A Throne From the Ashes (An Heir Comes to Rise, #3)

by C.C. Peñaranda

I may have come from nothing, but I will rise to everything. The greatest triumph will be having you there to bear witness as I do.”

“Maybe it makes me selfish, but I can’t. I can’t stay away from you. I came back sooner than I usually would from Fenher because while I fear to no end that I might be incapable of protecting you, I can’t stand the thought of your safety being in the hands of anyone else.”

As though the beat of her heart were tied to his own. Yet he didn’t fear it. Not in the slightest.

am so proud of the woman you have become despite all that was kept from you, and I know your mother is smiling at us now. We may not have the past to reflect on, but the present is all the brighter, the future all the more hopeful.”

“You defied the odds to exist. You’ll defy them again to survive.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing you kneel before me.” “I’ll get on my knees for you anytime, Zaiana. You know you need only ask.”

“Just like old times,” she responded. His grin was enticing. “I have missed this.” “Getting your ass handed to you?” “Watching you”—his eyes trailed her from head to toe—“become beautifully untamed.”

“I don’t know what the future holds or where the path may end, but I plan to follow you down whatever perilous, reckless, adventurous road you lead, Faythe Ashfyre.” His lips curled in tender amusement. “I vow to stand by your side. I vow to protect you with my sword and my life. And I vow to bind my fate to yours, if you will have me. I’ve lived enough years in this world to know should you leave it, so too shall my desire to stay here without you.”

“Until the end of days, Reylan Arrowood.” His smile—warm, genuine, and heartbreakingly rare—had become the light in her eternal shadow. “Maybe even longer, Faythe Ashfyre.”

“Now, I am yours. This kingdom is yours. Freedom is yours to take and do what you want with. On my life, you will always have that.”

“I know what a mate means to your people—” He kissed her. So soft and barely-there. Against her lips, he said, “You are my people.”

“As much as I want to hear you, I should remind you of the fae sleeping nearby with barely soundproof walls.”

“I could tell you what happened to the last person who underestimated me.” Rezar pulled his blade free with a flash of savage rage. His companions followed his lead. Steel sang, bodies moved, and blades raised. “But I’d rather show you.”

Shit about to go down.

He was built to protect, honed to defend, and she would worship every scar and imperfection that he’d lived through to be here, with her, right now.

“But I’ve come to realize tomorrow isn’t my promise to give. What I can promise…is me. Until the last tomorrow comes. I want you to know every broken piece of me belongs to you.”

“You are my heart, Faythe Ashfyre. When you lose yourself to anger, when you are consumed by passion, when you risk yourself defending… Gods, do I love every impossible, reckless, and fierce part of you.” Faythe released a laugh mixed with a cry. Her eyes blurred, but elation kept her tears from falling. “And I will spend the rest of my days showing you when words fail that you are everything. In this life or the next, I will always find you.”

“I plan to worship every inch of you. Again and again, until you believe it. My love and desire for you knows no limits.”

“My last breath would be yours,” she heard his truth. “To make sure you knew…I will always find you.”

Together, they could blissfully destroy each other and the world in their wake.

“We all have a destiny, though it is not often kind to us.”

His eyes connected to something within her. Not his ability, but a striking will to survive. For him, for herself…for the time they deserved to have together. “Until the end of days.”

It was just her luck that she had been sent to retrieve a human with a complete disregard for her own life. Not killing her was a struggle, but it seemed keeping Faythe from killing herself was even more so.

Zaiana snapped her head to the human, incredulous. “Good to know there was method to your madness.” Faythe let out a single breathy laugh. “There was luck to my insanity.”

“If you harm a single one of them,” she warned, “death won’t stop me from coming for you.”

“The Great General of Rhyenelle, the one they call the White Lion of the South, and the one who will be remembered in history within stories of battles and reign for millennia…is your soul-bonded mate, Faythe Ashfyre.”

“You live, and you fight, for the world of the dreamer.”