The Rivaled Crown (The Veiled Kingdom, #3)

by Holly Renee

He would come for me. He had to.

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.

“She’s been powerless most of her life, and she will remain powerless when I’m through with her.”

“She’s the only way this war ends.”

“What we’re fighting for comes at a price.” “And that price shouldn’t be her.”

She deserved far more than this kingdom had ever given her.

“What…what did I do?”

“You took his power,” my father answered, his smile widening.

“A siphon is a rarity. A weapon.”

“Let me be clear,” I said, my voice like a whip. “I will choose her over every one of you.”

“I am not an enemy you want, Eiran, but for her, I will become whatever I have to.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Then kill me. Because without her, I am no use to you, no use to this rebellion.”

But Dacre had been different. He looked at me like I was more than a crown, more than a weapon, and I had allowed myself to hope for things with him that I had never wished for before.

“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.” Dacre.

I had been powerless until him.

“Trust the tides, darling girl. They always know when to rise.”

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.

“Where were you?” Micah shifted uncomfortably. “She spoke of you when he still held her in the dungeon, cried out your name when I’m not even sure she realized she was doing so. You damn me for what I’ve done, but where were you as she begged?”

The tideborn’s gift, bound in chain, To break the bond or bind again.

Her scream came again, this time closer. It fueled a fire within me as we reached the bottom of the staircase. “Dacre.” Her voice was so weak, so broken. But I heard it, and I did not stop.

They didn’t trust me, and he didn’t trust them.

He had chosen me, and in doing so, he had lost everything.

“You’re going to tell your son that after everything he just risked for her, after everything he’s done, you would slit her throat like a lamb and hold her out for her father to feast?”

“You gave me your word,”

“I gave you the way in and you swore she would not be harmed.”

“But you, you have done far worse. You risked this whole rebellion to save that girl.”

“That was before we knew what she was.” “She is my mate.”

“I’d risk every one of you to save her.”

“You’re asking me to choose between this rebellion and my mate, but I already chose. I wouldn’t care if it was poison that runs through her veins, I will still choose her.”

“You’re right to fear me.” My voice was raw and quiet. “I don’t trust myself, either.”

“You are mine.”

“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.”

“We made it back,” I said, my voice steady. “You’re safe. And I will burn this fucking world to the ground before I let anything happen to you again.”

“You fear her power, but I do not.” The council turned, shocked gasps ringing out around us as my grandmother stepped through the chamber doors with Micah at her back.

“You say you fight for this rebellion,” she said softly, but there was a knowing lilt in her voice. “You say you fight for freedom, but you are afraid of the only one who can truly stop him.”

“You do not have to trust her,” she said simply. “You do not even have to fight beside her, but you will fight for her. Because she is the only future you have left.”

“She is the tideborn.”

Verena had been written into fate long before any of us knew her name.

“But that is because you know the truth. This war does not end with you. It does not end with this rebellion. It ends with her.”

“Come on,” she said, her voice lighter, though the weight of our conversation still lingered between us. “Let’s go find Dacre before he kills someone in your honor.”

“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.”

“Allow me to show you how you should be worshipped.”

“Allow me to show you where I will gladly spend the rest of my ...

“Tell me what you want.” “I want you.” My voice was breathless but sure. “I’ve always wanted you.”

“Dacre, wait.” I pulled at his hair, but he wasn’t listening. “Dacre, my magic.”

“It wants you.”