King of Battle and Blood (Adrian X Isolde, #1)

by Scarlett St. Clair

“We’ll meet again, Princess Isolde. I’ll make sure of it.”

I’d survived an encounter with a vampire who had tasted my blood, and the worst part about it was that he’d been right. I did like it.

“Just be glad, Issi, that the Blood King has not asked for a wife.” “Are you volunteering, Nadia?” She glared at me. “Not even I want to be married that bad.”

“If you wanted a wife, why did you wait until now to ask for my hand?” “I did not know I wanted one until today,” he replied.

“I am one person,” I said. “I am not worth a slaughtered kingdom.” “You are worth every star in the sky, Issi,” my father said,

“You assume I want a wife,” he said. “But I came for a queen.”

“You are the hope of our kingdom, Isolde.”

“At least this marriage will save a kingdom.”

“All the stars in the sky,” Adrian said. The words made my heart race, and I halted as an answer that was not my own formed in my mind—are not as bright as my love for you. But when I turned to look at him, he was gone.

“Moon above and earth below, Bring my love stars that glow. Far past midnight, shadows sneak; Bring my love dreams that speak.”

because as much as we were fighting for dominance, he’d given me the one thing I’d been searching for. Pleasure.

“Why should I believe you?” His eyes fell to my lips, and he brushed his thumb against my cheek. “Because I only make promises for you.”

I felt as though my chest were unraveling as I left the souls of my slaughtered people in the hands of my enemies. Except that the vampires hadn’t been my enemies in that fight. It had been my own people.

“You’re wrong,” she said, and her voice shook, but not from nerves. She seemed almost frustrated with me. “It could have only been you. There is no one else.”

There was an ease and comfortability to his movements, as if we had been lovers for a lifetime.

“Clever little bird,” she said. “Though you always were.”

“So it hasn’t happened yet.” She spoke more to herself than me.

“Adrian,” she said. “He has yet to partake of your blood.”

“I care about you, far more than you will ever understand, but I can only do so much. I only have so many men. Not to mention I’m concerned about the crimson mist attacking our people.”

“I want you for lifetimes,” he said, brushing his knuckles along my cheek. “But I shall be content with now.”

“You asked before what motivates me to conquer the world,” he said and looked at me. “It’s this. Two hundred years ago on this night, I lost everything.”

Adrian’s voice. “Don’t leave me.”

It was then I realized how wrong I’d been about Adrian. He was a god.

“You are queen of Revekka, soon to be queen of Cordova. You get to decide what world you live in.”

but my king—he has the heart of a conqueror.

My days in this life are waning. I do not have the heart to tell Adrian. Our love will damn this world.

she had professed her love for him here, and that everything he was doing now—conquering my world—was still for her. She was his world. And if she was his world, what was I?

This Isolde, the queen of Revekka, had been blinded.

“Do not fight, my love,” I said. “You are destined for this world.”

I shook my head and spoke words that ripped my heart in two. “All the stars in the sky are not as bright as my love for you.”

“You have a place beside me because you fill my heart. I love you. I have loved you since the beginning,” he said, and his voice almost broke. “I have loved you forever.”

“I do not pray,” he said. “But I begged for you.”

“I would never let anything happen to you, but I will also not exist without you again. More than that, though, I am willing to risk my life to be bonded to you the way I have always desired. I have waited centuries for this. For you.”

I knew then who I truly was. Who I had always been. Yesenia of Aroth.

“I conquer for myself,” he said. “And Dis can do nothing without me, because I am her weapon.”

Adrian’s eyes never left mine as he spoke, and I felt like he was seeing me throughout all my lifetimes.

“You are my light,” he said. “And you are my darkness,” I replied.

I did not want to die a hero. I wanted to live as a conqueror.

“Adrian’s love has always given me power,” I said. “It is what brought me back to life.”

“Ravena knew about the bloodletting, which means one of your four is a traitor.”

Strangely, I wondered if this was what it meant to be queen—never fully trusting anyone but my king.

It was a book of spells. It was a book of dark magic. The kind High Coven had outlawed. The kind that could raise the dead.