The Song of the Marked (Shadows and Crowns, #1)

by S.M. Gaither

Luck was a lesser-spirit that only the lazy and the foolish prayed to.

The closer I get to the end, she had told Cas once, the more I find myself wanting to go back to the beginning.

He wasn’t using magic. He wasn’t drawing any weapons. He was just…sitting on her. Well, this is embarrassing.

Perhaps this was simply how the world was, no matter what? An endless trading of places between the oppressors and the oppressed? The same song on repeat, with continuously rewritten lyrics…

He intrigued her. Which for some reason only made her want to stab him more.

“Something tells me Miss Azalea isn’t—nor will she ever be—interested in servicing you again.” The smile slowly spreading across his face was devastating enough on its own; the low, dulcet tones he next spoke in were simply…unfair. “I’ll stick with Thorn then, I suppose.”

“I’m done for now.” “Good-night, Thorn.” “Good-night, my wheelbarrow warrior.”

You’re a rather…captivating combination of fearless and faint-hearted.”

“You’re much nicer after you’ve had a near-death experience. You should almost die more often.”

“Your name is not Azalea,” he continued, stepping inside. “It is not Thorn, or Casia Greythorne, or Silenna Tessur. It is Valori de Solasen, the true Queen of the Kingdom of Melech, and the Queen-Empress of the Kethran Empire.”