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The queen, his father had always told him whenever Simon stewed in his hatred, was once just a girl. Remember that. Remember her.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he had told her, “and I forbid it. You might lose control one day and hurt him. He has a rare gift, do you understand? The most power anyone has had in half an age. It’s important for the realm to see that he is master of it, not the other way around. The last thing Audric needs is someone like you hovering about.” Rielle’s eyes had filled with tears. “Someone like me?” Her father had released her, impassive. “A murderer.”
She fell to her knees, her head spinning, and strong arms caught her. She felt a hand in her hair and lips hot against her forehead. “Rielle,” Audric cried. “Rielle, God, you’re hurt. Stay with me. Look at me, please.”
“The Gate will fall,” the king recited. “The angels will return and bring ruin to the world. You will know this time by the rise of two human Queens—one of blood, and one of light. One with the power to save the world. One with the power to destroy it. Two Queens will rise. They will carry the power of the Seven. They will carry your fate in their hands. Two Queens will rise.”
“Then you will serve the crown,” Audric agreed. Someday, he meant, she would serve him—and his queen. She looked to Ludivine and then away.
She considered it. To be sought after instead of hidden away, to protect her country instead of living in fear that she was capable of nothing but hurting people, to be loved instead of hated… Tears stung her eyes. I will be loved.
He’d smiled softly at her. “Because then they’ll spend the whole trial hoping desperately that you survive, if only so they’ll have the chance to see you again.”
With no small amount of irritation, Corien said, Your friends are worried sick for you, Rielle. Especially that boy. Audric. Rielle groped for the trident. Ludivine. Yes, Corien said, nastily now. Go to them, ease their pain. They love you so.
He laughed again, then said quietly, “Rielle?” “Yes?” “Were you frightened?” She closed her eyes and whispered, “Yes.”
“Listen to them die,” he hissed, his mouth hot at her ear behind the cold, hard mesh of his mask. “Their blood is on your hands.”
I dont like her but damn
Her eyes drifted shut with pleasure. The knots in her body loosened, then vanished. A shuddering liquid heat cascaded down her limbs, pooled in her belly, shivered down her thighs.
HUH
“I won’t argue with my body being a wonder. Harkan could tell you that much—” Remy had clapped his hands over his ears. “Please, spare me.”
This girl finds any way to speak sexually. That is your LITTLE BROTHER
“I think of you what I have ever since I’ve known you.” Audric reached for her hand, steadied it between his own. “That I’m glad you are beside me, and that I wish for you to always be.”
“If there is wickedness inside you, Rielle,” Audric said hoarsely, his lips in her hair, “then I shall treasure it as I do every other part of you.”
“My, my,” he murmured, his blue eyes flashing with unbridled glee. “Never have I seen the Dread struck so speechless. You know how to make a man feel good, I must say.”
“Well. He wasn’t my only lover, but he was the best. Except for this woman Alys, who worked in the Brightwater red rooms. God, she made me black out a few times—”
She was just crying about her missing mother btw
“Wrong. We’re going back to Camille’s, and after I dismember her for sending you out here, I’m locking you in the safest room I can find, possibly forever.” “Touch her,” she mumbled, “and I’ll dismember you.”
See this trope with friendships slays
“Well, I wanted to look in on you, make sure you’d managed to sleep,” Navi said, her voice light. “Simon?” She looked guilelessly up at him. “Why were you at Eliana’s door in the middle of the night?” Simon’s mouth thinned. “This is not the time for—”
Lmao
“What is it about me,” she said quietly, taking one step toward him, then another, “that makes you want to keep me close?”
“Abandon your birthright? Leave your country without an heir?” Rielle scoffed, tears standing hot in her eyes. “You’d never dare.” “You’re wrong!” He stormed away from them to face the starlit windows, his shoulders high and tense. “I’d do it for you. Sometimes I think I’d betray everything I hold dear for the chance to—”
“No one can be sure of Audric the Lightbringer’s last words, but in the days before the Fall, whispers traveled fast across the world. His last words, the whispers said, were for his murderer: ‘I love you, Rielle.’”
“Then you will serve me, and if I have to send you into battle to save the kingdom, I will do it. That is the Sun Queen’s foretold purpose: to defend and protect. And I cannot stray from that simply because I love you.”
He leaned in to her touch, cupped her hand in his, and kissed her palm. “I know I shouldn’t touch you,” he said, his voice rough. “We decided it. We had good reasons. But, God help me, I’ve been able to think of little else since that day in the gardens.”
He looked at her helplessly. “I don’t know how to both love you and be the person who sends you to war.”
“If anything happened to you because of me, I couldn’t bear it, Audric. I won’t do it. I’ll be alone forever if I must.” “No, no, not you.” He tenderly turned her face up to his, feathered soft kisses across her cheeks. “You deserve only happiness. Not a cold bed and an empty room.” She closed her eyes at his touch. “I’m too dangerous.” “You’re just my kind of dangerous.”
“And my life is pale without you in it.” His hands cupped her face. “I’m not afraid of you, Rielle. I trust you, and I want you.”
“No. When I found you, my mission to bring Navi home became secondary to keeping you safe. Everything,” he said, moving urgently toward her, “is secondary to keeping you safe. Navi’s life. My life. Red Crown.”
“Tal, I…” Her tears dropped onto his neck. Papa, I can’t make it stop! “If I try, I’ll just make it worse. You know I will.” “What I know is that you were only a child. And that now…” He touched her cheek. “Now, you are a queen.”
“Oh, Eliana.” Dull tears slid out of his eyes. “If only you knew. There are so many stories I need to tell you.”
“I can’t see you very well,” he said. “A blur of color, shadows for eyes, but I know your face even so. I’d know it anywhere.”
“I didn’t tell him anything,” Simon whispered urgently. “I would never. Never. Not about you. He could have cut on me until the end of time. He could have whispered in my ears until he killed me from the inside out.” He laughed again, but it sounded horribly sad. “It wouldn’t matter. I’d never tell him about you.”
“Your blanket.” The sorrow in his voice pierced her heart. “She wrapped you up in it, and when the thread ripped you out of my arms, it tore. I’ve kept this piece with me because it reminds me…of everything. Of home. We were so small, Eliana. And then I brought us here, and ruined everything. I failed you. I failed everyone!”
“Just give me a moment,” he said, his face tight with pain, “and then I’ll walk on my own.” “I’m sorry, I know you’re hurt.” “Don’t apologize to me, Eliana. Not ever.”
“We survived the end of the world, you and I,” Simon murmured, squeezing Eliana’s fingers. His breath puffed in the air. “We’ll survive this too.”
But the truth was this: It was a monster given to her by her mother. The Blood Queen. The Kingsbane. A traitor and a liar. And Eliana decided, in that moment, to hate her.
Girl shut up
“Yes. Well.” Ludivine drew a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. “I didn’t. That is, she didn’t. Ludivine Sauvillier died that night. And I took her place.”
No, he won’t, came Ludivine’s firm reply. He loves you. But for how long? Forever. He will love you forever.
“My God.” Audric’s worried expression tore Rielle’s heart in two. “Rielle…why didn’t you ever say anything about any of this?” “I was frightened. I didn’t know what you’d think of me.” He cradled her face in his hands, catching her tears on his thumbs. “I could have helped you.”
“Am I hurting you?” she whispered. He closed his eyes, leaned into her touch. “No,” he said hoarsely, “and if you ever did, I’d bear it gladly.”
“I’m sorry you’re hurt.” Her chest tightened at the raw longing on his face, and she wondered when it last was that someone had touched him with any sort of kindness. “I wish I could take it from you.”
“Eliana…please.” He caught her hand gently and opened his eyes. “Don’t pity me. When I can, I take the blows meant for you.” He gathered something from the table beside her bed, folded it into her hands. “You are my queen, and my life is yours. It has been since the day you were born.”
Eliana nodded slowly. She had heard various versions of the Blood Queen’s Fall from Remy over the years, all of them much grander than this one. The thought made her sad, which angered her. She didn’t want to feel sad about the woman whose unholy blood festered in her veins. “And then she died.” “And then she died. Her last act in this world was saving you.”
His eyes never leaving hers, he knelt at her feet. “As my queen commands, so shall I obey.”
