A Queen Comes to Power (An Heir Comes to Rise #2)

by C.C. Peñaranda

In that moment, she wished she were alone. The thought made her guilty for wanting to push her friends’ love and support away—a self-destructing flaw she didn’t think she would ever win her battle against.

“It’s not the act but the intention that separates the good from the evil.”

“You have me,” he whispered against the tender spot below her ear. “Until the last star in the sky winks out, you have all of me.”

“Are you quite done being violent?”

“Are you quite done being an arrogant prick?”

“All we can do is never surrender. Never bow to fear, never yield to odds, and always be ready. Until the end comes.

“Did you only come here to sit pretty, or are you going to contribute at some point?”

Her anger diffused, leaving only exhaustion and sadness. “You don’t even deserve the energy it would take to be considered my enemy. You are nothing to me,”

“It was yours, Your Majesty. I believe you have a daughter, alive and in High Farrow.”

“Who did this to you?” His voice turned surprisingly dark, and she thought she detected anger in it.

“Okay, Faythe, I see you.” She raised her chin, taking a breath to channel deeper and deeper into the well of lethal tranquility that focused her in combat. On her exhale, she said, “Good. Now, I want you to hear me.”

“I’ve faced worse monsters, Faythe,” he said with an unexpected but soothing warmth. “Let me help with yours.”

Feelings of care. So slowly, since the day he laid eyes on those golden irises he didn’t even know, until it became too late. He couldn’t turn his back on her now.

“She is her mother’s daughter.” Agalhor stared wide-eyed at Faythe. The uncanny resemblance was enough to erase any doubt about who she was. It wasn’t only her mother she took after in appearance. “My daughter,” he little more than whispered.

“Who you are, who you become—that’s all on you and what you choose to make of the life you’ve been given. Don’t make yours a waste. Don’t throw away your chance to live beyond merely existing.”

The door to Faythe’s cage had been opened, and now all she had to do was dare to fly free.

“When you go to Rhyenelle, there will be those who will try to look down on you, Faythe. Always give them no choice but to look up.”

“I promise to stand by you, Faythe Ashfyre. This day, until the end of days.”