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

by Carissa Broadbent

The king did not know then that his greatest love would also be his ruination—nor that either would come in the form of a tiny, helpless human child.

She. Mother of night, shadow, blood—mother of all vampires. The goddess, Nyaxia.

What I didn’t realize then was that vampires lived in constant fear of their own family. Immortality made succession a bloody, bloody business. Even Vincent had murdered his parents—and three siblings—to gain his title. Vampires killed their parents for power, then crippled their own children to keep them from doing the same.

The Kejari had begun.

While each of the thirteen gods could be called on for various forms of magic, none of the twelve deities of the White Pantheon allowed their powers to be drawn upon by vampires. Vampires, after all, were Nyaxia’s children, and the White Pantheon despised Nyaxia.

And then I realized. I realized that fear, when embraced, hardens and sharpens.

That it becomes rage. That it becomes power. I would not die here. I let my fury explode.

All at once, I understood what this was. What we were doing. He was offering himself to me. He was presenting me a perfect opening. He knew it. I knew it. We both knew the other knew it.

“The things I’ve thought about. ‘Want’ doesn’t even fucking cover it. I have a list.”

“You are the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen, Oraya.”

But then Raihn ripped him off me, hurling him to a pile of rocks with enough force to snap a spine. “Don’t fucking touch her,” he growled as black light cracked through the air, his Asteris awoken with fresh power.

“We’ll probably die tomorrow,” I said. “Show me something worth living for.”

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

You have destroyed me. He had destroyed me, too.

“So don’t you fucking dare stop fighting, princess. It would break my damned heart.”

“It’s the only way I can keep you alive. If you’re not my wife, you’re my enemy. And I can’t justify letting you go.”