And I Darken (The Conqueror's Saga, #1)

by Kiersten White

Next time you hit first, you hit harder, you make certain that your name means fear and pain. I will not be here to save you again.”

Lada had a sense for power—the fine threads that connected everyone around her, the way those threads could be pulled, tightened, wrapped around someone until they cut off the blood supply. Or snapped entirely.

“You looked like you were about to fall asleep. I was worried you would drown.” “Well, thank you for preventing my drowning by pulling me under the water in an attempt to drown me.”

“I like him more than the last commander we had. He was a Bulgar. I cannot stand Bulgars.” “I am a Bulgar, you cur.” “And I cannot stand you, either.”

But there are many ways to be powerful. There is power in stillness. There is power in watching, waiting, saying the right thing at the right time to the right person. There is power in being a woman—oh yes, power in these bodies you gaze upon with derision.”

“You see this”—Huma gestured to the room, the building, and finally to herself—“as a prison. But you are wrong. This is my court. This is my throne. This is my kingdom. The cost was my freedom and my body.”

“You have both been so busy learning tactics and studying battles, you have failed to see the truth of where thrones are won and lost. It is in the gossip, the words and letters passed in dark corners, the shadow alliances and the secret payments. You think I am worthless? I can do things you could never dream of.”

Whatever else was between them, Radu would not harm her this deeply. Because she would never do it to him, and Radu was not capable of being crueler than she was.

Radu and Mehmed had both given her something she could not give herself, had seen her in a way no one else had and no one else ever would. They looked at her, ugly Lada, vicious Lada, and saw something precious. And she looked at them and saw Radu, her brother, her blood, her responsibility, and Mehmed, her equal, the only man great enough to be worthy of her love.

And so she cut out her heart and offered it as a sacrifice. She would pay whatever price her mother Wallachia demanded.