The Queen by Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,1

found you, and sleeps only for a few hours here and there.”

My heart squeezed painfully, and I closed my eyes. So much had happened since I woke up, no longer chained to what I believed would be my tomb. I’d just remembered what Aric had insinuated. That a Summer fae had been aiding him. I needed to tell Caden this. Not only that, I was still trying to process everything that had happened with Aric, what had come before that and after. And just an hour ago, I’d felt a sense of hope for the first time since Aric had taken me. The feeling had nearly stolen my breath.

Caden loved me. He’d ended his arranged engagement for me, but the awe-inspiring part was that I could still feel attraction and love after being trapped by Aric. The pain and the humiliation and the god-awful fear hadn’t stolen the capability to desire, want, or love from me. Realizing that was life-altering. I knew that I could move on from what Aric had done, even if doing so took days or months or years. And I knew that Caden would be waiting for me, no matter how long it took.

That hope had crashed and burned spectacularly when Tatiana, the would-be Queen of the Summer Court, sat right where Luce was sitting now and explained what would happen if Caden didn’t marry a fae of the Summer Court.

A King must choose a Queen to bear the next generation. Without doing so, the entire Summer Court would be weakened, and so would Caden. He would be dethroned, ostracized, and unprotected. Although he would no longer be a King, his blood still could be used by the Winter Court to commit unimaginable horror. Not only that, if what Tatiana claimed was true, the entire Court’s fertility rate would continue to decrease until the entire race died out.

Caden must have known all of that when he ended the engagement with Tatiana. And while that was overwhelming in a way I had little experience with, it was also terrifying.

Because without the Summer fae fighting back against the Winter fae, mankind would fall. The Order I worked for wouldn’t be able to hold them back.

It wasn’t just the future of the Summer Court that relied on the King choosing his Queen. The entire world did as well.

I’d always dreamed about the kind of love where someone was willing to risk everything. I never thought I’d be on the receiving end of it, but I wanted it—wanted it so damn badly.

But was that kind of love worth everything? The downfall of the Summer Court? Mankind? I shuddered as the back of my nose burned. A part of me wanted to scream that yes it was, but could I really live with myself—live happily ever after for however long Caden and I had—while the world fell apart around us? Until the Winter Court came for him, and he wasn’t able to fight them off?

Could Caden really live with that?

He might think so now, but months and years from now? I didn’t think so.

I knew I couldn’t.

And now, with the knowledge that I could…that I was bringing a child into a world that would definitely have an expiration date stamped on it? I couldn’t do that.

Luce had tipped forward when I reopened my damp eyes. “Is it possible, Brighton, that the King is the father? Or could it be someone else?”

“Aric didn’t…he didn’t rape me.”

“You said you didn’t remember anything like that,” she clarified gently. “I would think it would be unlikely for it to be him, based on the stage of your pregnancy. But if it happened at the beginning of your captivity, it wouldn’t be wholly impossible.”

I was pretty sure Aric hadn’t forced himself on me. To be honest, he’d seemed pretty disgusted by humans, especially me. But toward the end, I’d thought he started to respect me, as messed up as that was. If I hadn’t been able to kill him when I did, I had a horrible, sinking feeling that this conversation might be different.

I shook my head. “It’s not him.”

Luce’s gaze met mine. “Then the King is the father. Or possibly someone else?”

The breath I exhaled punched out of me. “There’s no one else. It has to be him. We had…well, we were together, and there wasn’t protection. I didn’t think it would be a concern.”

Luce didn’t move for several moments. I wasn’t even sure if she breathed, but then she swallowed and sat up straight.