A Clash of Three Courts (An Heir Comes to Rise, #4)

by C.C. Peñaranda

“I can’t possibly concentrate with you staring at me all the time.” Nik’s emerald eyes twinkled with mischief as he flashed them up to her. Tauria’s cheeks instantly caught fire.

She couldn’t ignore the skip of her pulse that his careful adjustment had brought him a fraction closer to where his hand could easily graze her lap.

“Please, Tauria Stagknight, will you read to me?”

aww

“People don’t often realize there’s a difference between love and lust. They think only one side of the coin is enough.”

Only for a split second, but it was enough to make her heart skip a beat. Then he inhaled deeply, his gaze flashing expectantly to her book. “Then I suppose we can consider that educational scripture. And this a very worthwhile lesson.”

“This isn’t funny,” she breathed in bewilderment. “No one’s laughing, love.”

I can wait as long as it takes for you to believe my want for you goes far beyond lust.”

“What do you want, Tauria? Forget title. Forget everything but your own desire.” Tauria flared in defiance. Not at him, but her station and anyone who believed she should be robbed of this: her will to do as she desired with her body. “I want…” Her breathing was labored, fighting head against heart. “Say it.” “You.”

“Look at you,” he admired. “So beautiful. You make the sweetest sounds, love. I plan to discover them all.”

“This dress looked beautiful on you,” he said in a deep, gravelly tone. Her sharp breath was swallowed by the tear of fabric when Nik effortlessly helped her out from the front instead. “Remind me I owe you a new one.”

Damn

Every question about what she wanted or desired, what her body craved, what her mind needed… Nik was the answer.

King Varlas of Olmstone could never know that he had unwittingly invited High Farrow’s ward, the ally of Rhyenelle and avenger of Fenstead, right into the heart of his kingdom. And she would tear it apart from the inside. Just as they had done to hers.

Because “home” wasn’t her conquered lands of ash and blood. It was him.

Again, the guard spared Tauria a flash of attention. Her muscles locked in anticipation, wondering who it could be to make him feel the need for such caution around her.

“Your friend Faythe Ashfyre sends her regards.”

BITCH

“Why did you go to High Farrow?” Lycus asked quietly, looking up at the night sky. “It seemed like the farthest place from everything.” A half-truth. The moon shone beautifully on his dark skin as she watched him, until Tauria stepped up close, bracing her hands on the chipped wooden ledge. His eyes fell from the sky, and his green irises sparkled as though they’d captured the stars. “You went because you knew Nikalias would keep you safe.”

It was Nik who saved her. Nik who brought her out of the dark and gave her a reason to keep living when she felt she deserved to have died with her parents on the battlefield. It was Nik who inspired her resilience to go on. And he didn’t even know it.

Never had anyone acknowledged that her strength lay in her composure and calculation.

Yet he still needed to know she was safe. Not just in body, but mind. He yearned so truly for that reassurance that every sunrise he wished time would race toward nightfall, when he’d once again try to reach her, grappling with the desperate hope she’d open her mind to him no matter what he’d see about her life in Olmstone. Even if she’d found happiness in the arms of another.

Don’t ask questions—they arouse suspicion. Make statements as if you hold the answers already.”

She spared a glance down at the item he pressed into her palm, and her eyes widened on it for just a second before she tucked it up her sleeve and they continued their casual walk as if the encounter never happened. Yet she couldn’t get that symbol out of her mind. The side-facing stag emblem carved into a brass pin. Lennox was from Fenstead.

“Don’t be so simple-minded. Possession isn’t power.”

👀

“I won’t go past my limit.”

Hmm

Her cloak blended her to the shadows, and she assumed all to be asleep, oblivious to the silhouette darting across the occasional balcony.

He could have had you, but correct me if I’m wrong: he didn’t want you.” Those words sank soul-deep.

“Get smart, Tauria. Get smart fast, or it may turn out to be the grave rather than the altar at which we’ll finally meet.”

“A promise is only hollow words when actions don’t hold true.

“Yes, they have done for some time now, and their numbers grow.” “None of them reside in the city?” “They are too savage for structured life.” Tarly spoke factually. But then he pinned her with a look of wariness and warning that rattled her need to press further.

“Her name was Isabelle,” Tarly offered quietly.

She took her life as though I was worth dying for. As though I was worth anything.”

don’t make me feel things for him

“Why don’t you sit, Tauria?” Tarly spoke carefully, as if approaching an easily spooked deer, as he rose.

“Careful, princess. It almost sounds like you’re giving me a compliment.” They exchanged a couple more maneuvers. Not in battle, but in careful calculation of each other’s movements. “You do make it difficult to form them.” “Maybe I like being the bad guy.”

“You have never been my ward. Or my subject. Or my princess. You are my equal, Tauria. In every way, you shine brighter than the moon I’ve watched change in the sky since you left, knowing it was the one thing we could look upon all the same. Is that pitiful of me?”

She raced the wind. Challenged it. Then became it.

“Say it.” She shook her head in denial. His eyes narrowed with rising intensity. The distance between them closed in. It wasn’t conscious effort; it was gravity. Their own invisible pull. She’d tried to fight it so many times, but it had always been futile. “If you won’t then I will.” “Please—” “Mates.”

I want you to know that I would go to war for you. Because you are Fenstead, but you are also High Farrow. And no matter what you choose, I am yours. Even if you cannot be mine.”

“Smile for me again.”

“I hope you’re ready, love,” his voice rumbled under her ear, “to put on the greatest performance of our lives.”

All he could think about was Marlowe. How he wouldn’t have the privilege of finally making her his wife. Against all odds, he would fight for her.

his WIFE

“I am Tauria Stagknight, and I’m afraid I am not enough.”

The second challenge was the weather, which was a merciless bitch

“Love can provoke wrongdoing just as easily as evil.”

I hoped you of all people would see that sometimes cruelty can be kind.”

oh damn

“Make them pay, Tauria Stagknight. Make them all pay.”

Fenstead had answered her.

HELL YEAH

“You shouldn’t have come for me.” He held those desperate hazel eyes. Despite everything, Nik smiled at his world. “I’ll always come for you.”

Unleash the Nether on them all.

“You will create nothing but false superiority built over the bones of anything good or true. You will spill the blood of pure hearts, only to give life to pure evil. You will create beasts, not beings. What you seek is a world of power against power that will make your triumph short and your downfall of your own making.”

As he gained some distance, Tarly Wolverlon even shed his own name, wondering with an air of freedom who he would come to be as he left crown and kingdom behind.