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429 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 19, 2021
This man makes me want dangerous things. Things I’ve never thought I wanted before and certainly never needed.
My thoughts, and dreams, all revolve around him and this strange new world…even if I don’t want them to.
"Do you need to stop?” he asks me.
“I can keep going,” I force myself to say when all I want is to shout, Five minutes please!
“Good, we carry on then.”
“Davien—”
“Your true king has spoken.”
“This isn’t about me,” he says curtly.
“Rare of our lost prince to recognize that not everything is about him.” Giles grins.
Romance starts well and ends badly. That’s how it fools people into attempting the futile effort.
I vow then that I will never let this new husband or anyone else make me feel small. I will try with all my might to stand tall. I will never live cowering again.
“In time, I’m sure she will mean nothing to me and this will be little more than an infatuation. I will find a proper queen. And I will be free of this hold Katria has placed upon me.”
“Love isn’t like the storybooks. It’s a transaction at best.”
“No.” Davien takes a step forward, encroaching on my personal space. “Love is the closest thing we have to meaning in this world. The love of a mother for her children, the love between friends, the love of a husband and wife, love for who we are and all those who strove before us to hand us the world we have now—love is why we live, why we fight, why we carry on when things get tough…it is not always easy. But it is our reprieve from true hardship, not the hardship itself.”
“Why is it that it is so much easier for me to process being treated like a thing than a person? How is it that the latter hurts more?” I blurt.
Giles blinks several times over. His brows arch upward, knitting together in the middle. I can’t stand his pity already. “Because now you know this is how you should have been treated all along. Because you know that if one person sees you, respects you as they should, then there’s no excuse for anyone else not to. The fault does not lie—has never lain—with you, but rather the shortcomings of those you have been surrounded by. You were always worthy.”
"I found a mind, thought for myself, and become my own ruler"
"We will be each other's teacher tonight, and eager student"
“I want you to kiss me all over until there is not a part of my body that you don’t know. I want you to explore me with your tongue and fingers. I want you to make me yours as a man should make his wife. I want you to go slow until I am breathless and begging, and then I want you to go hard. I want to shatter together and fall like the silvery arcs of shooting stars as we descend from heaven of our making.”
"What will we do with these women that so consume us?
Create the most magnificent world for them to live in?
That sounds like a wonderful idea."
❝Sire, true king, permission to speak freely?❞ …
❝Granted,❞ he growls.
❝You’re being an ass.❞ Shaye smirks. ❝That is all.❞
✿ an arranged marriage — ✔
✿ vague Brothers Grimm vibes — ✔
✿ the makings of a solid as hell story-arc for our heroine — ✔
✿ a brooding and mysterious hero — ✔
✿ wings and shit — ✔
✿ fun adventure quest shenanigans — ✔
✿ solid side characters // comic relief — ✔
✿ an endearing old man butler — ✔
❝We are going to spend our lives together,❞ I say. ❝I’d like to make that as pleasant as possible.❞
❝There is nothing pleasant here.❞ My husband is very cheerful, it seems.
ᴍᴇ: ʜᴍᴍᴍ. ꜰᴀᴇ ᴅᴜᴅᴇ ꜱᴇᴇᴍꜱ ɴɪᴄᴇ. ʜᴇ ɢᴏᴛ ᴡɪɴɢꜱ. *ᴊᴀᴢᴢ ʜᴀɴᴅꜱ*
ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴇɴᴛ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏᴏᴋ…
ʙᴏᴏᴋ: *ᴏʙᴠɪᴏᴜꜱ ʙᴀᴅ ɢᴜʏ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀꜱ*
ᴍᴇ: *ꜱᴛᴀɴᴅꜱ ᴜᴘ* ᴏ-ᴍ-ꜰ-ɢ, ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇᴀʟ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴇꜱᴛ!!
ʙᴏᴏᴋ: *ᴏʙɢ ɪꜱ ɪᴍᴍᴇᴅɪᴀᴛᴇʟʏ ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ*
ᴍᴇ: *ꜱɪᴛꜱ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴅᴏᴡɴ* ᴏʜ… ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴍɪɴᴅ 😪
❝Maybe,❞ he whispers, ❝I’m trying to protect you because I’m stunning. Because if you were to look at me with those eyes that Oren tells me are like a tempest sea, I could never let you go.❞
❝I want to live—more than anything—and because I want that, I refuse to spend my hours as someone’s thing. I’m going to live my life, the way I want to live it, or die trying. So help me live or be ready to kill me,❞ I finish, voice quivering.
"true love is the only thing more powerful than magic itself"