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

by Laura Thalassa

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.

“Why didn’t you just let me die?” He hadn’t woken me, after all. “I am over a hundred and fifty years old, and in all that time only a single woman has been able to move me.” He looks over at me then. “You are mine. I would never let you die.”

“Have you ever heard the story of the lost Pleiad?” Montes’s fingers are gathering the material of my shirt, lifting it as he talks. I narrow my gaze on him. “If you’re about to lie to me …” Montes has developed a bad habit of teasing me. Apparently I’m gullible. Considering, however, I’m also violent, he never takes it too far. He laughs. “Nire bihotza, I’m not. This is true. Apparently there are seven stars—Seven Sisters—but you can only see six of them in the night sky. The seventh is ‘lost’.” We’re both quiet for a moment while I ponder his words. The night air stirs my hair. Mine and the king’s. He leans in close to my ear. “It’s because I caught her,” he whispers. My eyes return to the constellation. “Make a wish,” I whisper. He stares at me for several seconds, then softly says, “I don’t need to anymore.”