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She'd said that wasn't the last time she'd been murdered, and, in this, he believed her So how many deaths had she suffered? Exactly how else had she died? How old was she each tiard

He'd yelled at her thishad happened She'd gotten a look about her, and her eyes had darted Her swagger had vanished

As he'd suspected, whenever she was discoed her expressions with an illusion of either aence

Now there were no illusions And she was so used toher expressions that she didn't rery, sarcastic Sabine had started blushing today, as well Whenever she'd caught his gaze on her strand of white hair or her neck, a pink flush colored her high cheekbones She acted as if he no a flaw in her character that she'd tried to keep hidden

Sabine had becoreatly

She'd asked hier He aler, as if his confusion about her had overwhelmed it At every turn, she confounded him Like the most complicated puzzle he'd ever encountered

This situation re to win the pretty witch Mariketa The two had gotten off to a rocky start, since

he'd trapped her in a tomh of Incubi and hadn't rescued her for weeks

Rydstro perplexed by his friend's confusion and weird aggression Rydstro Rowen to reason the situation out He recalled Bowen snapping that he was going to enjoy it when Rydstroht every tier to see her shake Rydstrom's unflappable deo Now

I coh But the Lykae had ulti-ure out hoin the witch Once they'd been wed, Bowen had told hi irrevocable There are lines not to be crossed with a female, ones you can never come back from And never for an i irrevocable But by leaving Sabine bound, Rhdstroe, was he doing soive? It didn't ht or fair-only what she believed wasAs he helped her across another streadom back so badly?"

No one had ever asked hio, the Valkyrie Nïx had asked him, "Which would you prefer to have? Your queen or your crown?" He often thought back to that night He'd answered his crown, a choice ht," he finally answered But it hadn't always been Rydstrom hadn't been raised as the heir of Rothkalina And as the second son of an i, I he'd had no reason to think he'd ever be the ruler

Fate had had other plans, and Rydstroed his out of necessity "I want to see my people prosper onceisnonsense like 'Because I love them as a father loves his chil­dren'"

Rydstroh Sometimes he resented thele to win a crown that should never have been his

His older brother, Nylson, and their father, the great king, had gone to battle the Horde They'd disregarded the custo and heir in ti Rydstroet his brother Cadeon his own successor, out of har hih Which Cadeon took a nine-hundred-year exception to

"I also want lory" And to scour it clean

Never had he felt at ease like he had at Tornin in ages past He'd always held on tohide-and-seek with