Hollow (Crown of Hearts and Chaos, #1)

by Caroline Peckham

“Come to the trees where their faces grow pale, Lean close to hear secrets of terror and scale, My worth was well measured, my journey awaits. You’ll only come find me when we un-bar our gates.”

The Raven. The Rat. The Wolf. The Tiger. The Stag. The Unicorn. The Phoenix. The Bear. The Boar. The Serpent. The Carp. The Fox. The Dragon.

“What?” I asked, stalling short of returning to my thin blanket. “Are you planning on following me into my bed?” “Is that an offer?” he countered.

we love a good banter

“Yes, you do. But not nearly enough. Because soon you will have no greater nightmare than me, Ferris Creed.”

lightwing.

diging the nickname

I stared after her with vitriol coating my heart, my throat soaked in it too. I wasn’t going to follow her. I just wanted her out of my sight. Because I hated her. Not for who she was but for what I wasn’t. For the mirror she held up to me. I wanted her to fear me as all others did, not look at me with those infuriating eyes which never dropped from mine in submission. And yet… and yet, and yet… how I didn’t want that too.

wish to never let you go,” I admitted, the truth a sin that marked her as my captive. One which I had a mind to keep.

“You were not selected for this bond for your brute strength, spirit singer. Do not think to force me beneath your heel

spirit singer interesting

“That is the story of my life,”

‘I’ll see you wherever our love guides us in the afterworld, brother.’”

“King of Death and Ruin,”

“You’re a fucking nightmare, lightwing,”

“I’m saying that I don’t think the forest was ever what awaited me here. I’m saying that all those years I spent denying the call of the trees, I think I was really denying the call of you. My lightwing. My elusive spirit.” He brushed his fingers down the side of my face, his green eyes studying the violet in mine while I fought to remember to breathe, fought to remember that I was supposed to hate him, that I was furious with him. That he had used and betrayed me no matter the pretty words he spun which had my heart pounding wildly the way it was now.

“You’re Bane Crownthief,” I exhaled, terror holding me captive as thoroughly as his hold on me did. “The prince who was cursed for stealing a crown he wasn’t worthy of. The Fae whose twisted magic allowed him to raise the dead. You’re the Necromancer.”

we all had this feeling from the begining

“Ferris Creed, you’re my last everything. My last desire, my last want in all the world. So spare me one more moment of intoxication in your presence beneath these trees. Remember what we were here, not what we are beyond all of this.”