Page 101 of The Crown of a Fallen Queen
A strange heaviness settles in my ribcage, like my soul is slowly leaking out.Drip. Drip. Drip.Only the knowledge that I have used and abused Seth remains.
And then?—
Clap. Clap. Clap.
A slow, cruel applause echoes off the stone walls.
Alaric steps in, all teeth. “You heard her, Seth.” He drapes an arm around me. “She doesn’t want you. She’d rather marry a true king.”
Seth summons his blade with a flick of the hand, but Alaric clicks his tongue.
“Calm down, Sethanias.”
The Storm King doesn’t need steel. His power drums down the corridor in a violent gale, slamming into Seth hard enough to blur his shape. His blade is blown out of his hand and vanishes into thin air before it hits the ground.
“But you’ll be her kindred, yes?” Alaric tilts his head, waiting for an answer as though his offer is overly magnanimous. “You’re the only friend she has in these parts.”
Seth struggles to stay upright. His eyes—those beautiful, purple-flecked eyes—hit me one last time. A goodbye wrapped in disbelief and heartbreak. “Do I have a choice?”
“Not really.” Alaric chuckles. “Let me escort you back to your cell. You wait for me in your room, Lady Eros.”
I can’t look at Seth. Not now. Not ever. I’m just glad he gets to live.
Chapter 31
Fire
SETH
“You wait for me in your room, Lady Eros,” Alaric says.
The cold, guarded glint in Devi’s eyes turns my stomach, and bile fills my mouth.
Alaric is king, which means he’s more powerful than I could have imagined. He probably blackmailed her, but her expression—cool, unreadable, fills me with doubt. It’s the mask she wears when she’s protecting something. Or hiding who she really is.
The gown reveals the dark peaks of her breasts, the aureoles peeking through the gaps between the clusters of diamonds. It’s a deliberate, provocative design—her body both on display and untouchable.
Alaric knew exactly what he was doing when he gave her that dress, her beauty fashioned into a hook and strung up as bait. He wanted me to find her, and now he’s sending a clear message that she’s his to unwrap.
My fists clench at my sides, and I taste blood when she walks away without a word.
No apology. No excuse. No real explanation.
The woman who once kissed me like I was her beginning and her end is walking away from me, ready to plan her wedding to someone else.
It can’t be real. It can’t be her choice.
Her words echo in my ears—words that couldn’t have been lies.I could never have loved you, Seth.
Zeus knows I want to believe she’s still on my side. That she’s not looking forward to this sham wedding, that she’s not hungry enough for power to choose Alaric over me. But I’m not sure. That’s the tragedy.
Alaric walks ahead, silent. He doesn’t need to guard his rear, his wind snaking around me, pressing tight against my ribs and dragging me along like a dog on a chain. I can barely move, barely breathe. The bastard’s thorough, I’ll give him that.
We descend into the lower halls, to the cell that was conspicuously unlocked at just the right time.
I fight his magic, trying to slow things down, to no use. The more I fight, the more his wind squishes my chest. Black dots dance in front of my eyes. “It was all a trick, no? For me to see her heading to your room?” I ground out.
“She’s a vision in that dress,” he says, voice heavy with desire. “I can’t wait to tear it off her.”
