Page 125 of Dance of Kings and Thieves

There was the queen I knew. The fire in her eyes blazed as she unknowingly challenged her future king, as she fought him.

As she left him.

But at the next scene, I covered my mouth and dug my fingernails into Valen’s arm. “By the hells, who is that?”

Valen’s lips curled into a sneer. “A dead man.”

In the smoky images, a man with blond, messy hair had tethered Elise to a bed and was locked in a battle with Valen’s axes.

I wanted to ask how the king had ended the bastard. There was no reality where a man like Valen Ferus would allow someone who’d harmed his queen to live.

I held my tongue as the man faded from view and smoke and ash built a new scene.

The tang of blood burned my nose. Death and sorrow lived in whatever these moments would bring. Valen and I spun around slowly, taking in the swirl of smoke forming a new memory. My skin prickled in anticipation. This would hurt. Whatever moment was coming, it was laden in pain.

“I’ve never forgotten this night.” Valen whispered. “I never will.”

He crouched, brow furrowed, and reached out for the shadowy image of his wife as she cradled the last moments of Legion Grey in her lap.

“Why did you do that?” Elise sobbed. Blood coated Valen’s lips. A gaping wound fountained with blood from his chest.

“I couldn’t . . . let you.” He reached a bloodied hand to the side of her face. “You freed me.”

I wiped a tear away. All I saw was Kase as Elise sobbed, begging her Legion to return to her.

The agony of losing my husband to the Black Palace was enough to last me a lifetime. To truly believe he’d gone to the Otherworld, I could not stomach the idea of such pain.

But her anguish didn’t last for long.

Valen smiled at my side. His first true smile since we’d begun. Brilliant light faded in the memory, and I stood by as the curse ended that first time.

“Ah,” I muttered, grinning. “There are your ears. I suppose the curse hid them.”

He scoffed with a nod. “It hid many things. This was a liberating, yet painful moment. I knew I would leave Elise. I was too focused on my revenge, still believing my family was gone.” He stared at his hands. “It ached knowing my true name, but nothing ached as wretchedly as losing her.”

“She is waiting for you, Valen. She is out there, loving you.Needingyou.”

He peered over his shoulder at the looming darkness. With a shudder he turned away again. “I thought the curse ended that day. But look at me. It has always remained; I’ve merely ignored it. What king would hold onto such wickedness, such darkness?”

No answer I could give would appease him. The cruel side of this burden wanted him to believe he was unworthy of his crown and queen.

I urged him onward.

Valen’s steps came easier as we traipsed through memories. He even laughed at a few moments when Elise pushed back against his stubbornness. He paused the night they finally gave into the physical desires they’d resisted.

I looked to the side, feeling wholly like an intruder in such an intimate moment, but the king was captivated.

“I knew I loved her before,” he whispered as he studied the memory of his arms wrapped around Elise’s sleeping body. “But that moment, seeing her next to me, I knew I never wanted to wake again without her by my side.”

I walked with Valen through the first battles of their war. To see the bloodshed, the fear, was a strange kind of agony. This is what we faced. More pain, more fear, more risk. Folk attempted to betray their new queen; Valen slaughtered them. He was captured; his wife raised the army.

“By the gods.” My voice came out in a gasp as I traipsed the ghosts of their battlefield. “It’s Kase.”

Valen chuckled at my side as a memory of him looking into the black eyes of my husband stirred from the smoke. Kase wore battle paint across his eyes and lips. His skin was sweat-soaked, and blood had splattered across his cheeks.

“I’d like to move this along, King.” Kase pointed his blade at a retreating man. Gods, the bastard who’d hurt Elise. “Hurry it up. Some of us would like to leave this bleeding kingdom.”

“Always a delight, isn’t he?” Valen said softly.