Page 120 of The Crown of a Fallen Queen
Luther waits for me at the top of the staircase. “Come on.”
My fists are clenched at my sides. “Promise me your boss won’t harm her.”
“Willow is fond of Devi. Besides, you’re very important guests.”
The humor in his tone warms my chest. It feels like old times, before Morrigan and the tides took him away from me. “Is there honor among rebels?” I ask, mirroring his cheekiness.
He grins, his eyes wrinkled at the corners. “Only for family.”
I fall into step with him.
“So…you and Devi Eros, huh?”
“I love her,” I admit freely. It’s much easier to say the words out loud to Luther than to find a way to break it to Devi herself.I’m terrified of smothering her, of running her off by being too much, too fast. “She’s all I can think about.”
He rubs his thumb across his bottom lip. “Are you sure she didn’t shoot you with a love arrow? Falling in love… It’s not your style.”
His skeptical, sideways glance rubs me the wrong way.
“Oh, stop being a jerk. If you can join the Rebel League of Evil, I can fall in love.”
He raises his palms in front of him. “Alright, alright. Just saying—a couple of weeks ago, we were two chumps on a boat, dying to fuck a manipulative, dark-haired siren. In that moment, I would have betrayed my comrades in arms, betrayed the gods of the tides themselves, just so that Elizabeth would kiss me again. Love and lust, by my count, are never to be trusted. Especially not together.” He pauses for a good second and a half before adding, “And we prefer to be called the Tides of Justice.”
I hold his gaze, lips pressed together, trying to discern if he’s yanking my chain. That bum is totally fucking with me.
“I know my own heart, Luther, and this is not a siren song situation. I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
“You and Devi Eros…” he repeats, shaking his head. “That will drive your mother mad.”
“I don’t care what she thinks. That woman is dead to me.”
He nudges my arm. “See? You’re already rebelling, cavorting with a known traitor and criminal. Freya will try to make it impossible for you two to be together, but here, with us, you’d be free to do whatever you want.”
When he asked me to join him on the boat, I never could’ve imagined saying yes.
But after seeing the damage an unchecked king can do in so little time, I wonder. The Tidecallers might have been wrong to destroy the Eternal Chalice, but now that it’s gone, we have to rethink the way Faerie works. And seeing what it did to Devi—allowing my mother to steal her crown because of her political sway over the seven crowns—I’m not so sure it was the neutral, balancing force it was supposed to be.
But without it, the kings and queens will hold too much power over their respective realms, and the continent will stay locked in endless war, any Fae in line for the crown ready to assassinate the current ruler, hoping to take their place.
“I’ll think about it,” I finally say.
Luther squeezes my shoulder. “That’s all I want. For you to give us a real chance.”
He leads me to his bedroom—on the second highest floor of the tower, just beneath the king and queen’s apartments. I pause before entering, my gaze drawn to the other door across the hall.
“Where’s Maddox?”
“In a cell, downstairs. I found him after our father’s death. He was drowning in a Nether cider bottle, whining about not being king.”
Our eyes fly to the sky in sync. Maddox was the golden son, but that made him insufferable. While Luther and I always got along, Maddox treated me like my father did—like I didn’t exist.
“So he’s not the new Storm King…” I trail off. “No mysterious bolt of lightning striking the prison about an hour ago?”
“No.”
I look him up and down. From what I’ve heard from the battlefield, Luther can heal fast, so he might have been able to hide his injuries. “And you’re not either?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
