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I was a threat to everything he stood for. And still, he had chosen me. Even after the betrayal, after learning my true identity, after every reason I had given him to turn away, he had protected me. He had given me the most dangerous weapon of all. Hope.
To the cage that was far more opulent but a cage just the same. And I had never been more afraid.
“Let me be clear,” I said, my voice like a whip. “I will choose her over every one of you.”
Everytime little shit
“I am not an enemy you want, Eiran, but for her, I will become whatever I have to.”
PERIODDDD DADDY DACRE
“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.”
“Because Veyrith was a kingdom of balance. Of magic. Of power. And where there is power, there is always someone who seeks to take it.”
“You are not just the daughter of Marmoris, Verena. You are a daughter of Veyrith, the last daughter, and I bound your power to protect you. I bound your magic so it wouldn’t awaken until you found safety in someone who wanted you to have power, but did not wish to use it.”
When shadow swallows the golden throne, And rivers run dry where magic has flown., The cursed shall rise with fate-bound hands, A tethered soul to shifting sands. Born of ruin, blood, and war, Bound to take yet cursed to mourn. The tideborn’s gift, bound in chain, To break the bond or bind again.
It wanted to keep me whole. It wanted to keep me safe. It was my bond. It was my mate. I didn’t know what was real inside me and what was an illusion, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I could feel him, and nothing else mattered at that moment. My own magic twisted inside me, not in pain this time, but in recognition. Dacre was fighting.
We were nothing but two traitors whose fates were undeniably linked, but we were as lost today as the day we had found one another.
His hunger slid down my throat, a taste that wasn’t my own. It coated my tongue, like the moment before a beast strikes, when hunger becomes certainty, when the kill is inevitable.
If Dacre dies I am done
I looked back. And the last thing I saw was my father. Still on his knees, blood dripping from his nose, and his gaze locked on to mine. His rage. His hatred. But beneath it— A flicker of something else. Fear.
YEAH YOU BETTER BE SCARED DIPSHIT
This was my family. And I would burn the world for them. I would give everything.
“If you put her in a cell,” Dacre snarled, his voice thick with something dark and dangerous. “If any of you lay a single finger on her, I will burn this city to the ground.”
“The rest of the kingdom will fall to their knees before you, Verena.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss just below my belly button before he stared up at me. “But please allow me to be the first.”
“Take from me until I have nothing left to give. I am devoted to you. Everything I have is yours to take.”
He was looking at me like I was something sacred, something holy, and it made me ache to the point of pain.
“I want you, all of you, and I don’t want politics or war dictating what we are to each other. I want to choose this. Choose you.”
“I want you as my wife,” I murmured, my voice hoarse. “Not because it’s expected. Not because of the rebellion. But because I love you. Because we were bound before either of us even understood what it meant. We are bound by fate.”
“A true vow is not just words, my love. It is a tether, a bond as old as the land itself. To speak it with your soul is to be bound, not by laws or men, but by the gods themselves. That is the power of love, it does not bow to kings.”
“Wait.” She said it so quickly that my gaze shot up to meet hers. “I’ll get him.” She quickly recovered. “Then I’ll meet you downstairs.”
Oooooo they fucking
He was a warrior. He was dangerous. But here, with me, he was trembling.
“I told you to ride me,” Dacre growled against my flesh. “That means my face too, love.”
“She believed in who you would become. She prayed to the old gods and the new, her hopes weaved into every plea, that when her daughter ascended to rule this kingdom, she would do so with a courage that surpassed her own and possess a strength that could bring an entire kingdom to its knees.”
“You are the ruler that will unite us all.”
“I didn’t want to add another burden for you to carry,” he admitted, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. “Another thing to break you.”
Ugh poor micah man
Dacre’s father hesitated for only a heartbeat, a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity before he spoke. “We remove her before she becomes a bigger threat than she already is.”
This man is so annoying he does not know when to quit
My life had been ruled by men who thought they could decide my fate for me, but my fate wasn’t theirs to control. It never had been.
PERIOD A QUEEN
“Your son already bows for me.”
YES MAAM LET EM KNOW
“You are my father, but if you dare speak of my wife like that again, I will slit your throat and paint this city in your blood.”
“She is my fate, my future,” I said quietly, my words sharp as a blade. “And I serve only her.”
“She is not a bargaining chip. She is not a pawn to be moved in your war. She is the war.”
If Kai had a choice, if Dacre did, neither of them would ever let my father near me again.
“I watched your wife die,” Eiran whispered. “And I watched my father stand beside you all these years after he drove the blade through her chest.”
OH SHIT
“I saw her trying to get the princess out.” The words struck like a blade. The princess. Me. I staggered back, my shoulder colliding with someone behind me as a memory slammed into me. A flicker of movement, a hand grasping mine, a voice whispering “Run.” A voice I hadn’t recognized before. A voice that had been hers. Dacre turned toward me, his breath shallow, his hands trembling at his sides. “Verena—” But I barely heard him because I remembered. I remembered running. I remembered guards shouting, the palace halls blurring past me. I remembered a woman, dark hair, brown eyes with a hint of
...more
Oh My gosh
“She was a mother, protecting a child, and you cut her down for it.”
“And I will fight beside you until the king is dead.” He lifted his head slightly, his gaze burning into mine. “He has already taken too much, too much of you, too much of us, and we will not allow him to take any more.”
Ugh I was hoping he would end up dead but okay i can get with this
“I will fight beside you.” My voice was steady. Strong. “Until the king is dead.” The tides had turned. And I knew when tomorrow dawned, we would march. Tomorrow, my father would fall.
She was everything, and I would worship her until my dying breath.
Neither of us spoke about it. Neither of us let go, and I would hold on to it for as long as the gods allowed. But when the sun set and rose again, the war would begin, and I didn’t know if we’d ever have this again.
What we were both thinking, but I refused to let all of the fears that screamed at me to take root.
“The tunnels.” He shook his head once, as if still trying to process his own words. “They’ve been collapsed.”
Damn ittt
We were going to take the palace. And we were going to end this.
“So many of those scars on her body,” he continued, his tone dripping with disdain, “could have been prevented if you had only come when she called.” He clicked his tongue in mock disappointment, his eyes sweeping over Dacre with a scrutinizing glare. “I hope the scars aren’t too much for you, that I haven’t ruined her beyond your desire.”
WTFFF GO TO HELL
Magic roared to life inside me, a storm ready to break, but I didn’t reach for it. Instead, I reached for the dagger. I didn’t need magic for this. I wanted him to feel it. He had called me powerless for years. So when I took his life, it would be at my hand, and my hand alone. His powerless heir.
YES FUCKING MAAM
“You wanted a weapon,” I whispered, twisting the blade. “And you got one.”
“It’s okay to feel both of those things. It’s okay to feel whatever it is that’s battling inside you.”
“You changed everything,” he murmured. "You changed me." I swallowed, my throat tight. "And you saved me."
They would never see this kingdom rise. Never see what we would build from the ruin left behind. But I would carry them with me, in every stone, in every whisper, in every breath. Their names would not be forgotten.
