Court of Greed and Gold

court of greed and gold THE SHADOW BOUND QUEEN ELIZA RAINE Contents Summary of Court of Ravens and Ruin 1. Reyna 2. Reyna 3. Reyna 4. Reyna 5. Reyna 6. Reyna 7. Reyna 8. Reyna 9. Reyna 10. Mazrith 11. Reyna 12. Reyna 13. Reyna 14. Reyna 15. Reyna 16. Reyna 17. Reyna 18. Reyna 19. Reyna 20. Reyna 21. Reyna 22. Reyna 23. Reyna 24. Mazrith 25. Reyna 26. Reyna 27. Reyna 28. Reyna 29. Reyna 30. Reyna 31. Reyna 32. Reyna 33. Reyna 34. Reyna 35. Mazrith 36. Reyna 37. Reyna 38. Reyna 39. Reyna 40. Reyna 41. Reyna 42. Reyna Thanks for Reading! For everyone who never gives up. For the love of Odin, you’ve got this. Summary of Court of Ravens and Ruin A BRIEF REFRESHER… Reyna is an orphan rune-marked human slave who makes staffs for the gold-fae, known as a gold-giver. She is the only human in Yggdrasil who doesn’t have brown hair - hers is copper colored. When a particularly violent and cruel gold-fae, Lord Orm, decides she is to be his next bound concubine, she makes her plans to escape. Before she can though, she is kidnapped, along with her two friends, Lhoris and Kara, by the legendary Prince of the Shadow Court himself, Prince Mazrith. Shadow-fae are able to get inside people’s heads - something that terrifies Reyna because she has been keeping a secret her whole life. Whenever she works with gold she suffers terrible visions afterward of the undead monsters that live on the fringes of Yggdrasil, called the Starved Ones. Mazrith has a plan for Reyna and is forced to bind Reyna to himself in a marriage betrothal to stop his crazy, twisted stepmother, The Queen, from killing all three gold-givers. The Prince takes her to a secret shrine under the mountain, where there is a ring of statues and an inscription that reads, the copper-haired gold-giver is the key. Between a failed escape attempt, an attack on her by a poisonous snake and meeting a magical owl sent by a mysterious fae to help her, Reyna slowly finds herself believing that the Prince might not be what she thought he was. Gold runes float from him, which should be impossible. When she fixes a gold statue in the shrine she gets a vision but instead of the Starved Ones, she see’s Mazrith and his mother talking. She tells him that her death will give him enough magic for five years, and to find a mist-staff. Somebody then pushes her off the shrine, to her death, but the owl, Voror, saves her. She realizes she is now able to escape, but decides not to. Her fate is clearly mixed up with the shrine and the Prince, and she accepts that she can’t run from that. On her way back she is attacked by Starved Ones, and they are after her specifically. The Prince shows up with a giant bear and causes an explosion with his staff that temporarily kills them, but also wounds him. He tells her that Queen is coming, and she must run, then he collapses. Chapter 1 Reyna I scrambled back down the tree, my heart hammering so hard against my ribs they ached. “Voror, are any of those things still alive?” I asked as my feet touched the ground and I reluctantly looked over the mass of body parts. The owl swooped low over the carnage. “They were not alive to begin with,” the owl said drily. The fear I’d heard in his voice before was gone. “Their smell is incredibly offensive.” “It’s safe?” Energy was beginning to surge through me, washing away the paralyzing fear. “They will reform, but not for some hours, I think.” “Is that Arthur? The bear from the palace?” “Yes.” On cue, the bear looked up from where it was ripping apart the body of the Starved One who had spoken. Its eyes fell on me, but it didn’t move. Gingerly, I picked my way through the bodies toward the Prince. Voror hadn’t been lying. The smell was worse than offensive. Trying to take shallow breaths through my mouth, I kept my sights fixed on the Prince’s slumped body. “Reyna, he said the Queen was coming. He told you to run for good reason. If she finds you out here, her behavior may be unpredictable.” Voror’s tone was measured, but urgent. “He saved me. I need to make sure he’s…” I trailed off as I got closer. He’s what? Alive? Safe? What the fuck was I thinking? Why wasn’t I running? I reached his body and crouched quickly, brushing loose hair from his face. His eyes flickered open. “You’re alive,” I breathed. “You will not be if she finds you. Take Arthur and run.” His voice was a strained hiss, and the light in his eyes was dim. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and his eyelids fluttered closed. “Shit.” “Leave him,” Voror said, the urgency increased. “The Queen will be able to help him. We must leave. I hear horses.” I shook my head, staring at the scars on Mazrith’s face, and the small stream of bright blood running along his jaw. “No. I saw the tension between them. I don’t believe she would hesitate to finish the job the Starved Ones started.” Voror’s wings beat loudly in the silence as he landed beside me. “You think she would kill her own son?” “Her stepson. And yes. And I think he knows that, too.” “Then why did he come here? Why did he weaken himself like this?” It was a good question. Could he have come for me? I moved his fur cloak, looking for his staff. The top of it was completely smashed, the silver skull in bits. A frisson of fear and an innate sense of wrongness whirled through my gut. I scooped up the bits I could find, shoving them in my pocket, then looked over at the bear. He stared back at