The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King (Crowns of Nyaxia, #2)

by Carissa Broadbent

I never used to cry. Now, it seemed like the more I tried to stop myself, the more viciously it clawed its way out of me.

“Love is fucking terrifying,” he murmured. “I think that’s true no matter who you are.”

“I’d spend a lifetime at the tip of your blade, and it would have been worth it.”

“You have nothing but me,” I said. “And yet, you’d let me go?” “I have nothing but you,” he murmured. “So I am letting you go.”

“Let me make you the queen that you are. Let me guard your body, your soul, your heart. Let me spend the rest of my fucking pathetic life at your mercy. If I need to die, then let me do it by your hand.

It was frightening to give someone your trust. More frightening still to give it for a second time, after they broke it the first.

“Just want you to know, Oraya,” he murmured, “that you were the best part of it. The best part of all of it.”