A Heart of Blood and Ashes (A Gathering of Dragons, #1)

by Milla Vane

“There are enemies, and there are monsters. Always slay the monsters first, because enemies may one day become allies—but monsters never will.”

He could even make weapons of her sighs, transform her longing into a blade, and use them to slice through her heart. A great warrior indeed.

Queen Vyssen had told her that love was not something to avoid. For when love was given freely or genuinely returned, everyone it touched was strengthened by it. Yet love could also blind, just as anger and hatred and fear did. It could be wielded as a weapon. It could hurt, when it was rejected or betrayed or lost. It could be confused with lust, or with pleasure, or with gratitude—for it often entwined with other emotions and was not so easily separated from them.

This love within her was a tenacious weed that kept reaching for Maddek as if he were the sun.

Her silence did not mean punishment. It meant she was hurt. All this morning she had been.

She had promised to make his life a misery. He still believed she would. But in that moment, he’d realized his life would also be a greater misery if Yvenne wasn’t in it.

In bed and in battle, a warrior is too dependent upon his sword. Until you have the heart of a king, you will never truly have her and you will never truly protect her—and because you lack a king’s heart, you will lose her.