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

by C.C. Peñaranda

I want—I need you to be mine. And in return, I vow to protect you with everything I am. No matter the cost.”

The pulse in her chest. The tugging of something soul-deep. It wasn’t simply lust or desire. It wasn’t anything explainable like love.

flaring in the crimson of her leathers. He couldn’t help but marvel at how well she embodied her kingdom’s emblem. As though she were born of the Phoenix.

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.

“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.”

“I see someone worth everything.”

The look of someone who didn’t know how to accept love but needed it. Craved it. She had seen that look before in Nik.

“And stories. Words hold power, Lycus. They can cut and love and inspire. They can break from the inside out.”

Not for his triumph in battle or any means of conquer; it was in the peace and prosperity he promised the land. The values we’ve come to uphold to this day.”

“A lone wolf is prey. They hadn’t realized it before, but their wolves were of the same bloodline. They were two powerful beasts, yet even they knew strength was in a pack—in standing together.

Two leaders who harbored so much opposition, discovering what could become of working together when they put that hate to rest.”

what if his heart called to another when it was too late?”

Olmstone was siding with the dark fae. With Valgard.

She is mine.

My mate.

“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

“In a world less cruel, you would have been mine long ago.”

“Tauria Stagknight is not only my ward…” Time slowed to a crawl. But he’d made his choice. “She is my mate.”

Then Nik followed her, wondering how he was going to bear leaving this kingdom as half a soul.

“Before I knew what bond binds us, I fell in love with you. For your resilience, your patience, for every flaw and every triumph. I love you enough to set you free.”

“I reject the soul-bond to Nikalias Silvergriff, King of High Farrow, first of his name. I release both you and me from that which binds us, so we may be free to choose our own fate of power and heart.”

Tauria left him on his knees, each step away weighted with world-shattering sorrow. A void had opened in her heart that would never be filled. Not without him. Her silent tears flowed, unable to get the broken image out of her mind.

“Be safe. Until I come back for you. I love you.”

“I’m irrevocably in love with you. I have been for a very long time.”

Nik’s closed over it. “I don’t need time, not another second, to know that I choose you, Nikalias. That I will fight for you. For us, and for our kingdoms. Until my last breath, I want to be yours.”

They were mated.

They were two hearts, one soul. Only death could come between them now.

“As one of us.”

It wasn’t just pain; a dark wrongness silenced something soul-deep.

“Not me, princess. We will all bow to the one who will change the world.”

“You are my life, Tauria. There won’t be a realm or time that exists where I won’t love you. As eternal as the moon, remember?”

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

“You dare to take away her wind?”