LEXI RYANS’s Beneath These Cursed Stars is the unmissable new romantasy from the author of bestselling These Hollow Vows.
Read on for an extract…
ABOUT THE BOOK
Princess Jasalyn seeks revenge.
Armed with an enchanted ring bestowing death’s kiss, she’s been sneaking away at night to assassinate her enemies.
Felicity needs a miracle.
Fated to kill her father, she’s been using her ability to shape-shift to evade a fatal prophecy.
But when rumours begin circling that the evil king Mordeus is still alive, Jasalyn teams up with the handsome Kendrick – a rebel once imprisoned alongside her. While Felicity must take Princess Jasalyn’s form, and her place at court – drawing irresistibly closer to the Wild Fae King, Misha.
Soon, their mission is at risk right alongside their hearts.
The future of the human and fae realms hangs in the balance. Between perilous tasks, grim secrets, and forbidden romances, Jasalyn and Felicity find that perhaps their stars are the most cursed of all.
EXTRACT
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 revellers 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 recognise 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.’
‘Where did Mordeus take her? Did he kill her?’ She told me he wouldn’t. Told me she was worth more to him alive than dead. She was so sure she’d be rescued. ‘I need to know if she lives and where I can find her.’ The green-eyed faerie before me isn’t the first guard I’ve found since acquiring this ring, and he won’t be the first or last to know my wrath, but he’s the one who took my friend away. He’s the one who can tell me where she is.
‘I took her to the king. Perhaps he can tell you where she is.’
I frown. ‘The king is dead.’ My sister killed him herself after she freed me from his dungeons.
His eyes flare bright. ‘You do not know! Our king lives! The gods have listened and given him back to us!’
‘That’s not possible.’ My words snap in the quiet night.
‘But it is. Mordeus was wise, and he prepared for all eventualities. We never should have doubted.’
Fear is a chisel chipping at my icy heart.
I yank my heart back and lock it away where it belongs.
The faerie reaches for me but stops, his hand just short of my shoulder. ‘Are you mad at me?’
‘I am. You are the reason my friend cried and shook in the dark. And you are the reason she is lost to me.’
His face crumples. ‘I’m sorry. So sorry. I didn’t know,’ he blubbers, tears sneaking out the corners of his eyes.
I wish I could’ve seen him like this in the dungeons – could’ve seen him begging. My disapproval hurts him. While I wear this ring, he would do anything to be in my good favour.
‘Tell me what you want,’ he pleads. ‘Anything.’
It’s getting late. Too soon the sun will rise, and my sister will be looking for me – looking for the weak and frightened little girl she expects to live inside this skin. So I don’t draw this out the way I prefer. I bat my lashes and fist the fabric at the front of his tunic.
I curl my lips and watch his heartache wash away. My smile makes him happy. My smile makes him believe he’s done something right. ‘There’s only one thing I want,’ I say, leaning closer.
‘It’s yours.’ He’s breathless. Desperate for my command. ‘What is it?’
‘A kiss.’
‘Thank you.’ He exhales – relieved and grateful. I’ve given him permission to take what he’s wanted since he set eyes on me.
This is where the magic truly is. The moment these red lips touch his.
His breath hitches. His lips part in horror, and life leaves his eyes. He becomes a heavy weight – death leaning against me. I smile in earnest now. He can no longer torment those weaker than him. He can no longer find pleasure in others’ pain.
Once I release his shirt, his lifeless body falls to the ground.
I slice off a handful of his curls with my dagger, then slip away as quietly as I arrived, knowing the faeries in the alehouse below will have no memory of my visit, no memory of the chestnut-haired woman with the face of the shadow princess.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lexi Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of over 30 romance titles and the 2018 recipient of the Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Contemporary Romance: Long. She lives with her husband and two children in Indiana, where you can find her writing her next book and thanking her lucky stars.
0 Comments