Immortal Longings (Flesh and False Gods #1)

by Chloe Gong

To suffer in San-Er is not a punishment, only a way of life.

“Bold of you to be saying such words when I could have you executed.” “Bold of you to threaten to execute me when I could gut you this very second.”

Given Anton’s childhood, a natural assumption would be that he couldn’t handle bloodshed. But blood is faultless. Blood is only a consequence. Better to draw blood before it can be drawn from you; better to exert power and hold control—to seize power and maintain control.

“Oh, Princess,” he says. “We’re about to make something very interesting of the games.”

The outlaw and the exiled, teaming up as allies—it’s almost a laughable thought.

This is a charlatan’s crown. This is a crown that does nothing, that gives him enough jewels to be allowed in and out of the palace but never to say anything of substance.

Good kingdoms don’t need good soldiers. A good soldier dies on the battlefield and lets the people cry for him. Good kingdoms need loyal soldiers, terrible ones.

“Calla Tuoleimi.” Anton doesn’t sound like he’s teasing anymore. “This is a dangerous game to be playing while our lives are in imminent danger.”

Those who hold power in their hands are the same. They want to walk through the world reminded over and over again of their might, and if they do not get that response, then they will force it.

At the end of this desperate scramble for power, Pampi remained human, and humans can always die. The gods let us jump so that we could be free. August shakes his head. “There are no gods in this world.” He reaches out to close her eyes. “Only kings and tyrants.”

“You are wicked,” she breathes. “Take your pants off and fuck me.”

Even asleep, he reaches for her.

It would be easier if he had betrayed her. That’s familiar territory, something she knows how to navigate. Calla can handle pain. She can handle blood. But this—this is somehow all and none of that at once, a wrenching in her very soul. This is tenderness. And she is more afraid of it than anything else in their forsaken kingdom.

“Can’t I be curious about how far your love stretches?” Anton laughs then, shaking her grip off gently. “You would have to find new skies and new earth, or else it would never stop stretching.”