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55 - You
publish date:
2026-06-26 05:06:36
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The Bride Wore Blood 72 - My Queen
Thade’s POVI look down at her, marvelling at her strength even as I see how I’ve pulled the world out from under her feet. Still she stands, chin lifted, shoulders back. Defiant and ready to face me in a way that no one else would ever dare. She challenges me in ways I struggle to understand, let alone explain.‘Your fury on our wedding day,’ I admit slowly, ‘it was a shield for me as much as you. Your hatred of me kept us at a distance, a safe distance.’‘But we’ve moved on from there,’ her green eyes are narrowed, misted with frustrated tears, ‘Thade so much has happened between us since that point. I don't understand why you’ve held this back.’‘Because it would have been so much easier to hate you than to love you.'She looks away, taking the warmth of her gaze with her. I stand, not quite knowing what to do with myself as Kilak howls at me for being a fool. Lana paces across the carpet, always elegant. The long skirts of her dress flowing like a bloody river behind her. I turn,
The Bride Wore Blood 71 - All of the chances
The bedchamber felt too small, the air thick with the scent of faded roses and old arguments. I had retreated there, the Duke’s words still ringing in my ears, a cold, sharp chime that wouldn't stop. ‘Dragon blood,’ he had whispered, and the world had tilted on its axis.I was standing by the window, staring out at the silvered gardens where I had just been branded with a heritage I didn't want, when the heavy oak door creaked open. I didn't need to turn to know it was Thade. His presence was a familiar hum against the back of my neck.He stopped just inside the threshold. The silence between us was a physical weight, stretched thin by the echoes of the argument we’d had before the dinner. I could feel him watching me, his uncertainty radiating across the room. He didn't know if I wanted him here, and for a moment, neither did I.'Lana,' he said, his voice low, cautious.I turned slowly, my silk skirts hissing against the floorboards. The mask I had perfected at the dinner was cracked
The Bride Wore Blood 70 - Blood
Valerius had vanished through the side exits, his dark hair catching the candlelight one last time before he vanished into the shadows of the corridor.I didn't think. I didn't look at Thade either as he danced with Pera. Even knowing that he’d gone to help her, I couldn’t help the small pang of jealousy that his arms were around someone else. But it was less than I deserved having acted throughout the dinner that I would even entertain Valerius. I could feel the weight of a dozen looks my way from members of the Court. Especially those I had been able to pick out with Otherworld blood. If I stayed, I was a bird in a snare; if I followed, I was stepping into the fire. I chose the fire.The transition from the buzz of the dancing and laughter of the antechambers to the silence of the palace corridors was violent. My slippers clicked rhythmically against the polished stone, the sound echoing like a frantic heartbeat. The corridors were a maze of secrets, lined with tapestries that seem
The Bride Wore Blood 69 - Danger
The scrape of chairs against the stone floor signaled the end of dinner. As the heavy wooden doors were thrown open once more, the suffocating atmosphere of the great hall began to bleed into the smaller antechambers. The promise of music and dancing hung in the air, a forced levity designed to mask the jagged edges of the evening’s politics.Thade stood, his presence a towering shadow beside me. Without a word, his hand found mine. His grip was firm, almost possessive, yet the warmth I had once found comfort in felt like a brand. We moved through the crowd, a silent tableau of royal unity, though I felt the weight of a thousand judgmental eyes, Kael’s, Elara’s, the Duke of Boren’s carved into my back.He led me away from the burgeoning swell of the music, toward a secluded gallery where the floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the darkened grounds. The half moon was a pale sliver tonight a thousand stars flickering in an inky sky the stretched endlessly over the city of Soln. Th
The Bride Wore Blood 68 - Playing with fire
Lana’s POV ‘I see a man, desperate to make a statement,’ I reply, as though I’m bored. I’m certainly tired of letting Duke Valerius talk any more. I squeeze Thade’s hand beneath the table, ‘come now, Duke, we both know such is unnecessary for a man of your calibre.’ He’s looking at me and I’m going to keep his attention. If only to stop him trying to cause more damage.Valerius leans back, his eyes tracking the line of my throat as though he’s contemplating where best to sink his teeth. He is a predator who preens, a man whose ego is as vast and treacherous as a marsh. I can feel the weight of Thade’s gaze on the side of my face, a silent, burning pressure but I do not look at him. I cannot. If I break eye contact with the Duke now, the fragile web of fascination I’ve spun will snap.‘A man of my calibre,’ Valerius repeats, the words tasting like fine wine on his tongue. He smiles, and it is a sharp unsettling thing. ‘You have a way with words, Lana. Or perhaps it is simply that you
The Bride Wore Blood 67 - An Era
Thade’s POV The weight of the crown felt heavier tonight, a literal band of iron pressing against my temples, but it was nothing compared to the weight of the hand currently resting in mine. Beneath the table, out of sight of the circling hawks of the Illurian Court, I kept my grip on Lana’s hand firm. Her skin was warm, a sharp contrast to the sudden, icy dread that had settled in my gut the moment Valerius walked through those doors.I could feel them watching us, the vipers, the sycophants, and the predators. The Court was a fractured thing, split down a jagged middle. Half of them looked at Lana in her wine-red dress and saw a tether, a way to pull my leash if I ever bit too hard. They thought her a weakness, a soft spot in the armor of a King they still didn't entirely trust. The other half, the ones with sharper instincts and longer memories, saw her for the threat she truly was. They wanted her removed as a threat to my power. Duke Valerius of Boren took his seat with a pract
The Bride Wore Blood 52 - Arrangements
I walk away from Tim, telling myself that I’m overreacting. That he wasn’t too close and I must have imagined him trying to touch my hair. I stroke the strands back into place, tucking them behind my ear. By the time I’ve reached the end of the corridor, I’ve managed to calm my heart rate. It was j
The Bride Wore Blood 47 - Meetings
Thade’s POVWe’re a twelve day run out from the capital, heading North to the border of Boren. Ironically in the lands held by the Duke of Nix. My own land covers one side of a sweeping mountain covered in thick forest, Madder. But on the sweeping slopes the stretch down into a glacial valley and a
The Bride Wore Blood 46 - Empty
'Don't,' I said, my voice a murmer in the quiet room. Even the birds outside had stopped singing. 'Lana,' he breathed, a low, dangerous sound that usually pulled at the invisible tether between us. He took a step closer, the floorboards groaning under his weight, and I felt the heat of him, the sh
The Bride Wore Blood 35 - Rising Truth
‘Is there anything else you would like to add? Any further accusations to lay at my feet?’ He seems like such a stranger, it’s hard to imagine that we made love together. Or had sex, it wasn’t making love because it couldn’t be love. Yet it still hurts when I try to breathe in his presence, like a
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