A Kingdom of Venom and Vows (Stars and Shadows, #3)

by Holly Renee

She was on the brink of death, but we would slowly nurse her back to life. It was a cycle that had to continue until I was completely ready to claim the power she held. The power I would gain from killing my mate.

She was my mate, and I failed her. She had chosen me over everything. She had chosen me even though she knew the truth of me delivering her father to Queen Kaida so many years ago. The bond inside me that laced the two of us together felt taut and strained with the ache of the two of us being apart. I had given her every reason not to, but she still chose me. My chest tightened with a debilitating ache at the thought of losing her.

She had given me her magic without taking a moment to think of what the consequences would be.

Gavril had dared to put his hands on my mate, to manipulate her into going back with him, and I would kill my own blood to get her back. I would kill him without hesitation. I knew he had grown more powerful. I had suspected it when I had arrived back at the fae kingdom, when I had left her behind to make sure she was safe. The idea seemed preposterous now. She would never be safe as long as Gavril was alive. The prophecy foretold that she would save our kingdom, but it also damned her fate. She would always be caught between two brothers. She was our hope, but we were her destruction. But there wasn’t a force strong enough in this world or the next that could stop me from loving her. If I could, I would do so. I would do whatever I could to make sure she was safe. I would go to whatever end. My kingdom be damned.

Only death magic allowed someone to transport, but it also came with so much more. An unending power, as it was told through legend. The thought of what he sacrificed to get it ate at me. Because death magic could become an undefeatable power. It was legend that death magic would take as much as it gave. It was a great power, but it came at a great cost to the one who dared claim it. A cost that Gavril would have to pay. He was the enemy, but once upon a time, he had been nothing other than my brother. My chest ached for that past, for those memories that were now so tainted with his mother’s and my father’s greed. He had become it. Their perfect heir who infected everything he touched. A poison that spread through the kingdom, and I refused to allow that venom to touch Adara.

The guards parted as we reached the castle, careful to stay out of my path. I heard their whispered words of traitors and betrayal, and I felt their contempt. It was pouring out of them as visible as Evren’s power fell from him. I was the Starblessed that they all wanted, that they needed, but hated just the same. They thought I was their savior, but I would be no such thing. I would be their destruction.

“The Blood kingdom is my home.” I turned to look at her once more with my fingers digging into the wood of the door. “And the Blood prince is my mate. If you are to fear anything, it should be me. You should fear what I am willing to do to get it all back.”

I could still taste copper in my mouth as I thought about how my father and brother had both stood there while they watched Queen Kaida unleash her pain on me. She had wanted answers, she wanted my mate, and I had refused to give her anything. Queen Kaida hated to be refused. She hated it almost as much as she hated me. The bastard son of her king who was born to do nothing but ruin her plans. That was how she had always seen me, and I had spotted the poison in her eyes the moment I was first brought to the fae kingdom by my father. She only wanted me there because she thought she could train me, to turn me into whatever she wanted, but I refused to allow her to break me. Regardless of how much I allowed her to believe otherwise. She had thought that she had molded me into the weapon she needed, the weapon to surge her son into power, and for many years, she had. I had been the sword she drove between the kingdoms until I truly saw the evil that lay beneath her veil.

When I stared in the mirror, it was almost comical how different I looked. This variation of Adara was so different from the version I was with Evren. I looked like the lost girl that first came to the fae kingdom. As I stared at myself in the mirror, I reminded myself of who I was. I was the Starblessed that was promised. Not to Gavril. I was promised to Evren, the crowned prince of the Blood kingdom, and I would not cower in front of these people. I would not let them see my weaknesses, and I refused to break regardless of what they did to me. I would not break.

Even though I knew I had given Evren every ounce of my power, I could feel a trickle of it warming inside me with my anger. Deep in my gut, it called to me, and I wished I could call it forth now to destroy the queen and everything she stood for. “You will not speak of my mate in such a way again. He is the crowned prince of the Blood kingdom. He is the rightful heir to the throne at which your son now sits, and you will address him as such.” There was so much venom in my words, and an audible breath left the queen’s mouth. Her eyes widened as she tried to hold her ground and hide her fear.

“Not there.” He shook his head as he stared down at the black mark of endless night and stars on my wrist. “I will not allow my lips to touch the same place my brother took from you.” I ground my teeth together as I pulled my wrist back into myself. “Your brother didn’t take from me. I gave. And there’s nowhere on my body you can touch that hasn’t already been claimed by him.”