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“This cottage is yours. The cottage and the land it sits upon—the whole damn mountain belongs to you.” I shake my head. “I don’t understand.” He blows out a breath. “Mother left this piece of property to me. I think she knew I needed a place of my own away from the Midnight Palace. Now I’m giving it to you.”
but I can give you a place to call home. The most beautiful place in my whole court. It’s yours.”
“How many times did you refuse to bond with me?” “You didn’t—” “I didn’t ask. I never asked. I never even tried to make a compelling argument. I was so damn busy trying to think of a solution that didn’t—” His mouth snaps shut, and he turns his face back toward the sky. A solution that didn’t involve hurting me, I realize.
“I think part of me has always known that I have a role to play in protecting my court, but maybe I’m not meant to be on the throne.”
The moment my bond with Isabel was complete, she died in my arms.”
“Curses don’t come with announcements explaining what they are or how they work. We had to figure it out for ourselves.
“Maybe you didn’t realize I was in love with him . . . because I never really was.”
That’s why I bonded with him. I wanted his protection. I wanted not to be alone ever again.” He swallows. “You wanted someone you could trust.” “Desperately,”
“I remember the way it felt to have you fall apart in my arms. I think about it every day.”
“I want you so much, Abriella. More than I ever thought was possible. More than I should admit. But as long as you’re bonded to him, you’ll never be completely mine.” He lifts his gaze and locks his silver eyes on mine. “And I am just as selfish as the males who loved Queen Gloriana. I don’t want pieces of you. I want all of you, and I won’t share.”
“Go there, Abriella, child of Mab.”
“Because my magic responds to the power in her blood. Abriella is a descendant of Mab. She is—” “Our rightful queen,” Kane murmurs.
I close my eyes and feel my feet lift off the ground, and over the hush in the clearing, the trees seem to whisper Queen.
Finally I can make a difference. Finally I have the power to help.
“I’ll be right by your side,” he says, his lips brushing my ear with each word. “And doing so will be the greatest honor of my life.”
It’s harder for him to face the other truth. And what’s that? That your feelings for Finn have nothing to do with this predestined, divinely granted connection you have.
“We’ve broken the kingdom, you and I. Something has to be done.”
“But if you are the queen in question, I can say with confidence that your tethered servant would be honored to share the bond with you.”
“Whatever magical connection we have was what drew me to you that first night we met, but it is who you are and the choices you make that made me fall in love with you.”
And then you told me that I made you feel as safe as a starry night sky.”
Until you entered the portal. Until you looked me in the eye and asked me to dance with you. Nothing’s been the same since. I hope it’s never the same again.”
You’re no princess. You’re my queen.”
She knew Oberon’s realm would need you more than she needed him. Only when you were dying did he finally understand the truth.” Finn studies the earth at his feet and shakes his head. “He was protecting the court after all,”
It is our love, my child, that makes us fit to rule, but it also makes us wicked.
But watching you spend your life at his side is different. It will destroy me, and that has nothing to do with the fucking throne.”
I can’t take these pieces of you when I know he will have your bond until the day you die.”
“I’d choose to love you even if I’d known what was coming. I’d choose to love you through the pain of knowing I can’t have you. I will choose to love you still tomorrow. I could sooner choose to stop breathing than stop loving you.”
I knew you’d found her, and when you lied to me, I chose to test you.” “This was . . . a test?” “Yes. And you failed.”
This part of me is just as valid as the rest.
Someone brought a bed up here so I could heal while sleeping under the stars. Heal while sleeping next to my beloved, my tethered match, the one I draw strength from.
I still get to live in a world that has you in it. And I will relish every moment of that. Even if you’re never mine, I will always be entirely yours. Love like this is worth hoping for.”
Serving these people isn’t just a duty for me. It’s the greatest honor of my life.”
Magic is about change, Finn said. About possibility.
“This isn’t a fire gem. It’s a bloodstone.”
“Because I’m a selfish bastard, and I wanted you more than I wanted your power.”
I turn to the water and see my reflection, see the Crown of Starlight glittering atop my head. And my scar—the symbol of the crown, my sun and moon—has returned to my wrist.
“Sacrifice,” Sebastian whispers, cringing as he rolls to his side. “You said sacrifice is what makes a good king. And I always wanted to be a great king.”
Mortal. “How will you rule a faerie court?” I ask him, shaking my head. “You’ll be so vulnerable.” “We tell no one,” Finn says. “Juliana can glamour him to appear fae until he can find a priestess he trusts. The rest we can figure out as we go.”
Mab never said that Sebastian had to die. She said he had to give up his life, and he did—he surrendered his immortal life. For the good of the realm. But I know in my heart he did it for me.
“I forgive you for your deceptions, Ronan Sebastian. You have indeed become the kind of leader this realm needs.”
“The Throne of Shadows waits for you, Abriella,” Pretha says. “It’s where you belong.”
“Come on, Princess,” he whispers in my ear. “Make me call you something else.”
This is a throne of the night, of the misfits and the lost. This is the throne for all those who had to endure the darkness to find the stars. This is my throne, and it’s been waiting for me.
Finn stands by my side—the king I choose, the partner I was given and whom I fought for. The match my heart needs.
Everyone feels it—the energy in the air, the electric click of power restored to a court that hasn’t had someone on the throne in more than two decades.
Tonight, Sebastian gathers his allies in the Court of the Sun, and in the Court of the Moon we celebrate saving this kingdom and a future of peace.
Someday soon, I’ll want this to go both ways. I want you to pull strength from me too. Just like I pull strength from you.”
“And I’m thinking how good it feels to be right.” “Right about what?” I ask. “About you being the queen this realm needs.”
Tonight, Finn and I will complete the bonding ceremony.
But the truth is, I simply crave this additional connection to the male I love.
