The golden shimmer of Edna's satin gown spread in rich folds on either side of her. There was a soft fall of lace encircling her shoulders. It was the color of her skin, without the glow, the myriad living tints that one may sometimes discover in vibrant flesh. There was something in her attitude, in her whole appearance when she leaned her head against the high-backed chair and spread her arms, which suggested the regal woman, the one who rules, who looks on, who stands alone.
But as she sat there amid her guests, she felt the old ennui overtaking her; the hopelessness which so often assailed her, which came upon her like an obsession, like something extraneous, independent of volition. It was something which announced itself; a chill breath that seemed to issue from some vast cavern wherein discords waited. There came over her the acute longing which always summoned into her spiritual vision the pres-ence of the beloved one, overpowering her at once with a sense of the unattainable.
Makeup
I stare up into Talan’s heartbreakingly beautiful face. Even
though I should be scared out of my wits, all I can think about is
how desperately I wanted to see him.
“Nia.” Talan’s voice sounds wrecked, like he hasn’t slept for days. “You
came back.”
“I’m not allowed in Camelot anymore. They say I’m a traitor.” My
voice cracks a little. “They arrested me. I can’t go back there.”
“Did they arrest you? It’s hard to say when you lie endlessly.” His voice
is barely a whisper. “You faked your family. Your name isn’t Vaillancourt, is
it? And the man I buried—”
He breaks off, staring at me.
I feel myself crumbling into ash. “He was a member of the resistance.
Anti-monarchy. Demi-Fey.” I swallow hard. “And no, I’m not the farm girl
you thought I was. I’m Nia Melisande, Mordred’s daughter. He’s still alive,
in Avalon.”
He stares at me without moving. Not betraying a single thing.
“I grew up in America, speaking English,” I add. “I grew up believing I
was human. You heard my thoughts for years. I heard you repeating them
once in your sleep.”
A tiny twitch of his lips is his only reaction to my confession. “You’re
here only because you have nowhere else to go.”
Desperation crackles through my nerves. “I wanted to see you.”
His eyes flare like torches in the breeze. “I want to hear it.”
My heart is beating faster. My blood pumps hard. “Hear what?”
“You.” He switches to English. “Speak to me in English. I want to hear
how you sound.”
I stare at him, startled by the thickness of his accent. I’d only heard him
speak English once before, briefly.
Swallowing, I search for the right words. “‘Where fairytales come to
life,’” I say in my American accent. “That’s what I heard you say in your
Her çiçeğin bir mevsimi, her kitabın bir zamanı vardır. Haziranın tadını yeni hikâyelerle çıkarın.
The Gods, The Dead and their children
“Hold on.” She didn’t touch the vial. “Tell me what’s going on before I
hurl my spirit into the abyss with you. Which god are we visiting now?”
“Not the gods,” he said. “The dead.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Altan? Did you find him?”
“No.” A shadow of discomfort flitted across Chaghan’s face. “He’s not—
I’ve never—no. But she is a Speerly. Most spirits dissolve into nothing
when they pass. That’s why it’s hard to commune with the dead; they’ve
already disappeared from the realm of conscious things. But your kind
linger. They’re bound by resentment and a god that feeds on it, which
means often they can’t let go. They’re hungry ghosts.”
Rin licked the tip of her index finger and poked it into the vial, swiveling
it around until soft, downy powder coated her skin up to the first joint. “Are
we speaking to Tearza?”
“No.” Chaghan took the vial back and did the same. “Someone more
recent. I don’t believe you’ve met.”
She glanced up. “Who?”
“Hanelai,” Chaghan said bluntly.
Without hesitation Rin put her powder-covered finger in her mouth and
sucked.
Immediately the Ketreyid campsite blurred and dissolved like paints
swirled in water. Rin closed her eyes. She felt her spirit flying up, fleeing
her heavy body, that clumsy sack of bones and organs and flesh, soaring
toward the heavens like a bird freed from its cage.
“We’ll wait here,” Chaghan said. They floated together in a dark expanse
—a plane not quite pitch-black, but rather shrouded in hazy twilight. “When
I found out you were marching to Tianshan, I went searching. I needed to
understand the risks. I know there’s no one alive who could push you off
the path you’ve chosen.” He nodded toward a red ball of light in the void, a
distant star that grew larger as it approached. “But she might.”
The star became a pillar of flame
A Perfect love Declaration
“So fucking devastated that I was going to lose you,” he replies,
stark honesty rumbling out of his gravelly voice. “That I was going to lose
you before I could tell you that I love you.”
Breath sucks in between my lips, my eyes widening as I stare at him.
“Love?”
He pauses and studies my face like his dark brown eyes are soaking
up every inch of me. “Yes, Rissa Bell. I fucking love you.”
My mind sputters, heart skipping. “But…we barely know each other.
We’ve barely spent any time together,” I say in a rush, looking around like
excuses are going to start falling onto the floor so I can pick them all up.
“We can’t even stand each other!”
He smirks. “We like the fire. We each don’t back down to the other,
and we like it that way. So don’t lie and try to act like we can’t stand each
other, because we both know that’s not true.”
My pulse feels like there are a thousand birds taking flight within
every vein, fluttering all over.
“You almost died,” he says again. “And I’ll never fucking forget
how close it was. Just like I won’t waste any more time now that we’ve
gotten a second chance. We can’t fight this anymore, Rissa. I’m claiming
you as mine.”
I stare at him. Mouth opening and closing like a struggling fish. “Are
you out of your mind? You can’t just…claim me!” I say shrilly.
“I just did.”
My back stiffens. “I am an independent woman. I decide who to be
with.”
“You’ll decide to be with me.”
My teeth grind. “You cocky son of a bitch.”
“And yours.”
“Mine?” I scoff and try to slap his hand away from my waist, but he
pays the swat no mind, his touch still holding me. “What, you’re mine until
Okay I will leave you to be
“You have somewhere to be?”
He gives me a sardonic look. “Do you honestly think
I’d leave after you just told me you’re in love with me?”
I blink in shock and rear back. “I didn’t...I’m not in
love with you,” I quickly say. “That’s not what I said.”
He rubs at the black scruff on his chin, regarding me.
“Not exactly that phrase, no. But with you, I have to hear
what you’re not saying in order to read the whole page of
your words.” His voice pitches lower, right along with my
stomach. “I assure you, I’ve heard you loud and clear.”
I shake my head, dashing away his claim with a slash
of my hand. “That’s not...no. Don’t be ridiculous. I said I
wanted you. I don’t love you.”
He cocks his head, looking infuriatingly calm as he
leans against the wall and crosses his arms again. “Are you
sure about that?”
My expression is incredulous. “Yes, I’m sure!” I
exclaim, cheeks gone feverish. “I admit I feel something for
you, but not that, you arrogant ass. Love doesn’t happen
this way.”
His brows hitch up. “Love happens in all kinds of ways.
Fast. Slow. In bits and pieces, or immediate. Filled with
lust, one-sided longing, a snap realization never noticed
before. Deeply. Thoroughly. Love is a whisper we didn’t
hear or a sound that drums in our ears and drowns out
everything else.” Slade edges toward me, though I barely
notice because I’m so hooked on his words that I’ve
forgotten to blink. “You’re incredibly private. Closed-off.
Conditioned to shut out your true feelings and deny
yourself what you want. So you wouldn’t have said all of
A Marrige Proposel with a Man you just MET
It gave her the burst of courage to say, “I thought you were only asking
one lady to dance tonight.”
“I wouldn’t have even done that, but there’s an unfortunate law that says
I had to ask at least one girl.” Another swallow, and then his voice went a
little deeper. “I would have asked you, but I knew that if you were in my
arms, I wouldn’t get through an entire dance before doing this.”
Apollo went down on one knee.
Evangeline abruptly forgot how to breathe.
He could not be doing what she thought he was doing. She didn’t even
want to think about what she thought he was doing—not after how she’d
made such a fool of herself earlier.
But all the people she was trying to ignore must have been thinking the
thing that she was trying not to think. The whispers were starting up again,
and the crowd around them was increasing, caging Evangeline and Apollo
in a circle of ball gowns, silk doublets, and shocked faces. She could see
Marisol among them, grinning widely. Evangeline didn’t spy Jacks, but she
wondered what he was thinking of this. She still didn’t know what he
wanted. But if Jacks was Apollo’s rival, she couldn’t have imagined Jacks
had planned for this turn.
Apollo took both of her hands in his warm grip. “I want you,
Evangeline Fox. I want to write ballads for you on the walls of Wolf Hall
and carve your name on my heart with swords. I want you to be my wife
and my princess and my queen. Marry me, Evangeline, and let me give you
everything.”
He brought her hand to his lips again, and this time, when he looked
down at Evangeline, it was as if the rest of the celebration didn’t exist. His
eyes said a thousand exquisite words. But the word she felt most was
wanted. Apollo wanted her more than anyone else in the ballroom.
No one had ever looked at Evangeline like this
