The Crown of Oaths and Curses (The Mortal Fates #1)

by J. Bree

THE CROWN OF OATHS AND CURSES

Rereading Sept 15, 2024. So that I can role into book 2.

So, is he did same captian

Or perhaps witch blood—maybe that’s why he’s always had a soft spot for me.

9/15/24 So, you met him 200 years ago, at least, when you joined the Northern land army, but one of your earlier guesses about his age was around 100?

I give him a curt nod, and Roan calls out commands to move with haste, the risk of an ambush great. We can’t afford a delay. Not today.

9/15/24 But wasn’t this just a delay?

The Seer told me, time and again, that the Fates were teaching me patience, and no matter how hard I tried to find a way around it, they forced me to wait nearly one thousand years.

9/15/24 She’s only been gone for two hundred though. Did she just ignore him for the other 8 hundred?

The idea of escorting my Fates-blessed mate to Yregar Castle through such bleak lands galls me, and I decide to take her home through the fae door.

9/15/24 I think I forgot about the depth of the needless rambling on and on. I read my review but I definitely didn’t realize it was thus bad. My word! Dude is never going to shut up… Hope book 2 is better.

Every time we’re forced to ride past it, the perimeter of safety for him bows out a little further, until I'm sure my cousin is going to lose his mind the moment we cross the Lore River.

9/15/24 So why bring him and put him through that when you knew you’d be passing that area?

The simple stalls around us sell mostly food and weapons,

9/15/24 Didn’t she just say yesterday that there was no food being sold? And why is the market so bustling today but wasn’t yesterday?

So she did all that talk about being in the army and all that like she was going to win the battle over the three thugs, yet she managed to get captured and drug back to Port Smyre… wow. Just wow. 9/16/24 In hindsight after rereading, I realize she never intended to fight and was going to the Fate guide her and whatever happens happens. Her mate was supposed to find her so she just waited.

The high fae guards we pass are all in perfect health, clean and vigorous as they accept silver coins from my captors and wave us past without really looking in my direction.

9/16/24 That’s not really sneaking her past them though, is it…

“What did she have with her?” the prince asks, his voice still icy cold.

9/16/24 in hindsight, clarification on which prince was speaking would be nice. Is it still Tauron or whatever his name is?

Yeah enough of that cuz you were captured to begin with after having heard how you fought and won against the Ureen…. 🙄🙄 9/16/24 Yep. My mistake here. She allowed her capture. I realize this go around.

You don’t seem to be very capable yourself though… 9/16/24 I really need to shut up.

It’s weird that the prince hasn’t heard that some witches fled Kharl and refused to do his bidding so some of them may actually be good, especially coming from the Seelie lands. 9/16/24 I still find this to be true at this point in the story.

But she didn’t kill the mercenaries… 9/16/24 Self, shut up.

The prince who dragged me behind his horse comes to bind me to the tree the Savage Prince pointed out, snapping the chains to get me moving faster.

9/16/24 Funny how Roan says he has no other choices since the Fates gave him none, but they are treating her like this anyway.

I don’t care what else they have to say. Whatever secrets the Ravenswyrd is whispering to Tyton, they’re a message from the trees to him alone,

9/16/24 But… he’s talking about you and your brother so why would you not care what else he has to say?

Thousands of refugees from the Southern Lands brought information with them to Sol City, and Pemba was meticulous about finding out what he could about our home.

9/16/24 This was already said in the first chapter.

Dragging a witch behind me, a member of the race responsible for her son's death and no chance of the curse being broken before her next child arrives, I’ve failed her once again.

But she was named as your mate before the curse, before all the destruction and hate…

The mercenaries said that they found the witch journeying from the port, so it goes without saying that she once fled to the Seelie lands.

9/16/24 And you should also be thinking of why! Knowing it’s an evil witch out there doing evil things… Clearly if she went to Seelie lands she was not a part of that evil.

I have so many questions but no interest in discovering the answers from her.

9/16/24 Ah, yes. I remember now. The slow burn from the both of them having misconceptions about the other and both too stubborn to move past it…

This is how the witches will win the war. Their plan to put a witch on the throne of the Southern Lands is tied to my fate.

Lordt..l 9/16/24

Whoever she is, whatever stinking pit of a coven she crawled out from, she’s been sent by Kharl.

9/16/24 Even though she came by ship from the Northern Lands…

That would explain the soft and innocent words she manipulated me with, the web she wove around me to ensnare me, and why she disappeared, all of it intended to force me into submission and bring the high fae to our knees.

9/16/24 Lordt, Brooke got her hands full with this one…

The innocence that was once in her voice, something that made me so sure of her identity as a sheltered high-fae princess,

Well, she was sheltered. You got that part right. 9/16/24

I insisted on skipping him for guard duty, knowing he wouldn’t have anyone watching his back on the ride home, but I doubt he got much more sleep than I did.

The fantasy of unchaining her from that tree, pinning her down, and flaying her alive is far too tempting.

9/16/24 I’m starting to think that’s not what you’re really envisioning doing once you pin her down for some reason…

I know almost nothing about the magic of witches, but anything could be possible.

9/16/24 So, is he the only high fae to have ever been mated to a witch? If not, what happened to all the over mated witches during this war?I feel like I remember something about this but I may just be thinking about Roan’s mother and Seelie and Unseelie matings…

I'll have to burn my cloak.

LMAO! 9/16/24

I think those eyes of hers will plague my nightmares until my last breath.

9/16/24 Yes dear, but not in the way you’re pretending they are. Denial is a bitch. Why didn’t I can’t this before. 🤣🤣🤣

The rumors of the Savage Prince made it clear that the Unseelie Court despises his warmongering ways, a confusing stance to take when Kharl declared war against the whole kingdom, and yet there are hundreds of high fae soldiers here under my Fates-cursed mate’s command, loyal and obedient as any.

9/16/24 And that should tell you something if you’d stop being stubborn and believing in the rumors about him.

As I look around, I notice that although they are a mix of dozens of different Unseelie races—elves and goblins and banshees and even some humans all the way from the Deadlands in the north amongst them—there are no witches.

Why would you even think there would be when you’re being treated the way you are…? 9/16/24

Reaching through the gaps in the iron bars, he loosened my gag just long enough for me to drink, the fabric still sitting over my chin and held in place by iron pins.

But… her hands are freed so why can’t she loosen her on gag? 9/16/24

None of that matters for me, not for the purpose I'm here to fulfill. My fate is to save the kingdom with my marriage to the Savage Prince,

So… don’t you think the relationship to the regent and the heir should be important to you in order to fulfill that purpose? You’re over 200 years old and fought in wars and cannot even see that obvious point? 9/16/24

and when I made up my mind to come back, I assumed the Fates were asking for my simple compliance. To meet him and submit to whatever horrors the Unseelie Court has in store for me. The state of the kingdom is far worse than I imagined.

So… that all sounds like past tense thinking, before you got here and saw what was really going on instead of what you just assumed. shouldn’t your thinking adjust to the new information? 9/16/24

Without magic and sacrifice, the damage will soon be irreparable. This is what I was brought back here to correct; I know it, even without the Fates chiming in.

And you’re going to do it all… from a basement dungeon… ok, Rooke. 9/16/24

I learned a lot during my time within the Seelie Court, and ignoring politics would be dangerous for me.

So true. Finally got smart. 9/16/24.

Roan shoots him a look, his brows tucked low. “The Fates have decided that she’s to be our future queen, whether you like it or not.”

The only voice of reason in the bunch… 9/16/24

Roan has always been the voice of reason within our group,

🤣🤣🤣🤣 9/16/24

You know your fate, you’re just acting like an insolent child, which makes you look like an idiot when the author has you saying all this dumb shit. 9/16/24 I’m now thinking the author did that purposefully…

Over the long years of waiting, I imagined what my mate would be like.

And her we go again… rambling on about the same thing over and over… 9/16/24.

They bounce off me and spill to the ground, shouting curses at me only to realize who it is they’re calling the son of a pixie-whore.

🤣🤣🤣🤣 He says it so seriously though. 9/16/24

My uncle's sabotage is working.

So, why don’t you show them otherwise? These people actually live with you and have the opportunity to see for themselves you are not what he says you are… 🙄🙄 Poor guy. 9/16/24

I have no intention of stopping in or bothering any of them, and her action frustrates me further, the black cloud hanging over my head growing heavier.

9/16/24 So you’re just walking around mean mugging people yet expecting them to believe you’re a friendly person? I’m so glad I read this again, other than the fact than I couldn’t remember the details, because I am picking up on so much more this time around…

I curse viciously under my breath, startling a female carrying a large basket under her arm who then flees from me as though I’m a monster, blood dripping from my teeth as I eye her neck. I’m too preoccupied to worry about it. I can’t afford to think like that.

9/16/24 Lordt… He desperately needs a Snickers and a Happy Meal, in that order.

I don't feel hunger or thirst, though I’m careful about drinking the water. I don’t need to push my body any further than this and, in the end, I’m still a prisoner in a high-fae dungeon. It would be reckless to act otherwise.

9/16/24 And where, pre tell, are you using the toilet.

It would be easy to lose myself in grief and sadness for the horrors that I witnessed during my time in the Sol Army.

9/16/24 Why is this even here? She apparently has been able to cope for awhile now, the war has ended and she took time to prepare to leave the N Lands without thinking about that so why is it brought up now? Not on the long ship voyage, not when she lay down to sleep before getting kidnapped… 🙄🙄

Maybe he's found some way to marry me without my consent or participation, and maybe the Fates will be satisfied with that.

Why would you come back if you didn’t plan on giving your permission? Isn’t that also going against the fates?

Growing up in the forest with my family and our coven, we were a neutral zone and never entered into conflicts.

9/16/24 Repetition….

I had to see you with my own eyes, and it's taken me a little while to muster up the restraint to come down here and see you.”

9/16/24 They are so prejudiced… Smdh.