King's Bride

KING’S BRIDE - Chronicles of Urn #1 Copyright © 2023 by Beck Michaels All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Duplicating, publishing, sharing or uploading this ebook in any form is illegal. The author reserves all rights to pursue legal action for any unauthorized publication, duplication, sharing or uploading of this book. Cover art by Salome Totladze Formatted by Whimsy Book Cover Graphics Rose dome art by Afsana Ali Maps by Saumya Singh ISBN 978-1-956899-09-2 PLUMA PRESS Published May 2023 www.beckmichaels.com CONTENTS Trigger Warning 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 Epilogue Pronunciation Guide World Guide The Seven Gates King’s Kiss Acknowledgments Also by Beck Michaels About the Author TRIGGER WARNING Hello! King’s Bride is the first book in the Chronicles of Urn, a prequel series of standalone romance stories held in the same world as the Guardians of the Maiden. You don’t need to read GOTM to read this book, and you won’t spoil anything if you read out of order. TRIGGER WARNING: This is a New Adult dark fantasy romance. King’s Bride contains explicit sexual content, language, graphic violence, abuse (not by MMC), and past SA trauma (the act is not shown but given to understand, and not done by the MMC). For all those who believe in the impossible. PROLOGUE Once upon a time, there lived a cruel beast in a castle of ice and roses. His magic coated the land in an endless winter until the day a bride came to burn it all down. This is the grim truth behind their tale, dark as it may be… CHAPTER 1 With life came death, and Sunnëva hunted it now to delay her own. Her boots sank quietly into the deep snow as she moved in on her target, careful not to make a sound. Drawing back her arm, the bow string faintly creaked as she aimed. The crow cawed, and its cry echoed through the sky. It invited paranoia to graze her spine like a whispered breath, but the hollow pit of her stomach won over all reason. She released her arrow. It landed, hitting the crow. Black feathers and blood splattered bright red in the snow. Sunnëva’s breath clouded in the frigid air with a sigh of relief. She quickly ran to snatch up her kill before another creature thought to fight her for it. Her chapped lips stung as she whispered a quick prayer of thanks to all Seven Gods for granting her this small mercy. She also prayed the King wouldn’t notice one of his crows missing. Hundreds of them loitered around his castle. He could spare one to feed her family. Sunnëva shuddered as the frigid air bit at her numb cheeks. She tugged her cloak tighter around her shoulders. The gray pelt she wore on top hardly kept her warm. Strands of her blonde hair stuck to her frosted lashes as she blinked against the bright sun gleaming over the land beyond the cliffside. Nothing but endless, vile snow in all directions. Sunnëva hated the sight. Hated that white was all she’d ever known. Not that the land was ever another color, despite their fairy tales. This part of Urn had always been frozen. So much so they dubbed it the Everfrost. Only one person was to blame for it. In the distance, castle peaks rose above the misty fog. It glinted like a diamond in the sun. How comfortable that tyrant must be in his fortress of ice, living off the wealth he took from the clans while they all simply froze to death or starved because of his cursed magic. Sunnëva’s stomach rumbled, and she sighed. Yanking out the bloodied arrow, she stuffed her kill in a sack. It would barely suffice. Maybe she should have gone fishing instead. Turning her gaze to the seas in the east, her heart leaped at the sight of ships sailing on the waves. Their gray sails flapped with the white Morkhàn emblem of her clan: a jagged snowflake with twelve points. They were back. Sunnëva bolted into the dense forest and hurried home. Leaping over the creek bordering their land, she ran toward the huge Azure Tree outside of her village. It had a white trunk and blue leaves resembled stars of sapphires. Seeing it always made her smile because it stood out against the landscape, as if in defiance of the perpetual winter. Passing under its canopy, Sunnëva entered her village. Few were people out in the cold, but the ones she saw were thin and hungry. Their bleak stares followed the trail of blood leaking from her sack as she hurried past. “The ships are back,” Sunnëva announced. “The clansmen have returned!” That sparked life into their faces, and their voices rose with excitement as they rushed down the path to the docks to greet their sons and husbands. “Did you hunt something good today?” an old clansman asked her. His grandson peeked out from behind him, shivering under his furs. “A bony bird. Hardly any meat on it,” Sunnëva said. At their hopeful expressions, she sighed and handed the old man the sack. “Make it last.” He accepted it with trembling hands and his eyes watered. “Thank you, Sunnëva. We are grateful to you for keeping