Page 1 of The Stygian Crown

Prologue

Logan palmed the letter between his fingers. It was worn down and wrinkled from how many times he’d read it, crumpled it up, then straightened it back out again over the past month. The paper was streaked orange from desert dust. He should have burned it a long time ago, but it kept pulling him back. He couldn’t get her out of his head. Part of him wished he’d never read it.

Dear Logan,

I shudder to write this, but you deserve an explanation for my disappearance. Leaving you is the last thing I want to do right now. The Sanguine prisoner you’ve been holding is my brother, Wesley. The one I was searching for when I joined your clan and the closest thing to family I have left in this world. I hope you’ll understand my deception. I can’t let you hand him back to Victus. We’ve been through enough pain already.

I know you won’t let us go easily. I beg of you, don’t search for us. I need to help him start a new life away from the clans, however long that may take. I hope to one day return to the Brotherhood, once my brother is safe. I hope to return to you. I will miss you to my very marrow, Logan Vakarian.

Yours,

Kara

P.S. Sorry for drugging you.

Logan crushedthe paper in his fist.

Chapter One

One month earlier

“Do you really have to go?” Kara asked, tracing the whorls of dark hair on Logan’s chest. She sprawled naked on top of him, one leg hooked around his as he cradled her in the crook of his arm.

“I have to rejoin the rest of the clan. They expected me a week ago.”

“And you still can’t tell me what the mission is?” Logan had negotiated another contract for the Stygians, one that took him away from the palace in Lerathil, but he refused to share the details of it with her.

His eyebrows knit together. “Classified, I’m afraid. It’s safer if you don’t know.”

Kara closed her eyes and sighed against his skin. “Are you going to be gone longer than a month?” She hated the question, hated what it meant. Afraid to hear his answer.

“I’ll make it back in time. For both of us.”

“But what if you don’t?” The keening would come for them both regardless.

“I’ll be back, Kara.”

“There you go again, making promises you can’t keep.” She hoped she was wrong.

“I don’t make that promise lightly,” he said, a low growl in his throat.

“And while you’re away, I’m to fake being a noble and spy on members of the Lerathilian court. Without your help. No pressure.”

“You’ll do fine. Serena will help you. Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said, a wry grin spreading across his face. “Now, enough of goodbyes. We still have tonight.” Logan flipped her beneath him in one smooth motion and pinned her down, his great muscular body stretching out over hers. He dipped his head to her neck and nibbled at her collarbone until she shrieked, then caught her scream between his lips.

“I’m going to miss this,” Kara whispered between hard, frantic kisses. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled his hips toward hers until the hard heat of him rubbed between the crux of her thighs.

Logan hissed between his teeth. “Goddess, me too.”

* * *

They gotlittle sleep that night, and the following morning Kara escorted Logan to the stable yard, the dark circles beneath her eyes hidden deep within the hood of her cloak. She squinted and winced at the sudden sunlight as they exited the castle’s side door. They’d spent all their time since she’d healed from her encounter with Cervus and the Sanguines in the same removed set of halls and rooms beneath the servant’s quarters, so far from the center of the castle that even the servants rarely trod them. At least her new identity would mean freedom, of a sort.

Kara’s eyes adjusted to the light slowly. The palace stables were constructed of ornate stone and curving archways, and were large enough to hold a small army of horses. Dim-eyed stablehands led finely bred steeds with shining coats to their hitching posts to be saddled. Kara’s hands fisted in the fabric of her cloak, a trickle of unease running through her. She felt out of place, and the game hadn’t even begun. A stablehand appeared from an arch leading Char, who began to jerk his head and prance on the lead when he saw Logan.

“You better bring my horse back with you, Vakarian.” Her mare, Drum, was still with the rest of the Stygian clan, wherever they were.

Logan laughed. “Of course, my lady.”

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