bit of power you once had here.” Slowly, he motioned toward someone outside, and I braced myself as two others entered my cell. Both of them were men I had helped train for the sake of this rebellion. “Good afternoon, boys.” I nodded toward them as I watched them with wary eyes, taking in their hardened expressions and tense postures. One had a scar running down the length of his cheek, and I had been the one who tore off a strip of my shirt to stop the bleeding when one of the King’s Guard had given it to him. Grady.
...more
“No?” I looked back and forth between the two of them. “Neither of you missed me?” Each of them took one of my arms and pulled me forward as I heard the jingle of keys behind me. I tried to remind myself that they were here on orders, not by choice. I had been in their exact positions so many times over. They were rebellion soldiers just as I had been.
“Take him to the council,” Eiran commanded abruptly.
The hidden city sprawled out before us, its stone-carved pathways twisting through the underground cavern like veins through flesh. Homes carved into rock, the low hum of lanterns floating above them, casting golden light across a city built in secrecy, in survival. I had lived and bled for this place, and now I walked through it in chains. The river that cut through the city was calm, too calm. I had never seen it so low, so dormant. People lined the streets, their voices hushed, their gazes darting toward me as I passed. Some wore pity in their eyes. Others, something colder. But none of
...more
My father sat at the head of the table, his broad shoulders rigid, his weathered face unreadable. His gaze followed me, and I could feel his anger simmering beneath his skin. Waiting. One of the council members, Aelira, was the first to speak. “Dacre.” Her voice was calm, almost gentle, but there was no kindness behind it. “You stand before us today accused of treason.” Treason. The word should have shaken me, but I felt nothing. “What do you have to say for yourself?” she asked. I lifted my chin, meeting her gaze head-on. “Where is my sister?” I asked simply, ignoring her question. “Wren is
...more
“And all I’m doing is trying to save my mate.” I met him head-on even as murmurs rippled through the council. The word settled hard into the room, and it seemed to draw the very breath from each of their lungs as they stared at me in disbelief. “Mates are from storybooks.” My father cocked his head slightly as if he could see through me, see the lies he believed I told. “And we have grown tired of your lies.” “She is my mate.” I said each word slowly, letting them land as hard as I intended. “She is bound to me as I am bound to her.”
YEA!!!! TELL THE COUNCIL!!!!
“You think she is your mate?” He laughed bitterly. “She is a weapon just like her father. She was created to destroy us all.” “I am bound to her,” I said the words again, and the truth of them hummed within every inch of me as I raised my wrists. “I am tethered to her in a way that even these chains cannot stop.” My father ground his teeth together, his dark gaze tearing into mine. “The heir is a liability. She is not your mate.”
“You are here because you’ve betrayed us all. You’ve put us all at risk by allowing this foolish obsession with our enemy’s daughter to cloud your judgment. You thought with your cock instead of your head, and you not only helped her get away, you attacked one of our council members to do so.” I saw Eiran nodding his head out of the corner of my eye, and for the first time since we walked in, I noticed that he had slid into one of the seats at the table. A seat that had been reserved for his father. “And what of your obsession, Father?” I looked back at him. “You put us at far more risk than I
...more
“That man,” he spat the words, “killed my wife.” “And my mother,” I reminded him. ”And now, he’s going to hurt my mate. He’s going to torture her until he can make her into a weapon.”
“You’ve been blinded by a girl who will destroy everything we’ve built,” my father growled, his voice thick with anger. “She turned you against your own blood.”
“She didn’t turn me against anyone,” I said firmly, and looked away from my father to meet the gazes of the council members I had known my entire life. “She showed me the reality of our actions. All she wanted was freedom, yet we couldn’t allow her to have that. Instead, you hunted her like she was a fucking beast to bring her back for the highest bidder. You are no better than the tyrant that we’re fighting against.”
“You’ve made your choice, Dacre,” he said through clenched teeth. “And now, you’ll live with the consequences.”
“You need me.” The words shot from my lips. “And what is it,” Aelira asked, her voice drawing my attention back to her, “that makes you so sure of that?” I didn’t hesitate, didn’t falter. “Because I know how to get into the palace.”
“I know the location of the tunnels we’ve spent years searching for.”
Eiran’s voice cut through the noise. “And why,” he asked, leaning forward, “should we believe you?” I looked over at the fucking coward. “I have no reason to lie. You have me in chains, and I need to get into that palace.” Aelira exchanged a glance with my father, something unspoken passing between them before my father spoke. “Enough.” The room fell silent once again. He stood, slow and deliberate, his hands pressed flat against the table. “You claim to know the way in,” he said. “Prove it.”
“I will,” I said. “But not before I get something in return.” My father’s jaw tightened. “This isn’t a negotiation.”
“Then kill me. Because without her, I am no use to you, no use to this rebellion.”
Aelira’s eyes narrowed. “And what, exactly, is it you want?” I let the moment stretch, ensuring they were listening, then, I spoke the only demand that mattered. “I will show you the location only when these chains come off my arms.” I looked around to each of them. “I will get Verena back, and you must promise that she is not to be harmed.”
Eiran scoffed. “You expect us to agree to that?” I turned my head toward him, my voice steady as steel. “You don’t have to agree to anything.” I looked back at my father. “I’ve spent my life bowing to the whims of this rebellion, and I finally have the intel you need to get to the king, to get what you’ve always wanted. Are you so willing to sacrifice Verena for this cause that you are unwilling to save her for it?”
“Sacrifice is the foundation of the rebellion,” he growled, his fists clenched at his sides. “Your mother, my wife, died for it.” He opened his mouth to finish, but I spoke before he could. “And if Verena dies for it, the way into the palace dies with her.” Aelira folded her hands on the table. “And if we spare her?” I considered my words carefully before I said them. “If you let me save her, if you help me, then I’ll take you inside. I will help you defeat the king.”
Eiran scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. ”You expect us to believe you’ll just hand over the tunnels once she’s here?” I looked at them all, slow and deliberate. “Kai, Wren, and I will use the tunnel to get Verena back. I will show you the tunnel before we go in. I will trust your word on what will await us when we return.” Torrin finally spoke, studying me carefully from where he sat at my father’s side, a place he had been most of my father’s life. ”And if you betray us?” I didn’t blink. ”Then you’ll have every opportunity to kill me. Send as many warriors with us as you like until
...more
Aelira exhaled, her gaze flickering between my father and me. “Your father…” “I can’t trust him,” I answered honestly. “He would rather see Verena dead than at my side. He will betray me to get what he wants.”
