Reign & Ruin (Mages of the Wheel, #1)

by J.D. Evans

“And yet I, like my mother, recognize a serpent disguised as a rope.”

“You are something, or you are not. A title that someone else bestows upon you does not make it more or less true. You,” he said, “are a queen as I had never dared to hope might exist.”

“I can shine like dawn, and you bring the peace of dusk.” She pulled her hand away. “Beginnings and endings. That is why there must be balance. To relieve the terrible with the beautiful, to make the beautiful more precious, for the threat of its absence.” She hesitated, her gaze lifting to his, meeting his eyes.

“You are the most beautiful thing to ever happen to me.” He stood, grabbed his sword and belt, and left. The cords he’d unwittingly tied around her heart tightened until they hurt.

“Someone starved of something will take whatever they can get and make it into what they need, because they do not know there is more to be had in the world.”

“I cannot decide if it will be your sweet touches or your unbearable words that will be the end of me.” He shifted, rolling to his side and pulling her with him. “Should I not say them?” “No,” Makram said. “Say them all, so I have them when I cannot remember the way your touches feel.”

“It begins in emptiness,” Samira finally said, placing the small piece of pottery she was dusting back on its table. “It begins in void. Purge the old and begin again.”

“I could never fear you,” she said against his mouth. “You are etched in my heart.”

“Yes, my queen.” He cupped her face in his hands. “My heart.”