Twin Crowns

Since we're trying to avoid suspicion on our way in, I'd rather not leave eighteen bodies behind us.

Calm your heart, anxious one. Let me heal what is broken.

Will you catch me if I fall?" "No, but I'll wave at you on your way down." "Ever the gentleman.

I can enchant the guards," said Wren confidently. "My sleep spells are lightning fast now." "I know," said Shen. "Don't forget who you practiced on.

Sound still travels!" said Wren as she backed away. "Well, so does my shoe.

Remind me why I decided to bring you with me?" "Because your grandmother told you to," said Shen.

I'll fall!" "Then I'll catch you," said Shen, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

But if i fall to my death, I promise you my spirit won't linger in that forest. I will haunt you until the end of your days, and then when you die, I will berate you until the end of time itself. I'm flattered that you want to be with me until the end of time.

The reckless part of her still yearned for his company, burned for his touch.

My feelings for Ansel were as real as they could have been at the time. But they were like a painting of...oh, I don't know, a basket of fruit. Nice to have but never truly satisfying. And Shen." She smiled, without meaning to. "Well, my feelings for Shen are like real fruit. A whole mountain of fresh fruit! Apples and berries and pears and bananas...

Wren exhaled through her smile. She didn't have butterflies. She had scorpions, and right now, they were eating her alive.

Well, considering I stole you out of your bed and dragged you across the country, giving you my shoes before we climb down a sheer cliff that will most certainly traumatize you is really the least I can do.

.You. are the thing you fear most." His face softened. "And are you really so scary?

She cleared her throat. "I found a new vocation." "Stalking me?" "Wanting you." Wren's cheeks flared. Damn. She looked away sharply.

Rose wished her sister were here to see this. What would her life have been like, having fierce and fearless Wren always next to her? Anger flared inside her, as hot as the flames crackling in their cages.

But Wren pushed that truth away. Why ruin a perfectly lovely morning with talk of what lay beyond tomorrow?

But now that she had tasted the desert air with Shen and watched the stars dancing in his eyes as he looked at her, she knew she had never loved Ansel. And she certainly couldn't marry him. Of that, she was unerringly sure.

What will you do with that hideous statue when you become Queen?" Shen asked. "Smash it to smithereens? Replace it with a statue of me?" "I'll smash it to little pieces," said Wren. " And then I'll feed them to whoever commissioned that eyesore in the first place. One spoonful at a time.

Will you catch me if I fall?” “No, but I’ll wave at you on your way down.

I always thought I would rule this land with a husband by my side. A king who was clever and strong and fearless. Why can't it be a sister instead?

my name is rose,' said rose, wryly. 'i know my way around thorns.

She narrowed her eyes. "Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?" "Because you need me right now." Shen's smile was slow and lazy. "And I'm enjoying it.

The soldier felt more dangerous now than the previous night, when he caught her in a spell, The way he was looking at her now...the things it was doing to her insides.

He smirked. "Say please." She didn't know if she wanted to kiss that smirk or slap it off his face. "Please.

Then came a sudden whoosh from somewhere over her head, followed by a rippling breeze. The roses trembled. Rose whipped her head around. And found herself staring into Shen Lo's night-dark eyes. "Hello, Princess. Miss me?

The rest of the spiraling steps, where the shadows rose up like waves to claim them.

And what about me?" demanded Wren. "What am I supposed to do?" Celeste smiled thinly. "You can go back to not existing for a while.

Celeste was fearless like that, not afraid of the fall but of what she might miss at the top.

Wren was too busy staring at the Gevran soldier to care. Tor looked away first, and she felt the absence of his gaze as if the sun itself had turned its back on her.