I snorted at that, and both men grimaced. Leo and Loke stood under guard nearby, glowering. Mykal was indeed out at sea with the navy, and Ban was apparently at a country estate where he was taken care of. I looked from our angry brothers to Kral. “So.”
He shook his head. “Technically you won the bjoja at haseti.”
“He surrendered, and I killed him anyway. That was vengeance, not a challenge of honor,” I replied. “You made the challenge and would have won.”
Kral shook his head. “I never wanted to win.” He looped an arm around Jepp, leaned heavily on her. “I have no desire to be emperor,” he said to her, then grinned at us. “Good distraction, though, huh?”
Jepp muttered something under her breath, but she held him up. Harlan looked at me. “Do we call you empress now?”
“No.” I saw it very clearly. “Jenna was firstborn, perhaps a monster molded in her mother’s image, but she died. I am Ivariel, with no right or desire to sit on the Dasnarian throne.”
Harlan nodded, unsurprised. Kral cast a dubious glance at Leo and Loke. “From what I’ve seen of the terror twins, neither is a good candidate.”
“I know who it should be,” I said. When I followed the men carrying Hestar’s body into the palace, the others followed behind me.
Inga met us at the door. A brace of women, and some men, all bloodied and looking fierce with it, flanked her. Helva stood at Inga’s side, and gave a glad cry when she saw me. Inga nodded, clearly pleased to see us well, but somber at the sight of Hestar’s body. She lifted her clear eyes to me in question.
I went down on one knee. “The emperor is dead,” I told her. “Long live Empress Inga.”
Behind me, Kral and Harlan echoed my gesture, shouting the same words. Helva dropped into a deep curtsy, chiming in. Gradually, the word spread through the people inside and out of the palace, the shouts gathering volume and conviction. Dragons adding a bass roar, the higher notes of Zyr’s eagle scream threading through like the golden sunshine.
“Long live Empress Inga! Long live Empress Inga!”
It took us a while to sort everything out. Harlan and I guarded Inga as she asserted control of the Imperial Palace, the Domstyrr, and the reins of an empire. Helva and Akamai worked furiously on the documentation—with priority on the edicts to withdraw the navy. Inga’s second Imperial Decree granted women full rights as citizens and ordered all seraglios be unlocked.
It would take a while to enforce, but it would happen eventually in every corner of the empire.
Jepp took Kral to the infirmary, where he promptly passed out and she sat over him in worried vigil. She did, however, identify former High Priest Kir when he was unearthed from the entertainment salons. Marskal and Zynda volunteered to take him to Annfwn—which they did, trussed and tossed over her shoulders along with a few other bags—and they returned the next day with Ash, who set to healing Kral. They also brought me my own clothes, and letters from Ochieng, Ayela, and my kids, which I read with much weeping, as if I hadn’t seen them for a hundred years.
I attended the ceremonial burning of Hestar and Hulda. And we used the remnants of the seraglio doors for kindling on their funeral biers. Harlan, Kral, and I said the official prayers for them. When I spoke the words, I said them for my young self instead, finally laying Jenna to rest.
Jepp and Kral decided to stay a while, to help Inga consolidate her hold on the throne, though Jepp wryly commented that they would not be staying long, she didn’t care how free the women were. Zyr and Karyn stayed, too, though they did plan to journey soon to the Hardie estates. Inga asked if they’d help distribute the news of women’s emancipation throughout the empire as well, and they’d both agreed.
Prince Fredrick and Princess Ada also arrived, immediately pledging fealty to Inga, and eagerly jumping into plans for reform.
As for us, we went home. Harlan and I flew to Annfwn on Zynda, and once again I sat between Marskal and Harlan. It had only been a few days, but I longed to see my family.
As the sea smoothed and became tranquil, turning into a clear aqua like Inga’s eyes, my heart rose. I’d washed myself clean of the blood and death, leaving it all in the funeral ashes we’d scattered in the lake around the Imperial Palace. I’d left Jenna behind as well, the lightness inside me bearing witness that the heavy coil of her rage and hatred had at last been excised.
The white cliffs of Annfwn rose up—and I spotted elephants playing in the gentle surf. Zynda winged into a landing, and I climbed down with much more practiced ease, hurrying because I’d spotted Ochieng and the kids racing down the beach toward us. Ochieng reached me first—but only because Ayela and Kajala hung back, grinning at each other. My husband caught me up in a fierce embrace, kissing me deeply. In the familiar heat of his mouth, the strength of his arms, I had returned home.
“I thought you might be tempted to stay,” he said, laying his cheek against mine.
“Never. My home is with you.”
He pulled back to study my face. “You look good,” he decided. “Happier. I think you’ve never been lovelier.”
And I knew he meant it, because he truly loved me, and those eyes see the clearest of all.
Titles by Jeffe Kennedy
FANTASY ROMANCES
A COVENANT OF THORNS
Rogue’s Pawn
Rogue’s Paradise
THE TWELVE KINGDOMS
Negotiation
The Mark of the Tala
The Tears of the Rose
The Talon of the Hawk
Heart’s Blood
The Crown of the Queen
THE UNCHARTED REALMS
The Pages of the Mind
The Edge of the Blade
The Snows of Windroven
The Shift of the Tide
The Arrows of the Heart
The Dragons of Summer
The Fate of the Tala
The Lost Princess Returns
THE CHRONICLES OF DASNARIA
Prisoner of the Crown
Exile of the Seas
Warrior of the World
SORCEROUS MOONS
Lonen’s War
Oria’s Gambit
The Tides of Bára
The Forests of Dru
Oria’s Enchantment
Lonen’s Reign
The Orchid Throne
The Fiery Crown
The Promised Queen
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES
Shooting Star
MISSED CONNECTIONS
Last Dance
With a Prince
Since Last Christmas
CONTEMPORARY EROTIC ROMANCES
Exact Warm Unholy
The Devil’s Doorbell
FACETS OF PASSION
Sapphire
Platinum
Ruby
Five Golden Rings
FALLING UNDER
Going Under
Under His Touch
Under Contract
EROTIC PARANORMAL
MASTER OF THE OPERA E-SERIAL
Master of the Opera, Act 1: Passionate Overture
Master of the Opera, Act 2: Ghost Aria
Master of the Opera, Act 3: Phantom Serenade
Master of the Opera, Act 4: Dark Interlude
Master of the Opera, Act 5: A Haunting Duet
Master of the Opera
BLOOD CURRENCY
Blood Currency
BDSM FAIRYTALE ROMANCE
Petals and Thorns
OTHER WORKS
Birdwoman
Hopeful Monsters
Teeth, Long and Sharp
Thank you for reading!
About Jeffe Kennedy
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has won the prestigious RITA® Award from Romance Writers of America (RWA), has been a finalist twice, bee
n a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) as a Director at Large.
Her award-winning fantasy romance trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books followed in this world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The Pages of the Mind, was nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and won RWA’s 2017 RITA Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016, and was a PRISM finalist, along with The Pages of the Mind. The final book in the series, The Fate of the Tala, released in February 2020. A high fantasy trilogy, The Chronicles of Dasnaria, taking place in The Twelve Kingdoms world began releasing from Rebel Base books in 2018. The novella, The Dragons of Summer, first appearing in the Seasons of Sorcery anthology, finaled for the 2019 RITA Award.
Kennedy also introduced a new fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons, which includes Lonen’s War, Oria’s Gambit, The Tides of Bàra, The Forests of Dru, Oria’s Enchantment, and Lonen’s Reign. And she released a contemporary erotic romance series, Missed Connections, which started with Last Dance and continues in With a Prince and Since Last Christmas.
In September 2019, St. Martins Press released The Orchid Throne, the first book in a new romantic fantasy series, The Forgotten Empires. The sequel, The Fiery Crown, followed in May 2020, and culminates in The Promised Queen in 2021.
Her other works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera; and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, which includes Going Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.
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