The Throne of Broken Gods

The Throne of Broken Gods Gods & Monsters Book Two Amber Nicole Rose & Star Publishing Contents Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 71 Chapter 72 Chapter 73 Chapter 74 Chapter 75 Chapter 76 Chapter 77 Chapter 78 Chapter 79 Chapter 80 Chapter 81 Chapter 82 Chapter 83 Chapter 84 Chapter 85 Chapter 86 Chapter 87 Chapter 88 Chapter 89 Chapter 90 Chapter 91 Chapter 92 Chapter 93 One Samkiel It had been twenty thousand, one hundred and sixty minutes since she had left, and I had counted every single one. My eyes skittered toward the large clock on the other side of the room. Sixty-one now. “So a giant, scaled-winged beast destroys half of Silver City and just disappears?” The anchorwoman shifts in her seat as she stares at me. Jill was her name, right? Or was it Jasmine? Scorching hot metal bit at my skin as I pushed a large sheet off of me. The ground rumbled as I dug myself out of the hole my body had made when I crashed to the street. My ears rang, and when I touched them, my fingers came away wet. The silver shine on them told me everything I needed to know. Blood. She had screamed so loud it had burst my eardrums. I threw my head back as another heart-shattering roar lit up the sky. It was pain and anger and utter heartbreak. It shook the nearby windows, and I wondered if it could be heard through the realms. One mighty clap of wings, then another, and she was airborne. Thunder cracked the sky in her wake, the speed of her ascent displacing the air. Lights and sirens bellowed on the street as flames tickled the buildings all around me. I couldn’t stop thinking about our time together, every second from the first to the last. Dianna’s words echoed as if we were back at that cursed mansion. Her smile awoke something in me, and for the first time in a millennium, I felt the ice I’d encased my heart in crack. She gazed at me through those thick lashes, her hazel eyes filled with warmth as if I was worth something. She held a single small finger out, and I held my breath. What was wrong with me? “Pinky promise, I will never abandon you, Your Highness.” More of those odd words of hers, but they meant something to me. Everyone I held dear had left me. I’d lost them and secluded myself, yet this creature… no, this woman, promised me something I had begged for. Such simple words, such a simple act, had fractured something in me and shifted my world. I stared at the empty night sky, watching her dark wings beat across the sky, her sleek form disappearing into the roiling clouds. Away from me. “You promised,” I whispered as the sirens continued to wail. Noise flooded the newsroom, pulling me from the memory and slamming me back into the present. Hot lights blared down on us. I did not remember the name of the woman sitting across from me, even though several people had reminded me. Disappeared? That’s what they were saying. She had ripped a hole through that building and my chest as she fled. I plastered a smile onto my face, one made of falsehoods and despair. I leaned forward. “Disappeared is a misnomer, to say the least. As you know, it is very easy for powerful creatures to hide.” A slight blush grazed her cheeks, and my stomach rolled. How easy mortals were to manipulate with a smile and kind words. They had no clue what was coming. The casualties I feared would happen soon. “Yes, and speaking of which, what would you like the people to call you?” She shifted closer, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Since you have officially returned?” I did not think or pause. I knew the answer and had denied it for far too long. “Samkiel.” I forced another broken smile. Could they not see? “Samkiel is fine.” Liam was a shield I hid behind as if I could pretend to be anything other than the World Ender. Liam was my attempt at a new start, even if it was a broken one. And Liam cost me everything. If I had been the king I was meant to be, been the protector the old gods built monuments to, maybe I could have saved her, helped her more. So, no, Samkiel was who I was, who I would forever be, and Liam died with whatever part of Dianna’s heart fractured that night. * * * Back at the guild in Boel, I splayed my hands on the table. Vincent sighed beside me and folded his arms. “They had questions they were supposed to stick to. I apologize.” Vincent gave the thin man behind me a hard stare. He adjusted his glasses and flipped through the tablet he carried everywhere. “I swear they picked their own questions, my liege. I would never…” he paused, “I’ll fix it.” I sighed and walked to the window before turning to face them. Gregory. That was his name. He was a member of