The Queen of All that Lives (The Fallen World, #3)

by Laura Thalassa

I am a thing made of lace and blood. Swathed in silk and dripping with the dark deeds of men. I suppose I’m finally clothed accordingly.

It’s not anger that’s riding me now. It’s a hurt so vast I can’t see any end to it. I could fit entire galaxies into the space it’s carved out for itself inside me.

She and I are love and war. Peace and violence. I have taught her how to be a worse person, and she’s taught me how to be a better one. I fuel her hate, and she fuels my love.

“It is my deepest wish that you will use me as I will use you.”

“When you live without someone for as long I have, love becomes this abstract concept, something you attach to a memory. And when memories are that old, they feel like dreams, and you wonder if any of it was real, or if your mind created it all.”

I know all about broken things. I came from a broken house, and a broken land full of broken people. I have a broken soul and a broken heart. This man doesn’t know it, but all his cracks align with mine.

“I didn’t marry you because you were a pretty thing. I married you because you were a wicked one.”

I don’t fear the end. I haven’t for a very long time. This isn’t the way I’d choose to go, but there are worse ways to die than reclining in a plush chair, the world spread out beneath you.

You’re still always going to be the man that ruined the world in the first place.” He draws away, his eyes lingering on my mouth. “I am. And if it meant getting more time with you, I would’ve ruined it sooner.”

Freedom or death. It’s an apt slogan. I will either live by my own terms or die by them. And I’ll take as many of these fuckers with me as I can.

I’m sure he thinks of me as nothing more than a war prize. I am exactly that, and I will lead to the downfall of this nation.

Now I just need to get to my wife. My scheming, violent wife who concocted this elaborate, foolhardy plan so that war could end and I could live. Even after everything I put her through, she did this for me. It is without a doubt the single greatest show of love I’ve ever received.

to answer your question, the body was braindead to begin with. I didn’t want to chance another version of me ever getting loose.”

You know the thing about strategy? he said all those years ago. It takes knowing when to act and when to be patient.

The heart is such a vulnerable thing. Encased beneath skin and muscle and bone,

“Make a wish,” I whisper. He stares at me for several seconds, then softly says, “I don’t need to anymore.”