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October 4 - October 10, 2025
“Did you really think I wouldn’t smell you, princess?”
“I always meant it. The offer I made you.” There is no one I would rather have ruling this kingdom beside me than you.
“Enjoyed the view.”
“It’s just that I should have guessed that you were half vampire. Right from the first time we flew together.” “Why?” “Because you’ve never looked so happy as you do when you’re up there. Should’ve been obvious that you were made for it.”
“You haven’t even stopped to think about all the things you might be capable of, Oraya.”
“You are not broken. Oraya.
“You came to find me,” I said. His smile faded. “Is that really so surprising?”
“To die, rather than killing you?” he said quietly. “Yes. That would have been worth it. Even I had to draw a line somewhere. And you’re the line, Oraya.”
“I’m married,” he said. “In case you forgot.”
“I like a little fight,” he murmured. “Besides, she’s ruined me for all others. My own fucking fault, though. I knew it from the beginning.”
“Hard pleasure, then,” I said. “Only good if it hurts,” he replied.
“You’d offer me your throat? That’s stupid of you.” “Maybe. But you do have a fucking exquisite mouth, and an even better tongue.”
Maybe I just imagined that the entire world stopped when my wife walked into the ballroom.
“She’s mine,” he said. “I don’t share.”
“A threat?” I said. “Could’ve sworn you liked the dress.”
“The dress is an act of war. But you’ve always looked fucking fantastic in blood.”
“I’d spend a lifetime at the tip of your blade, and it would have been worth it.”
“Hell of an entrance, princess.”
“You are so impossibly beautiful,”
I’d tell you to go become something fucking incredible, Oraya, but you already are, and this place doesn’t deserve you. It never has. And I sure as fuck don’t.”
“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. Please.”
“Yours,” I ground out. “It’s yours.” My blood. My body. My soul.
“Evening, princess.”
currently melting
“There she is.”
ugh love love love
“I am queen just as much as he is king. When we’ve reclaimed our kingdom, I intend to rule beside him as such.”
YESSSSSS QUEEEENNN
The little smile on his face said, There she is.
“Sometimes we need a little trouble to get shit done.”
“Men and their secrets,” she said. “We spend a lifetime trying to unravel them, and once they’re gone, we’re still at their mercy.
fucking preach man
It was better to be lost in this than to be lost in all our difficult concerns.
“Walk. With me. Now.” “Is that an order?” “Is that an attitude?
“Just want you to know, Oraya,” he murmured, “that you were the best part of it. The best part of all of it.”
“Let’s take our fucking kingdom back,” I snarled. Raihn laughed. “I thought you said you didn’t have a speech.”
“Give them hell, princess,”
swoon
with my injuries. I sniffed, and Raihn had been sleeping so lightly that that sound was enough to send him jerking awake with comical verve, nearly throwing himself off the chair as he reached for the sword that wasn’t there. I couldn’t help it. I laughed. The sound was horrible—a gasping rasp. Raihn barely managed to right himself. Then his gaze fell to me. He went utterly still. And then, with a single swift movement, he was on his knees beside my bed, hands cradling my face like he wanted to make sure I was real.
Im sobbing
Because that name was all those things, wasn’t it? Raihn. My downfall and my most valuable supporter. My weakness and my strength. My worst enemy and the greatest love I had ever known. All of that in one name. One person. One soul I knew as well as my own, just as confusing, just as flawed.
I’d gotten us all into this mess. If I had to die to end it, so be it. But Oraya dying for my mistakes— That would be a tragedy. The world would never recover. I, I knew in this moment, would never recover.
“Give them fucking hell,” I said. “Alright? Don’t you dare let him win.”
“I love you,” he said, in a single, urgent breath. “I just—I need you to know that. I love you, Oraya.”
“I love you too, Oraya. Goddess fucking help me, I do.”
“You think I’m not terrified every time I look at you?” He touched my face—tracing the curve of my cheek, down to the point of my chin, his smile softening. “Fuck, of course I am. You have my heart.”
“It’s something,” I said. “Isn’t it?” “Yes,” Raihn said softly. “It’s really something.” But when I glanced over my shoulder back at him, he wasn’t looking at the sun at all.
