The Fiery Crown by Jeffe Kennedy

Author:Jeffe Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

* * *

Sometime later, I opened my eyes as he shifted. The room had filled with light, the sun truly rising. “It grows late,” I observed with chagrin. “I should get up.”

But he stopped me. “Uh-uh. Tell me about the other nightmares.”

I laughed. A mistake, as it sounded a little forced. Already I was losing that sense of being protected, the chill wind of the dread future dispersing the golden light like withered petals on a spent blossom. “Do you forget nothing?”

“Not important things,” he replied somberly, holding me against him. “You distracted me with sex—and yeah, I’ll admit you can, probably whenever you want—and you needed that breather. Now you can tell me the rest.”

“Managing Me with sex?” He’d done that at the folly, too. What really annoyed me was that it worked.

He grinned, that dimple winking in his delight. “Whatever works, sweetheart. Tell me, Lia. You promised.”

“I don’t know that it matters,” I said. “And it’s difficult to explain.”

“All right.” He waited.

I closed my eyes, thinking how to phrase it. “When I’m asleep, it … opens up My mind in a way that’s different from when I’m awake. And in My dreams, I hear the crying lands. All the lost kingdoms, calling to Me of their suffering, showing Me what they’ve endured.” Begging for help, just as Con had in my dreams, holding out his hand to me, long hair tangling in a storm wind.

He was quiet. I opened my eyes to find him studying my face thoughtfully. “How can a piece of dirt speak to you?” he asked slowly, and I knew he’d been thinking how to ask it.

“I told you it was difficult to explain.”

“I know. Don’t get huffy.” He cupped my bottom with a big hand, nestling me back against him. “I’m just trying to understand. Are you saying the land is … alive?”

“Of course it is.”

“Don’t say it like that. I’ve never heard anyone say that before.”

I sighed, pressed my forehead against his chest. “I apologize. It used to be that everyone knew. The royal bloodlines, they weren’t only hereditary rulers, but born of the land itself. The true kings and queens share blood ties to the land.”

“What does that mean?”

“They are intertwined on a deep level. The rulers give their lives for the land, and the land gives them life.”

“This is like that thing you were saying in the carriage, about everything having life force.”

I nodded. “All life is connected.”

“And before that—about blood sacrifice.”

“Yes.”

“Hmm.” His thoughtful hum rumbled through his chest beneath my cheek. “What happens when you take the royal bloodline from the land?”

And there, he’d gone straight to the heart of it. “The land only answers to its bloodline. Bereft of that, it’s orphaned. It dies or goes wild.”

“So Anure knew what he was doing, killing off the royal families.”

I tipped my head back to look at him. “Or enslaving them.”

He gazed back with dawning understanding. “If he owns the royal, he owns the land. Because he can’t on his own.”

I nodded.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.