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

by S.M. Gaither

she grabbed the hood of her coat and yanked it down, letting the waves of her grey hair tumble free. Her hair had once been a beautiful shade of dark copper—like autumn leaves aglow in the late afternoon sun—but now just the sight of it, along with her equally colorless eyes, made the man before her stumble back in surprise. “Fade-marked,”

Is that what being marked looks like? Or are there other things afoot?

“I’ve already been touched by the Fading Sickness, and I survived it. And I’ve survived every ailment that I’ve come in contact with since.

She is definitely special

“I never get sick,” she insisted. She also rarely got hungry or tired like a normal person did. But she had suffered in other, stranger ways since the Fading Sickness had taken hold of her as a child, and she was still waiting for the day that it fully woke up and consumed her as it had so many others. But for whatever reason…it still hadn’t happened. Yet. “Why else would that be,” she asked, “if not because of my being Fade-marked?”

I don't think your human babes

Their eyes met, and he didn’t look away.

Enter love interest??

“He’s got a staring problem.” “I wouldn’t complain if he was staring in my direction,”

I too, love my men treading the line of stalker

and then he disappeared up the stairs in the back of the room.

He is trying to trap you babes

Petty theft, here I come.

Ur walking right into it *facepalm*

“I’ll be fine.”

Famous last words

cursing softly under his breath. Then he was still.

I enjoyed that to much

Fade-marked.

I don't think I fully grasp this

“I always feel better after breakfast with you. Something about your presence makes me feel like I’ve grown stronger.”

Could she be the cure?? Foreshadowing?!

I was in there earlier, while you were gone. I couldn’t get her to wake up. And I couldn’t get her to wake up and eat last night, either. So I…I’m glad she still seems to respond to you, at least.”

This has to be important!!!

“It’s safer for you here,” Cas finally said. “Right, Laurent?” Laurent glanced at her without lifting his head. He didn’t look pleased about being drawn into the conversation. “Right?” Cas pressed. He inhaled deeply through his nose. “Tell her she’s safer staying here.” “You’re safer staying here,” Laurent recited in a droll, unconvincing—and completely unhelpful—voice.

"Everything's great" ~ Joel Miller

“Sometimes I think I remember the feel of her magic,” Varen said after a pause. “But it isn’t clear, just a hazy light and a memory of warmth. It probably means nothing; I often picture the same thing whenever I try to remember my mother. The mind and the memory are strange beasts, aren’t they?”

Could Cas be her/ his sister

“I want us to be friends, Casia.”

To be fair he doesn't seem to bad *shrugs*

“Can you talk to me, please?” No. She wasn’t trying to be rude. Not this time, at least. It was simply too hard to focus on words at the moment—so hard that she felt almost physically unable to talk to him. “I said I was sorry.”

Awwwwww

He walks her through an anxiety attack🥺😭💔

everything feels so weighted, suddenly. It feels like every breath, every inch I try to move might end in disaster and so I just…I can hardly breathe. I can hardly move. And I can’t make it go away. I can’t turn it off, can’t lift that weight from my chest, my lungs…my entire body is encased in that heaviness.”

Yes

“My mother. She killed my father. She tried to kill me, too. And then she took her own life. You probably already know this, but oftentimes at the end of the sickness, the mind breaks down. The hallucinations can be terrible. Mother knew that end was coming, and she didn’t want us to suffer that terribleness, I guess. So she tried to perform a mercy killing for all three of us.”

Oh shit

What wasn’t he telling her?

There is always something

And then the girl on the bed opened her eyes.

Hmm

She felt oddly dazed. Oddly separate from the world and…drained.

Is she transfering the disease to herself??

“What are you, Thorn?”

Not normal is my guess

Meets the wolf

Because this was the same wolf that had haunted her nightmares for years.

Huh?

So she tucked the pillow under her head instead of against her chest, and she inched a bit closer to him—close enough that she could have reached out and touched his arm. And after a few minutes, she did.

Ahh

“I’m fine.” He sounded like he was losing his battle to stay awake. “Just go to sleep,” he added, yawning again. “You’re safe here.”

This so cute!!!

“I know that. But Varen asked me to take care of her. What else do you propose I do? I won’t jeopardize my standing with him by ignoring that request. I have to follow at least some of his orders if we’re going to keep him from suspecting us—she’s just an extra factor that we’re going to have to put up with for now.”

Hmmmm

“I wish you hadn’t come along and complicated things,”

Hmmmm

She could tell by the torn look in his eyes that he was still keeping things from her.

Is there a way he could be that wolf???

actually enjoyed strolling through the halls at his side. Something about it felt almost natural. As if they had done it a thousand times before.

Hmmm

He tried to smile. But the expression never reached his eyes, which soon glazed over in thought. Cas knew him well enough at this point to recognize that look; it meant he was keeping things from her.

CURIOUS

Uses her magic

She dropped to her knees and then slumped forward. Her face hit the road. She rolled onto her side and managed to look up in time to see a twisting rope of lightning encircling three of the void archers.

But why does her magic take so much out of her, just because she can’t control it? I don’t think so, there has to be more!!!

But he didn’t seem angry at all. He only glanced at her fingers as they tapped the stone, and then he offered her his arm. “Need an anchor?”

MY STANDARDS!!!

“And yet, the thought of missing my chance to hold you like this is somehow more terrifying.”

AHHHHH *melting*

And she again had that feeling, like she so often had with him, that she had been in this place with him a thousand times before. That it was a warm, safe, familiar place that they had only been walking each other toward since that fateful night when she’d decided to rob him.

Hmmmm

The movement made her think of a dog. A very handsome dog—but a dog nonetheless.

Wolf?!

“Maybe because I sometimes feel like I’ve known you for a very long time.”

Rightttttttt

She turned around, and for a long time, she could do nothing except stare. The first woman she remembered calling Mother was staring back at her.

Ahhhhh

“Asra?” she whispered.

WHAT?!?!

She couldn’t be a part of it, because that would mean… No.

Nooooo

“It’s just my time to go, is all.”

Noooo, literally stop *weeping*

Fiery pain burned through her veins. Power twisted through her body, weaved around her arms, concentrated at her fingertips. A flash of brilliant light blinded her, and when the white dots before her eyes faded away, the servant lay in the corner. Crumpled. Perfectly still. Her arms splayed out at awkward angles, like the wings of a bird that had slammed into a window.

Jawww on the floor

Because Asra had returned to her. She still lived.

NO FUCKING WAYYYYYYY AHHHHH

She quickly decided that she had to stay.

O shit

Let that sick, evil energy come to me, then, she thought, just as before.

WHATTTTTT

Light blinded her, just as before. And she fell back, same as before.

What toll will this have?!

But it was not Elander’s voice that reached her next. Not a lecture from him, but only two simple, breathless words from someone else, words that echoed like death knells through her skull— “That light.” Cas lifted her head in the direction of that quiet voice, and she found herself staring at the King-Emperor and dozens of his heavily armed guards.

SHITTTTTT AHHHHH

“Prove me wrong. Use your magic to detain her and drag her down to the dungeons. Or is there some reason why you can’t do this?” Elander said nothing. “Do it now,” Varen said, “or you can consider yourself dismissed from my service—at which point I will consider it a risk to let you and your magic continue to exist in this empire. It’s your move, Captain.” Elander still did not move.

Omgggggg