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Back Queen of Myth and Monsters
Chapters (37)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Content Warning
  6. Map of Cordova
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Five
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Fifteen
  23. Sixteen
  24. Seventeen
  25. Eighteen
  26. Nineteen
  27. Twenty
  28. Twenty-One
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Author’s Note
  36. About the Author
  37. Back Cover

I gripped the handle with both hands, and then I brought it down upon him. The blade was so sharp, it cut through his skin and bone effortlessly. Solaris had gone white, and a ragged groan escaped from his throat. Daroc and Sorin moved in, shoving him into the stone to keep him still as Adrian retrieved the cauterizing iron. As he pressed the flat, hot end to Solaris’s wrist, his violent screams filled the chamber.

Twenty

Isolde

Violeta was carried to the pyre in the courtyard, draped in her black shroud.

While I had felt some element of sympathy for Solaris earlier, it had dried up the moment I saw her again. I had no doubt that his arrival had inspired the people of Gal to attack us, and because of his carelessness, we were left with the fallout, with the grief, with the guilt.

Her family gathered opposite us, huddled together, sobbing. She’d had a mother, father, two brothers, and one sister. I saw parts of her in each of them. I tried not to stare, but I could not help watching, feeling responsible for every tear they shed.

There were others gathered in the courtyard—servants who had worked with her, villagers who loved her, and those who served closest to us, among them Killian.

We took turns laying flowers around her—lavender, lilies, whatever had yet to die beneath the snow in the garden. I watched closely when it was Killian’s turn. His features were hard, but his eyes were sad, and he lifted his hand, hesitating before he brushed his fingers against her ruined lips. His mouth moved, but I could not hear what he said, and at some point, it felt too intimate to watch.

I looked away until it was my turn. I placed my palm against her forehead. It was soft beneath my touch and bile rose into my throat.

“I am sorry,” I whispered and bent to kiss her, my tears falling onto her face.

I drew back and returned to Adrian’s side, and when they lit the fire, I lifted my hand to Violeta’s necklace, squeezing it hard in my hand until it hurt, grateful now that it was her essence that clung to it because it would feed my vengeance against Ravena.

***

I sat with Ana for a long time after Violeta’s funeral. She lay in her bed, in her small room, unmoving. I watched her stomach rise with each breath, fearful that at any moment, it would stop.

She was too still.