The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)

by Carissa Broadbent

Fear is the fucking KEY to it, Oraya!

He was on his knees, staring up at me. And that—the way he looked at me—was the first thing that felt real. Real, and raw, and… and confusing. Because he looked at me in sheer awe—like I was the most incredible thing he had ever seen. Like I was a fucking goddess.

But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.”

Strange, that girls are so often told that the loss of their virginity marks a threshold between girlhood and womanhood, as if it fundamentally alters them in some way. It was not the sex that changed the girl forever. Not the blood that spilled between her thighs that shaped her.

The blood that spilled over that marble floor, though… Those are the stains on one’s innocence that never fade.

I knew the answer. Vincent wanted me in the Kejari, wanted me to become his Coriatae, because it was the only way to turn me into something acceptable for him to love.

My father loved me. I knew this. But he loved me in spite of what I was. Loved the parts of me that he could make like him.

And I want—I want you to be my daughter. In every sense.

“I would beg,” he murmured. “For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?”

“I am so sorry, my little serpent.”

“I love you. I loved you from the first moment.”