The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen, #1)

by Emily R. King

“And to become his wife, he chose Kalinda.” I gape at her rare approving smile, my heart falling . . .

She simply does not know what to do with herself if she is not complaining.

“I’m a dolt,” I say. “I cannot understand why the rajah claimed me.”

I do not believe she has terrible looks.

I wish for him to say that he stayed to be near me. That I am the change.

want this. Need this. Cannot have this. Deven cups my chin and lifts my gaze to his. “Will you come with me?” Staring into his unguarded eyes, I stand with my tiptoes hanging over the brilliant abyss and let myself fall. “Yes.”

“Captain Naik has been imprisoned.” My blood runs to ice. “What for?” “I don’t know, but he is in the dungeons.”

“The rajah knows,”

I have come to read his thoughts as well as Jaya’s, and I see his request clearly. Save yourself.

On the other side of the doorway, the rajah shouts for his guards to follow us. Fury fires through my veins. Tarek must pay.

The rajah will not give me up. My challengers will not fall easily. I have as much chance of surviving the tournament as Jaya and Deven have of rising from the dead.

I have a feeling they WILL rise.

I am to wed the monster of the Tarachand Empire. I am to be the rajah’s one hundredth queen.

The sisters also painted the number one onto the back of my hands. Now that I defeated Lakia, her rank of first wife belongs to me.

I clutch his arm and sense the warmth of his flesh, and then I probe deeper, to the flicker of his soul-fire. He is real. I throw my arms around him. “They told me you were dead.”

We place our backs to the threatening storm and follow the jasmine moon across the dusty dunes.