Eclipse of the Crown (Villains & Virtues, #3)

by A.K. Caggiano

“Amma, I would sooner be cleaved in two than allow anyone to take you from me.”

“What happened to all of your superiority about where you put your cock?” “Realized it was already blighted by where it’s been.”

After the oracle, I will drive you to madness with my tongue so that you believe you were born only for wickedness.

Darkness, did he like the sound of Mistress Bloodthorne when he looked on her.

“Misery personified shall descend upon a winged beast to unknowingly rescue her own undoing, but when the pieces are reforged, the downfall of the hallowed son, the chosen, and the heartless mother is inevitable.”

“Well, if you’ll excuse a little more mystery, it comes in the epilogue, I guess.”

When the day is night, and the corners of the realm have fallen into rot, the hallowed son shall release the Harbinger of Destruction upon earth once again. Only by the spilling of the descendants’ blood may It rise, and by the spilling of the heart of the earth’s blood to beseech the gods may It fall.

“All hail Amma,” one of them called back to the rest in the cave, “King of the gobbies!”

also that her incessant kindness had broken him and made him good. Or something like that; who could really remember? It was not as if it were written down in some tome, and he could flip to chapter sixteen to repeat it.

“If the talisman weren’t inside me, we would be apart.” She was whispering, but the arcana still lingering under her skin made her voice thunderous. “I haven’t been able to separate myself from it because I don’t want to be separate from you. Not ever.”

“I say a lot of idiotic things,” he grumbled, grip on her wrist and jaw tightening. “What I mean is that I want to keep you, your body, your soul. I want every beat of your heart for my own, and I want to be consumed by you.” Amma had fallen still again, glassiness to her blue eyes. “You’ve ruined me, Ammalie,” he said with a chuckle. “Enthralled me completely without even using magic.”

It may have not been in the way that humans were meant to, but he loved her.

“This will take us to danger.” “Us,” she said and tore the bit of parchment that led to the Gloomweald in two, letting the pieces fall to the floor. “That’s what I choose.”

“I am in love with you, Amma, utterly and unconditionally, until my last breath and beyond.”

“Kaz!” Amma pushed up onto her knees and threw her arms out. “Harlot!” Kaz bound toward Amma and wrapped long, spindly arms around her middle. Amma squeezed him back, tears in her eyes.

“To get him back?” She scoffed. “I’m prepared to destroy the entire realm myself.”

It wasn’t death, of course, because Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne couldn’t die that easily, and death was quite different than just floating in chilly darkness forever, but those details would be sorted later.

S anguinisui,” said Damien, the word hateful on his tongue, “forget you ever loved me.” Amma’s eyes went glassy, her body hitching. “No, I—” “Sanguinisui, remember, instead, the monster that abducted you, the blood mage who was cruel and vicious and deserving of your retribution for the Abyss you suffered at my hand.” She convulsed on his lap, arms trembling in the hold he had on both of her wrists. The magic of the talisman was stronger now with E’nloc behind it, though he knew it was only because he used it for further destruction. “Sanguinisui, believe I enthralled you, coerced you, abused you, but you will regain solace once you finally kill me.”