Crown of Blood and Ruin: A dark fairy tale romance (The Broken Kingdoms Book 3)

“Elise!” Kari’s voice shattered through the longhouse. Panicked, rough. Something was wrong.

I abandoned the plaits of my braid and raced out of the bedroom into the great hall. Kari was there, fiddling with a sword on her waist, breathless.

“What is it?” I reached for the silver dagger on the table as if steel and blades were a mere impulse now.

“At the wall, it’s . . .” She struggled to get her breath. “It’s . . . come.”

“Kari, what is it?”

“Your father, Elise.” Valen stepped through the door, face as stone.

My mouth parted, but no sound came. I fastened my dagger to its sheath with trembling fingers. Last I saw my father, he stood aside while Jarl Magnus forced me to take vows, then again as the same bastard stabbed my mother through the heart.

I had no father. Not anymore.

Valen crossed the room to me. “He comes to speak to you. You do not have to do this. I will speak to him, murder him, taunt him—whatever you ask, I will do.”

I licked the dryness from my lips, pulse racing, even as a smile curled in the corner of my mouth. He said the words lightly, doubtless to make me grin, but underneath it all there was truth to the Night Prince’s words. He would do anything I asked of him.

It was almost as if he prayed I might give my permission for him to slaughter those in my family who had harmed me. Like it might be a gift I could bestow to him.

I forced a smile and brought my fingertips to his jaw. “I will speak with him.”

“At my side. As half the heart of the king, Elise. You are not a second Kvinna—you are so much more. Make sure he knows it.”

Valen pressed a kiss to the center of my palm, while sneaking a second knife into my belt. A silent vow between us. Do anything to fight, to defend ourselves. To return to each other again.

Kari handed me a fur mantle. Valen placed a black circlet that looked like the wings of a raven around his head. A symbol of the original crown from Ravenspire; a symbol restored to the true heirs of the land.

Outside, folk hurried with weapons, shields; the fae created illusions around the massive stone walls. Others twisted roots and earth until thick briars encircled the border of Ruskig.

Valen held firmly to my hand as we approached. The crowds parted, and soon the Guild of Shade fell in line with us. Tor had placed his black mask around his chin and mouth, Halvar circled one hand, stirring up a maelstrom of clouds and wind above us.

“We’ll speak at the tower,” Valen said, resting his hand on my lower back. He turned to his guild. “All eyes will be on their archers. If one damn arrow even looks like it might angle at Elise, you slaughter the archer. Understood?”

“Dead before he even thinks to load the arrow, Valen,” Stieg said with a wink.

“For the king too,” I said, glaring at the Night Prince. “Do not let this fool play my human shield or I will hold each of you responsible if he takes another arrow to the back.”

“As you say, My Lady,” Halvar said, laughing.

Valen smirked and led us toward the wooden stairs built into the tower. “I thought you liked when I played your hero.”

“I like you breathing much more.”

The top watchtower was wider than the others, and able to fit the whole of the guild with room to spare. I laced my fingers with Valen’s and squeezed his hand until his smooth brown skin turned pink. Twenty paces from the border a line of darkly dressed Ravens held seax blades, or battle axes. Some held longswords, or short blades made of bronze and iron.

But my eyes danced across the glimmer of steel and landed in the center. My father stood beneath a canopy. His hair combed and glossy. Healthy. His beard was beaded in bone and silver, and across his left eye was a black patch where Runa had blinded him to spite me.

All my sister had done to destroy his family and he remained her pet.

I looked to my hand in Valen’s. For a short, silent moment my heart smiled. I had no family outside this refuge. All my family lived here, with him. He was part of me more than anyone in the Lysander manor had ever been.

Valen stepped forward. He never released my hand, and I suspected he would’ve adjusted if I insisted on keeping his palm in mine. I cleared my throat and released him so he could step forward.

Head high. Do not falter. I was consort to a king. To cling to him like a frightened child would only give us a weakness to be exploited. It would give Valen a weakness. If he could stand tall, then so could I.

“Kvin Lysander,” Valen said. The timbre of his voice rolled like a dark storm across the ravine. “What do you want?”

“I will not speak with you,” said my father. “An imposter.”

Valen laughed, a little wickedly. “An imposter? Yet you come here in service of a false king. A king this land did not choose. I believe we may understand the word differently.”

“I am here to speak with my daughter. Move aside, little prince.”

Arrows raised from our side at that. To insult the Ettan king, for our folk, meant death.

Valen held up a hand, a silent command to hold. He looked back to my father. “If Elise wishes to speak with you, then she will.”

He turned his black glass eyes to me, a gentle smile on his face. I gave a subtle nod, then stepped forward.

“What is it you want?” I said, embarrassed how my voice trembled when Valen’s was smooth and cutting.

“Daughter,” my father said. “You have been manipulated by the fae long enough. I have come—in truce—to bring you home. To your people. Your family. Our blood is gods’ chosen to rule this land, and if you remain here, I fear it will be your end.”

Where hesitation had been a moment before, now a hot, strike of anger boiled in the center of my belly. I laughed and leaned over the ledge of the tower. “You fear for me? How strange. Where was your fear when you fed me to the wolf, Jarl Magnus? Where was your fear when your first daughter slaughtered half of Castle Ravenspire to steal the crown? Take your pitiful pleas elsewhere. They fall on deaf ears, Kvin Lysander.”

“Elise,” he snapped. “You will return.”

“Why? Why fight for this? What am I to you? If this is all for control, then you have wasted your time and the lives of those men who stand with you. You control me no longer.”

Even from a distance, the heat in my father’s eye crackled between us. “You will be known as a traitor, Elise. You fight against your own people, and I will not leave this as our legacy. You were born to a duty, and you will see it through, or I would rather you be dead.”

Silence dug deep into my skin. The folk of Ruskig kept the bowstrings taut. Not even the ravens moved as they waited for the next word.

“Elise,” Valen whispered against my ear. “You are more than he says. Do not forget it, and do not let him forget it.”

I did not feel more. To have the scrutiny of both Timoran and Etta on me left me reeling, wishing I could disappear in the ground.

Until I looked at the Night Prince.

Trust, affection, love lived in those eyes. I took his hand again, drawing him to my side, so all could see.

This time my voice didn’t waver. “I wish all to hear—I am not of House Lysander any longer. I reject the False King Calder and his queen.”

“Elise,” my father warned.

I raised my voice above his. “I stand with the people of Etta, but also those of Timoran.” I gestured at the ravens. “Look who you follow, who you serve. A king who murders for power. See the land around you. See how it is once more alive with fury. And you fight against it. My father says we are gods’ chosen—he lies.” I raised my voice, refusing to have anything I would say misheard. “I stand with the true king. The king of both people. Born of both Timoran and Etta, I serve, and will only serve, the Ferus bloodline. Stand with us or leave. This will be your only warning before we force you to go.”

“Hells, woman,” Valen muttered under his breath, drawing me into his side. “I have many plans to show you every improper thought rushing through my head the second we are alone. Prepare yourself.”

My face heated. Only Valen Ferus would be indecent when we faced an enemy.

“Elise, if this is your choice, then I wash my hands of you, daughter.” My father turned his back on me.

“I believe that is what I just said,” I retorted, drawing a few laughs from the Guild of Shade.

Amusement was short lived.

Down the gates, shouts rose and the whistle of our archers releasing arrows filled the space between both armies.

“Dammit,” Halvar cursed. “They’re breaching the wall!”

As the first knight, Halvar leapt into the chaos, shouting commands as a group of Ravens drew blades, attacking a gap in the stones.

More Ravens spilled from the forest. My fists curled tightly at my sides. All this was a ploy. A chance to infiltrate Ruskig again. To kill as many folk as possible. Maybe slit my throat if they got the chance.

Valen tossed the circlet from his head and drew his axes. He faced me, his eyes saying a thousand things. A gentle touch to my face was more than any word. We didn’t need to speak, I already knew. Fight. Return to me.

Then he went after Halvar. The earth shook as his fury shredded the rock between us and a gap widened between the forest and Ruskig.

“Elise,” Tor said behind me. He held out a bow. “We’ll take the towers.”

I nodded. Not as skilled as other archers, still I’d been working on aim for several weeks, and fared better with a bow than hand to hand fighting. Tor shouted at me to stay low, he commanded Stieg and Casper to prepare their fury.

“Where is the king?”

“Ari,” I said with a sigh of relief when the fae climbed into the tower box.

Tor pointed to where Valen had gone. “Stay by him, confuse the Ravens until they go mad, Ari.”

With a playful wink, Ari raced after Valen. Once adversaries, now they were practically inseparable.

“Down!” Tor rushed to me, covering my head as arrows rained over the wall in a perfect arch.

The sick thud of iron slicing through flesh boiled in my ears. Screams, shouts, curses, all of it spun as the arrows fell. Tor’s arms surrounded me, holding me against the wall of the watch tower, unable to do anything until it stopped.

Once a shout from our walls roared to return fire, I shoved Tor away. “When I said I didn’t want Valen as my shield, I thought it was understood none of you are easily sacrificed, Torsten!”

Such a rare thing, but Tor flashed a white smile. He tapped the end of his arrow, igniting the tip with his blue pyre fury, then pulled the string taut. “I think you like us, Elise Lysander.”

Another battle was beginning. Fear grew potent until it left a sour taste on my tongue. Yes, I liked them. I loved the entire Guild of Shade like I would a family, like I would true brothers.

And every time the people of my birth showed their bleeding faces, they threatened those I loved most. I tired of it all.

Pulling the tail of an arrow against my cheek, I locked my sights where my father cowered beneath his canopy. He was a stranger to me. Today, he would pay for trying to harm them.

Both eyes open, I let the arrow fly.