The House of Night, too, is surrounded by enemies. Raihn’s own nobles are none too eager to accept a Turned king, especially one who was once a slave. And the House of Blood digs their claws into the kingdom, threatening to tear it apart from the inside.

Power hurts. It requires sacrifice. Do you want to change this world, little serpent? Climb the bars until you’re so high no one can catch you. I told you that once. I know because I did it, my daughter. I know.” I hesitate to use absolute words like "will" and "promise" and "I am a capable professional adult," but I fully plan/expect/hope that this book will be coming sooner than that. The March date is the latest it could be out, but it hopefully will come earlier. Yours,” I ground out. “It’s yours.” My blood. My body. My soul. I had given her all of that a long time ago. I had even given her my life. And I’d do it all again. Vincent had ruined me. He had saved me. He had loved me. He had stifled me. He had manipulated me. He had made me everything that I was. Everything that I could be. Even the greatest parts of my power, the parts he never wanted me to find, were his. And now here I was, poring over every wound he gave me. And no matter how much they hurt, I never wanted them to heal, because they were his. And I missed him too much to hate him the way I wanted to.” Maybe the king always knew that his greatest love would be his ruination. Maybe he knew it the moment he met her.Early morning: Some people find that reading in the morning helps them start their day with a positive and productive mindset. I am the Nightborn king,” I said, voice low and deadly. “Do you think I’m going to beg for your respect? I don’t need your respect. Your fear will do. Bow.” An honourable mention for these two here because I freaking loved and adored them so much in this book. I ate up all the Valelilith crumbs in this one and the way Vale is so protective of her and how they smiled and talked to each other with hearts in their eyes 🥹🫶 It was just so cute and beautiful. There's still so much left to Raihn and Oraya's story and I can't wait to see more of them as the king and queen of the Nightborn Kingdom. i absolutely adored the overlapping storylines. you could see that in the first book, but i think moreso here. it keeps interest and allows the reader to understand the different characters more than you might have been able to with limited points of view.

Septimus - ”I don’t bite, dove. I promise.” I don’t think there was one moment where this man didn’t have a cigarillo in his hands lol. I love to love him and love to hate him. That’s all I’ll say, but Carissa, if you are listening, I need more of him please and thank you!!! I mentioned it before, but Oraya’s feelings when it came to Vincent were conflicted too. She was grieving the loss of her father, but on the other hand, she started to realize just how much he lied to her and how much he controlled her and prevented her from achieving her full potential. She started to see that she’d been living in a cage, and she hated him because of that, making her grief even more intense at times. I love that this book showed that it is possible to grieve part of a relationship, while also being angry at the person, grief is not just one sad emotion that erases everything else, it’s a process and it’s messy. Starting with the characters- I LOVE THEM ❤️❤️ I feel like we've gone on such a journey with them even in only 2 books and I've grown to love them smm 😩 I really enjoyed seeing more of them and especially seeing their character development after what happened at the end of TSTWON. He was so uncomfortable with his role as the king and hated every second of it, he was afraid he'd turn out just like his piece of shit dead master, he was afraid Oraya would never talk to him.I won't lie that I didn't think Vincent's diplomatic side was top-tier; he practically forged her as the strongest weapon but that's the issue, he never let her be anything other than a weapon, he made her forget what it is like to be anything other than a weapon. I love them so much. They both went from enemies to allies to lovers again. They were broken by something or someone from their past but they never left each other's side even if Oraya hated Raihn for what he did to her during Kejari trial. his character, i feel, is the most complex i've seen in so long. the cold lonely king, afraid to open himself up to love because he knew it was the only weakness people had. but he just couldn't help loving his wife, his daughter to pieces. and it destroyed him.