Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Princess Jasalyn has a secret. Armed with an enchanted ring that gives her death’s kiss, Jas has been sneaking away from the palace at night to assassinate her enemies.
Shape-shifter Felicity needs a miracle. Fated to kill her magical father, she’s been using her unique ability to evade a fatal prophecy.
When rumors of evil king Mordeus’s resurrection spread through the shadow court, Jasalyn decides to end him once and for all. Felicity agrees to take the form of the princess, allowing Jas to covertly hunt Mordeus—and starting Felicity on the path that could finally take her home.
While Jasalyn teams up with the charming and handsome Kendrick, Felicity sets out to get closer to the Wild Fae king, Misha. Kendrick helps Jasalyn feel something other than anger for the first time in three years, and Misha makes Felicity wish for a world where she’s free to be her true self. Soon, the girls’ missions are at risk right alongside their hearts.
The future of the human and fae realms hangs in the balance as fates intertwine. Between perilous tasks, grim secrets, and forbidden romances, Jasalyn and Felicity find that perhaps their stars are the most cursed of all.
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Chapter One
Jasalyn
THE MALE I CAME TO kill is drunk when I find him. He’s lounging on a chesterfield sofa at the back of a crowded underground alehouse, his elven ears poking up through his mop of dirty-blond curls.
I weave through the crowd and sit on his knee as if we’re old friends.
“Hey there, beautiful,” he says, head lolling to the side, his smile as sloppy as his words.
Disappointment is an unexpected sharp pain in my otherwise numb heart. It’s a pity—the drunkenness. Killing him while he’s this inebriated won’t feel like the triumph I’m after. I’m tempted to come back another time, but I won’t risk losing my opportunity.
I tilt his face toward mine, remembering every nasty word he once hurled from his too-pretty fae lips. “I’ve been looking for you, Vahmer.”
“Are you real or a dream?” he asks. His gaze is fixed on my mouth.
I give him my most wicked smile. “What do you think?”
“I think if this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up.”
I cup his jaw and stroke my thumb across his cheek. “Don’t worry,” I whisper. “You won’t.”
A mere three years ago, the faeries in this room—the nastiest, greediest citizens of the Unseelie Court—were enjoying ill-gotten wealth under Mordeus’s rule. When he died and my sister took the throne, they scrambled like rats from the sun, hiding away and hoarding their riches, scheming to overthrow the rightful queen.
Here, in the deepest caverns of the darkest mountains, they live like kings. Throwing parties where pleasure is the purpose and cruelty is the side act.
“Tell me what you want,” he says, attention still fixed on my lips. “Anything I have is yours. Anything I don’t, I’ll get for you.”
Such sweet words from a mouth that spit in my water just to see me cry. Such a hungry gaze from eyes that danced in amusement as my cellmate drew bloody pictures into my flesh with a knife.
Without the moonstone ring on my finger, I’d never be able to tolerate having him so close, but this ring puts as much of a spell on me as it does on those in my presence.
I rise from his lap and back away. “The only thing I want is for you to come with me.”
He follows, and the other revelers watch with stars in their eyes, wishing they were so lucky.
Like every night I seek out my enemies, my lips are bloodred. I painted them before I left my chambers—a reminder to myself of their deadly power. Neither the makeup nor my hooded cloak hides my appearance. They don’t need to. The magical ring on my finger enchants everyone around me. They won’t recognize me. They’ll be too bewitched to consider why my face looks familiar.
“I’ll go with you,” a barrel-chested dwarf barks. “He can’t give you anything worth having.”
A beautiful white-haired female reaches a delicate, pale hand my way. “No, take me instead.”
The crowd surges toward us.
They won’t touch me. They want to, but they wouldn’t dare without my command.
“You all stay here,” I say sweetly. “I’ll be back later.” It’s so tempting to poison their wine and command them all to drink, but I’ve never seen them before. I don’t know the atrocities they’ve committed. Anyone who’s part of this crowd is no doubt guilty of many, but even with this cold heart, I won’t execute without cause. I won’t be like them.
I lead my captive up the stairs and aboveground to the rain-slicked street. The air is crisp tonight, promising an early winter. I crave winter. Crave the bitter cold. The ice. The numbness that creeps into my fingers and toes.
This winter, thanks to the ring on my finger, I’ll have a heart to match.
“I’m very strong,” my newest victim tells me. “Strong and important. I could take good care of you.”
I spin on him. “You didn’t take care of Crissa when she was a prisoner in Mordeus’s dungeon.” I curl my lip and narrow my eyes. “You hurt her.”
“Who’s Crissa?”
Of course he doesn’t remember her. Humans are inconsequential to the fae. “She was the girl who shared my cell.”
“Why are you so worried about a human?” He says it like someone might ask why I’m worried about a piece of trash.
We were all cheap toys to him, and using his magic to control her, making her cut me up with no way to stop herself, that was nothing more than a game. “She was my friend.”
He shakes his head. “There were a lot of prisoners in that dungeon. I wouldn’t have hurt anyone if I knew they were friends with you.”
“You did hurt her. You made her cry and then you took her away.”
His brow creases, and his lower lip trembles. “I was doing my job, but if I’d known you wanted her safe, I never would have handed her over to the king. I would’ve been punished, but I’d take any punishment for you.”