Queen of Roses

QUEEN OF ROSES Blood of a Fae Book 1 Table of Contents Title Page Copyright 2023, Briar Boleyn ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONTENT & TRIGGER WARNINGS JOIN MY NEWSLETTER PROLOGUE BOOK 1 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 BOOK 2 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 TRIGGER WARNING LIST ABOUT THE AUTHOR: BRIAR BOLEYN Copyright 2023, Briar Boleyn Queen of Roses, Blood of a Fae Series Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without prior written permission by the author(s), except where permitted by law. All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 For more information, email: [email protected] Cover Design by Artscandare Book Cover Design Developmental Editing by Rachel’s Top Reads Flourish Art by Polina K, Emmie Norfolk, Gordon Johnson (GDJ) https://www.briarboleyn.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Emberly, Cara, Sadie - My author BFFs, my listening ears. Thank you for your patience with my repetitive questions! Here’s to many more years as writers and friends. Rachel – For being the first to leap in! Gloria, Elodie, Kelly, Mariah, and many, many more – The readers who keep writers going. I appreciate you beyond words. CONTENT & TRIGGER WARNINGS Blood of a Fae is a dark fantasy romance series that deals with topics which some readers may understandably find triggering. A trigger and content warnings list may be found at the end of the book. Use the hyperlink in the Table of Contents. Please keep in mind that the content warnings list will spoil certain plot elements. Avoid reading the trigger warnings list if you do not have any triggers and do not wish to know specific details about the plot in advance. JOIN MY NEWSLETTER Grab the FREE bonus scenes and hear about the latest new releases, giveaways, and other bookish treats: http://briarboleyn.com PROLOGUE The dagger sliced through the air, whistling like a bird. There was nowhere to run. I was held fast. A crackle of energy erupted, sending a shockwave through the stone chamber. I closed my eyes, preparing myself. From a short distance came the sounds of battle. Smashing, clattering. A blade running through all-too-soft flesh. In and out. I could smell the familiar sticky scent of blood. Was there ever a time I would not have recognized it? There had always been blood on my hands, one way or another. Even without sight, I sensed the moment he drew near. My breath caught in my throat. The air grew colder. He was coming. In my mind, his voice rang out over and over, shouting my name. His voice was more powerful than the sea. More primordial than the stars. My name was on his lips as he promised unspeakable darkness to any who came between us. I was desperate to fight by his side, but my body was too weak to move. I listened to the sound of clashing blades coming from beyond the chamber. But I could do nothing but lie where I fell, gasping for each shallow breath. How strange. I hated him at first. Perhaps a part of me still did. But one thing was certain... He was the air I breathed. I could not live without him. BOOK 1 CHAPTER 1 The day my mother died, I was reading a book underneath her bed. It was a favorite hiding spot of mine. The heavy oak four-poster bed was at least two feet off the floor. The perfect amount of room for a small child. I would lay on my stomach, chin in my hands, slowly flipping the heavy pages of a tome worth more than I could possibly imagine. The pictures were what I liked best. Creatures were my favorite. The more frightening the better. On that day I had the famous traveler Lorea of Anselme’s Booke of Beastes, Marvelouse and Rare in my little hands and was perusing the illuminated illustrations. First came the fabled monsters–giant rooks, fenrirs, gelerts, exmoors, glatisants, and the like. Next came the ones Lorea claimed to have seen with her very own eyes–and it was here I doubted her greatly while nevertheless devouring the entrancing images of the creatures from the realms of the fae. Each seemed more fantastical than the next. Nixies with their sharp green teeth who lived beneath the water, small but deadly. Handsome pucas with their thick dark fur. Spriggans with their sinister sprawling branches and gwyllions who walked through the mist and twilight, leading poor travelers astray. And my favorite, the nuggle, a sly shapeshifting water horse that was somehow always depicted as male. In hindsight, it was probably the name I liked. Some days my mother would lie on the floor beside me, reading the captions aloud. On other days, she would sit beside the bed with her own book in her hands and we would stay that way for hours, quietly content in one another’s companionship. Still other