Page 1 of A Petal in the Crown

Chapter 1

Lea

The Earth itself was on fire. Not just the wildflowers and trees scattered across the massive hill Lea knelt upon. Not just the house she had grown up in, or the garden she’d spent years lovingly tending. Not just the well under the massive oak, or the small wooden marker Thomas had carved for her after her mother’s death.

The Earth.

As if the very fabric of the universe had been set aflame by the god of the sun himself.

Fire rained down from the sky, trails and funnels of black flames soaring from the heavens and crashing into the ground—a ground that trembled as if trying to flee its own destruction.

The grass turned to nothing but ash and embers as the fire spread rapidly down the hill, but Lea didn’t notice the flames as she leaned over her mate’s lifeless body in a puddle of sticky, warm blood. A fist-sized chunk of bloody, jagged flesh marked with a solitary moonflower laid at her feet. Their mate bond.

Severed.

No longer attached to a body or a soul.

Where the gift of their bond had been inked and sealed—their promise of eternity—was only a gaping hole above where Gray’s heartno longer beat, his lifeless body splayed open so violently that the broken bones of his ribcage protruded like gnarled fingers.

It was all Lea could see. All she would ever see again.

She was completely unaware of the storm clouds flashing furiously with lightning overhead, obscuring the moon and stars. Unaware of the rain pounding down in thick sheets that did absolutely nothing to extinguish the scorching inferno violently spreading around her. Nor did she hear her friends’ screams—Erik and Janelle begging her to stop. Warning her that if she didn’t rein in her magic, she was going to kill them all.

None of it reached her. She was too deep within her darkness, too overwhelmed by her grief and the horrific, pure power raging inside her, whispering into her marrow.

Destroy.

Destroy.

Destroy.

The command pounded with her heart’s furious rhythm like a war drum, incessant in its demand. The floor that had once kept her primary magic tucked safely away had completely shattered, allowing the power of the gods, the immense magic that had been hidden inside her, to mix with her own.

Raw, primal magic reverberated through her chest and down her arms, tingling into the tips of her fingers and ringing in her ears. She was no longer in control. She was no longer Lea. Not without Gray. She never would be again.

In the span of a few heartbeats, the power of her primary magic seeped into every cell of her body, slowly burning through the good inside her—every bit of hope, everything about her that waspure. Lea was no longer the woman she’d been this morning.

No. All evidence of that girl had been seared from her being the moment her mate had taken his final breath. In an instant, she’d transformed into something new. Something completely and wholly devoid of hope and light.

As he'd traveled beyond the veil, so had Lea’s soul.

Destroy.

Destroy.

Destroy.

Her vision turned red, her blood pumping furiously, death hovering around her shoulders like a shroud. Lea placed her palms on Gray’s chest, searching with her magic for the reaper’s cold fingers as she had the day she’d saved Queen Emmaline’s baby. But where Gray's life should be, that thread of light nestled behind his ribs, there wasnothing.

"You arenotleaving this world," Lea growled as she ripped the vines from the ground that she had planted in Gray's blood. The ones she’d buried before he’d taken his final breath. The ones that, once again, hadn't worked.

It requires every drop…Gray had said just before he'd dug his blade beneath his skin, slicing through his own flesh as he’d cut the mate bond away.

Lea pushed a new handful of moonflower seeds into the dirt, plunging her hands into the blood-soaked soil and praying enough of Gray’s blood had been spilled for them to grow—fast. "You arenotdying," she insisted. "You arenotgoing beyond the veil."

Even as she said the words, Lea knew he was already there. His chest no longer rose and fell—there wasn't even enough of his chest left to rise and fall—and his eyes were glassy with death. In them, Lea’s reflection stared back at her, her own eyes completely black with shadows and her skin covered in deep, scarlet blood. Her mate’s blood. Her blond hair hadcome undone from its braid and now flew about her face like a golden veil, accentuating her sharp jaw and flushed cheeks.

The fire crackling across the hill grew impossibly hotter, spreading rapidly toward town, where the royal soldiers were surely fleeing. The screams of grown men met her ears as the deadly blaze reached them in the distance, further fueling her rage.

---