More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
A tear slipped down her cheek. She didn’t cry for her bruised skin or aching limbs, but for the king who ordered it. He wasn’t the man she’d thought he was.
“That’ll teach you to use magic against us.” She cried out and clamped her teeth down on her lower lip, tasting blood. She’d never used her magic against any of them. Her greatest crime was being born.
When she was alone again, she sank back to the floor and curled around herself. In her state, she couldn’t even feel her magic. The only thing that broke through the numbness was the tug of the curse connecting her to a man she hoped she’d never see again. She wished he wasn’t the same man she dreamed of every time she closed her eyes. Strip back the layers of lies she’d lived her life by, take away the persona she’d crafted, and all that was left was a shattered girl with nothing left to give.
He hadn’t visited his mother, but she remained confined to her rooms for hiding Persinette’s true identity and sending Tyson away from the palace under the traitor’s care. Yet, she wasn’t the one who plagued his thoughts day and night. It was the girl who sat in his dungeons. The one he’d thought he loved. The one he didn’t know at all.
“Loving someone is something you can always do. It’s the hate that takes effort.”
“Our world is one where impossibilities rule the land. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is forbidden. There is no true good or wholly evil. Everything we think we know is about to be challenged, my dear boy. Gaule is no longer protected. Now all we can do is survive.”
Don’t lose faith, Persinette Basile. Descendants of Bela are woven into the very fabric of Gaule. We’re everywhere and we have not forgotten our queen.”
“I no longer see you with Persinette’s childish hope, but with Etta’s more experienced perspective. I loved you, Alex. I don’t know if it was because of the blasted curse but it blinded me. Now I finally see. You will always be an enemy of Bela, an enemy of mine.”
“Good men aren’t meant to be king.”
“When I met you before, I thought you loved him. I saw it in your eyes. But love does not end, and it does not give up.” “It also doesn’t forgive.” “That’s where you’re wrong, child. The most important thing love does is forgive.”
“My father wasn’t a good king.” He turned to his mother. “After his death, you said one good man died that day and one monster. Viktor Basile was not the monster in your mind, was he?”
Despite the fact she’d been the one who lied and betrayed her king, he’d been the one to break them. To break her. Turning away, he vowed to himself he’d make it right and walked back to his room where sleep was elusive, but memories ran rampant.
She had to be okay. He couldn’t live in a world where Persinette Basile was not okay.
For a while, she’d trusted Alex. The boy she’d known. The king she’d served. But like father like son. Betrayal came easily to the Durands.
“You blame me.” He got to his feet, not taking his eyes from hers. “You should. It’s my fault. All of it. But hear me in this—if anyone ever touches you again, I’ll gut them myself.”
She said it was the curse, but he refused to believe in that cruel reality. Maybe he’d believed it at first, but then he’d seen Etta locked in a cell and he knew. His feelings went much deeper than a string of magic tying them together. She may not see it yet, but he wasn’t ready to give up.
They crossed the street, careful not to make a sound. Where was the kid with the gift of silence when you needed him? Oh, right, on the run.
He kissed her cheek, and she still didn’t wake. “I don’t care if you say it’s fake or if you’ll always hate me. I love you Etta and that’ll never change.” She hummed in contentment and he knew that come morning, she wouldn’t remember his words at all.
“My freedom was never yours to give.”
Analise raised her arms to the sky, and it was almost as if she pulled the rays of light through the tree cover. How was that possible? And more importantly, how could that be evil?
The irony of it all almost made him laugh. Almost. The tournament seemed so long ago. Etta had won it to become his protector and now all he wanted to do was keep her safe.
As they started toward the palace, his eyes darted around. If his own people were coming for him, it could be any one of them. Who was this assassin to be? He drew in a deep breath as Etta stepped up beside him.
Chaos was king.
Would Alex be the friend she loved or the enemy she hated? He couldn’t be both.
“Maybe it’s better to have a king whose first inclination isn’t to fight.” “Unless that’s the only thing left to do.” “Yes, unless that.”
“How much of this is real, Etta?” He leaned his forehead against hers and inhaled. “Does it matter anymore?” she whispered as she gripped the front of his shirt to hold him there. He moved his lips to her ear. “No, I don’t suppose it does.”
My head may be conflicted, but my heart…” She took his hand and pressed it over her heart. “…it only beats for you.”
“But she doesn’t want to just kill us. She wants to bring us low, make us beg. She wants to take everything from us. No, we can’t just die. We have to play her game.”
“Why should they need protection if they have no magic?”
“Because this isn’t just the purge of years past. It’s a rebellion.”
Would she ever truly be able to forget the past?
“He isn’t just a horse. He’s a part of me and if I’m going to go up against La Dame, I need to be whole.”
Leaning back in, he stumbled and crashed into the corner of the table. He wasn’t in the palace of Bela. His prison cell was a tower in the middle of the woods.
Was she queen of ruins and long-forsaken people?
The Belaen people were not a singular force. They didn’t have a crown uniting them. There was no national pride because most of them were setting foot in Bela for the first time. All they had was anger. Anger and survival.
That was when you were no longer a warrior. Warriors had honor. They had a code. When the killing became dishonorable, you were just a murderer.
“You think Rapunzel was a weed?” “That’s what the legends tell us.” She shifted her eyes to the window where La Dame was no doubt waiting down below. “Because the legends were told by the Belaens. The truth would change everything you think you know.”
With the exception of Maiya, we were all knocked unconscious.
Suspicious
“Didn’t you tell me there is no freedom in death? How is it too easy?” “That’s true. There is no freedom. But there is finality. An end. Maybe a little peace. Peace. As long as we’re alive, she can at least make sure we have no peace.”
La Dame didn’t belong here. Bela was the Basiles’ realm and it would be until there were no Basiles left to claim it.
A fork clattered against a plate as the rightful queen and princes of Bela stepped forward as one.
“Rapunzel was no weed. She was a healer. Phillip Basile stole my daughter and so I have stolen every child of his line.”
Power should have meant freedom. But now she knew it was only a new set of chains.
They were only in the beginning of their fight. For she was Persinette Basile. Daughter of the kingslayer. Ex-cursed. Queen of Bela. Keeper of the Basile magic. And the magic folk always had greater battles to wage.
