The Orthodox believer who enters a church to attend services, for example, goes first to the iconostasis, the wall of paintings that separates the sanctuary from the nave. There he kisses the icons before taking his place in the congregation. A guest who enters an Orthodox home finds an icon hanging in the eastern corner of the living room and bedroom. If he is an Orthodox believer, he will, upon entering a room, greet the icons first by crossing himself and bowing. Only then will he greet his host. An Orthodox believer considers these images of Jesus and the saints not the works of a human artist but as manifestations of the heavenly ideal. They are a kind of window between the earthly and the celestial worlds.
Usually, the first time I go to a new house, face to face with people I barely know, I feel an immense loneliness, I saw myself reflected in the glass of the large terrace window whille black ploom spread over the ral-kounded night panorama, I was tied by blood to no creature in this world, I could go snywhere, do anything. It was dizzyling.
Hangi tür kitapları seviyorsun?
🔎 Polisiye
💕 Romantik
🚀 Bilim Kurgu
🏰 Fantastik
📖 Klasik
🧠 Kişisel Gelişim
🏛️ Tarih
😱 Gerilim
To Queen Morgana
Last year, on my birthday, I was sitting at a café in the South of France
by myself, eating blackberry cake I hadn’t ordered and fielding
frantic phone calls from my mother.
A year ago today, I was running for my life from the Fey trying to
murder me. I got kidnapped by my ex-boyfriend, Raphael, and taken across
the English Channel to Avalon Tower. I spent the journey terrified,
bewildered, and totally unprepared for what came next. With no idea I’d
survive training at Avalon Tower, let alone that I’d become the Lady of the
Lake.
A year ago today, I discovered I had hidden magic, that I was half Fey.
And this year?
This year, I’m not alone. This year, I have friends who would bleed for
me, and I’d do the same for them. A family carved out of chaos. A mom
I’ve left behind in Camelot to finally learn how to look after herself.
Today, my birthday takes place on a mossy island of rambling ruins and
ancient Fey magic.
As I polish the crystal glasses, my gaze roams over the castle’s carvings
—the triple spirals above each arched doorway that hum with magic
whenever I pass beneath them. Already, musicians are setting up in the
banquet hall, a drummer, a lyre player with shimmering silver hair, and a
lutist.
Aisling bustles in over the sun-dappled floor of cowslips, violets, and
rue. She sets out a crystal tray of buttered chanterelles with apple slices.
“So, Brados said to me, like he was serious, ‘We control the kingdom now.’
A republic. Can you imagine such a thing? He ran a bloody tavern, pulling
pints of goat piss for mead, now he’s overseeing a bloody kingdom with
some backward farmers? Not that I’m judging the country types, but in my
experience, they don’t know their arses from their elbows. Of course, most
of the Fey who stayed in Brocéliande seem to be happy. My
A Virus
“You can’t stay here, either,” I say. “Wrythe engineered a plague to kill
us all.”
“What are you talking about?” Darius asks.
“That’s the weapon in Merlin’s Tower,” I rasp. “It’s a biological weapon
that targets Fey and demi-Fey. The Pendragons want to destroy us all. I’m
mildly infected already, but demi-Fey can’t spread it, though we can catch
it. He’s going to unleash it on Brocéliande, then into Europe. It will kill all
the magical creatures. I got a teeny whiff of it, and I feel like death.”
Serana and Darius are stunned into silence. Finally, Serana says, “We’ll
tell Raphael and Amon. We’ll find Nivene. We’ll find a way to stop this.
But you need to get the fuck out of here, because they’ll make an example
of you.”
We reach a window, and I realize I’m supposed to scale the wall.
“Okay.” I take a deep breath. “Down we go.”
I scoot outside, legs first, and find the first foothold, but one question
haunts me. I don’t belong anywhere, so where am I supposed to go?
A Rageful Brother
My eyes snap open, my heart racing, danger sliding into my thoughts. At
first, I’m not sure what woke me, but then I hear it again, and my breath
catches. Men’s voices ring out from the forest. Did Talan bring someone
back with him?
I rise from the bed and pull on a thin silk gown over my naked body. I
cross to the window, and my heart skips a beat. I leap away from the glass,
then carefully peer around the side again, taking care not to be seen.
It’s not Talan—it’s the King’s Watch. At least twenty soldiers are
marching toward the cottage, all wearing the engraved armor of the king’s
guard. Their swords are drawn, and they look sharp and vicious.
My blood roars as I recognize the man in the center of the group. He’s
larger than the rest, his lip curled with a bone-chilling ferocity. He’s
wielding his monstrously large sword, the one he used when he captured
Raphael.
It’s Vidal, Maertisa’s brother, and based on the look on his face, I think
this mission is personal to him. He knows what I did to his twin.
Slowly, realization sinks in like snow melting into soil.
Talan told me yesterday that no one would recognize my face in town.
But what if Vidal came looking for me here, hunting for his sister’s killer?
He must have pieced together that it was me, probably right after we left
Aedan’s palace. His sister, after all, had already suspected me. She must
have whispered something to him, but Vidal bided his time. An attack in
Perillos would have been foolish.
He’d been waiting for his chance to strike the moment I left the castle.
And if he knew I was here, I imagine he’s been spending his days speaking
to anyone in villages near one of the prince’s hunting cottages and asking
them to inform him if they saw me. Yesterday, they’d stared at me as I
showed up in town. Had
It is Good To Be Rogue when there is An Assasion
“Your Highness,” one of them shouts. “Thank the gods you’re not hurt!
There’s been some sort of attack. Magical explosives. Both your quarters
and your father’s were the targets, apparently.”
“What happened to the king?” Talan’s voice echoes off the walls.
The guard shakes his head. “Luckily, he was in the library and not in his
room.”
“Any signs of the assassins?”
“Already gone, Your Highness. We’re sending trackers to hunt them
down.”
“Find them alive. I want their confession. Because they didn’t just try to
kill me. They tried to kill my wife, a mistake I will make them regret.”
Nausea rises in my gut, and I lean against the wall, head pounding and
my stomach twisted in knots.
The assassins never needed me to open the window to let them in.
The window was a signal that I was in the room with him.
“Thank the gods you’re alive,” she murmurs, her voice tight.
“Do you remember when you told me to have faith in Avalon Tower and
not to worry about the details?” I hiss. “I’m not sure I trust your judgement
at this point.”
“Obviously, I didn’t think explosives would be involved,” she snaps.
“The whole bloody point was for you to open the window for assassins to
sneak inside.”
“But what if there was a different reason they wanted me to open the
window? To let them know I was with Talan? They blew the room up right
after I opened the window. Within minutes. If they didn’t want me dead,
surely they would have waited a while longer. They were supposed to strike
when Talan was sleeping. They could see me in the window if they were
looking.”
Nivene shakes her head. “That couldn’t have been the instructions from