Knight's End: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Tangled Crowns Book 3)

  You took my sister and now you think you can take my country?

  Try. I dare you.

  I don’t care that you have more magic or larger armies.

  There’s a fatal flaw to your plan.

  Arrogance.

  Never underestimate the desperate.

  Desperation breeds cunning.

  If I can’t beat you outright … then I’ll have to outsmart you.

  All it takes is one little opportunity.

  And then I’ll make you mine.

  If you like why choose romance, mystery, and laughter, this book will keep you up all night. Get it today!

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

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  Map of the Seven Kingdoms of Kenmare

  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

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Signup for My Newsletter

  Acknowledgments

  More Books

  Connect and Get Sneak Peeks

  About Me

  Copyright © 2019 Ann Denton

  1st Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Le Rue Publishing

  320 South Boston Avenue, Suite 1030

  Tulsa, OK 74103

  www.LeRuePublishing.com

  ISBN: 978-1-7335960-9-1

  To Dom.

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  Map of the Seven Kingdoms of Kenmare

  Chapter One

  We stood on the hill outside the cave, in a sea of dead Raslen soldiers, and stared at one another silently as a gentle pink dawn swept over us. But the light did nothing to combat the dark reality we faced.

  Connor, my best friend since childhood, swallowed hard when his worried blue eyes met mine. I longed to brush back his tangled brown curls and tell him that everything would be okay. But that would be a lie.

  Blue's words echoed in my head. Human. My knights were human.

  I looked at Declan, my Sedarian knight. His face was pale and drawn. All his life, his magic had been sought after, prized, treasured. He’d been sent to our kingdom to help protect my sister, to help seal the alliance between Evaness and Sedara via marriage. And now, my sweet, magical scholar was facing the possibility that he might be human.

  How the hell could we end a magical war without magic?

  The sea crashed into the rocks behind us, reminding me of the dangers lurking beneath its waters. We had already been outnumbered. We had two countries on either border targeting us. Queen Isla and Sultan Raj were bound and determined to remove Sedara’s control of the sea and wipe out my country, Evaness, in the process. The sea witch they’d recruited had stolen my only sister and now, the three of them were on a warpath.

  With three different types of magic—wishes, the giants’ strength, and sea magic—against us, our half-human country was outnumbered and outmagicked.

  I looked at my general. Ryan stood ramrod straight, his head and shoulders rising above my other men. He was part-giant, a true warrior full of grace and brutal strength. His proud soldier’s posture contrasted his face, which was dark, his brow furrowed as he chewed on his thick lips. Even he must have been thinking how desperate our situation was.

  My heart sank. What little hope we had was lost.

  Sard. Even as I had that thought, I quashed it. I smoothed my features and scanned my men’s faces; they were devastated enough. I couldn’t let them see any disappointment. I couldn’t add to their misery. And they were clearly miserable.

  Quinn hadn’t sent me a single thought, not a joke, not a quip, since Blue had made his declaration. That alone told me that my quiet spy master was brooding. He ran a hand through his jet-black hair, tucking it behind his slightly pointed half-elf ears. He paced near me, like a trapped animal.

  The only one of my knights who didn’t appear quite as upset was Blue. I turned to stare at my newest knight, a half-djinn I’d once thought was my enemy. His dark brown hair and skin were smooth, his forehead unwrinkled.

  “You seem to be taking this discovery well,” I said.

  Blue shrugged and the Raslen soldier’s shirt he’d donned slipped down, revealing several of the tattoos on his chest. “I’ve always known I only had three wishes. That once they were gone, I’d be basically human.”

  I nodded. He’d had to mentally prepare for this reality all his life. Whereas my other husbands hadn’t. My eyes roamed again.

  Declan pursed his lips and looked down at his hands, hiding his ice blue eyes. But my blond knight flexed his fingers as if he were testing them, trying to get them to emit a magical light and prove Blue’s statement wrong. Ryan rubbed the back of his neck as he stared, unblinking, at the dead bodies around us. Quinn just kept pacing. Connor gazed out at the sea, avoiding eye contact.

  My knights, my poor knights … I had spent so many years avoiding my magic, repressing it. But they’d used theirs on a daily basis to strengthen Evaness and protect it. Without it … I wasn’t sure what we would do. I was torn. Comforting them would show pity instead of confidence in them.

  Should I go to them or not? I wondered.

  Desperately, I turned to Cerena. My castle mage stood slightly off to the side, giving us a respectful amount of space as we mourned the loss of their magic. Her silver hair was a frizzed, matted mess from the flight we’d taken on our way to this deathly cave, but she gave me a thin smile as I approached her.

  I asked, “When will Donaloo be back? Do you know of any spells to restore power? Did he say anything?”

  The old woman just wrinkled her brow and shook her head. “I don’t know exactly when he’ll be back. He took off with the dragon and that boy. He didn’t say where he was going.” Her hand flew up and gestured toward my knights. “I’ve never heard of this happening. The only place I can think to look it up is in the mage’s books back at the castle.”

  The castle. Shite. It was still frozen. And likely, under further attack.

  As the sea started to thrash more violently against the rocks behind us, I turned to my husbands. “We need to do what we can back at the castle. We’ll figure this out.” I tried to keep my voice strong, confident. I tried to channel mother’s
courtier voice.

  My job was to hold us together. My job was to find a way through. My job was to lead them through the blackness into light. I had no idea how the sarding hell I was gonna do that. But I’d find a way. I had to find a way.

  My expression hardened and I said, "Look at me." They each turned reluctantly, and I waited until every set of eyes was boring into mine. Then I said, "You swore an oath to protect Evaness. My fathers were human. And they did a damned good job of it. So, don’t go thinking you’re off the hook.”

  Connor at least made an effort to smile for me—but the others still held devastation in their faces. I knew magic was an integral part of them. This loss would be hard, like the loss of a limb. I tried a different approach and eased my tone. “It could be worse. The magic could have brought you back without dicks.”

  That did earn a reluctant chuckle. I jerked my head toward Evaness. “Without the wizard, I suppose we’ll have to walk, unless we can confiscate any mounts from the dead soldiers.”

  Ryan shook his head. “They all ran off. I think the walking trees might have been a bit much for them.”

  I smiled in relief, if he was up for mockery, that was a good sign. I had no doubt that we had a long, dark road ahead of us, both literally with the war, and within each of their minds … but humor gave me hope.

  We set off walking through the trees, our pace steady but not quite fast. We were all worn down. I flitted from knight to knight, trying to keep their spirits up—or, at least, keep them from sinking too far down—distracting them with discussions of what we might do when we returned to the castle, about how we needed to send messages to each of the provinces, how we needed to send militias to the borders. I tried to keep them talking, keep their minds focused on anything but the loss of their magic. I couldn’t tell how successful I was, because each time I would turn to another knight, the last one I’d spoken with grew quiet and somber again.

  Clouds roamed overhead like fat white cows, grazing on blue sky, eating it up until their swollen bellies covered the sun. The wind picked up, and a storm seemed imminent. Dammit.

  Rain fell in fat, round drops and within an hour, we were trudging through muddy roads, without a single shelter in sight.

  Quinn gave a huge, exaggerated sigh. We should never have trusted the wizard to bring us here. He sent us all mental pictures of Donaloo and the dragon, holed up in a nice warm cave, the dragon sending a thin stream of fire toward a rabbit Donaloo had speared on a stick. Donaloo held the stick up and he and the dragon then alternated bites, and behind them—out of nowhere, a string quartet appeared and started playing a romantic waltz. Donaloo’s unpatched eye fluttered flirtatiously.

  I laughed, but my laugh turned into a cough and Quinn cut off his mental entertainment. Connor came over and checked on me, because what I’d thought was a mere cough started to hurt when I couldn’t stop it. Ryan came over and pressed his hands on me, forgetting for a moment he didn’t have power. When his pink light didn’t show, he cursed.

  “Sarding hell!” His hands fisted and he stomped off, smacking a tree branch out of his way. His arm was so strong that the branch cracked and fell, nearly braining Blue.

  Blue yelped and jumped back, but when Ryan turned to apologize, Blue said, “I’m okay!”

  My coughing eased after another minute, but Ryan’s face stayed angry, even when I came and slipped my hand into his.

  Tensions were high as we continued our journey.

  Declan slipped in a puddle a few minutes later and landed with a splash. Mud splattered his face, painting him like an Appaloosa horse.

  This is shite, Quinn thought, as he yanked on Declan’s arm to help his fellow knight out of the mud. Quinn sent us all a mental image of a squadron of gargoyles. Wouldn’t it be nice if a whole fleet of gargoyles just appeared? It would be like your mother sarding had in the last Fire War.

  “I wish,” Ryan muttered.

  Me too, I wish we—

  Quinn’s thought cut off as the sky went black. At first, I thought the storm clouds had grown thicker. But then trees broke around us, branches cracking and falling; the ground vibrated as a hundred different obsidian stones hurtled toward the ground and landed in the mud. We ran, trying to avoid them—were Isla or Raj using a catapult? Had they discovered us? Were they launching stones with spells?

  We ran, going this way and that—down hills, through streams—but we couldn’t get away. No matter how deep into the forest we fled, the rocks kept chasing. A spell, then. No catapult had such range. Perhaps the sultan had come for us. Was he angry that I’d freed Blue?

  My chest and calves burned as I tried to suck in enough air to keep pushing.

  There was no escape. Once the stones began to land in front of us and cut us off, Ryan held out a hand and halted our progress. We ended up in a huddle in a bit of meadow, and all around us stones as tall as my giant, pelted the land, creating huge divots.

  My heart beat frantically in my chest as we formed a small circle. I latched onto Declan’s arm and Blue’s, the knights on either side of me. We clung to one another, no one bothered to hide their fear. Goodbyes formed in our eyes and leaked down our cheeks, even as I struggled to find some way to get us out of this impossible situation. I was the only one left with innate magic. But peace didn’t work on stones. Cerena’s hedgewitchery was no use. Her potions couldn’t stop boulders from falling from the sky.

  I moved my eyes from knight to knight as another stone fell two feet in front of us. Sard. Was this it? The end? This soon? We hadn’t even had a chance—

  The boulder in front of us rolled closer, and an awful screech filled the air. Suddenly, massive wings erupted from either side of the stone. A face formed in the side of the rock; it resembled an etching with two glowing yellow eyes. The face erupted from the rock slowly, a rasping, scraping noise filling my ears as the etching became three-dimensional. The monstrous face pushed itself into existence and then stretched its neck. Two twisted horns crowned its head, and the glowing amber eyes blinked, lighting up a wide nose and a mouth with two tusks shooting upward, grazing its cheeks. A gargoyle stared at me as its arms and legs erupted beneath it.

  “Holy sarding hell,” Connor whispered.

  I glanced at my knights, but barely had time to look at them before the awful screeching surrounded us and wings popped out of every stone that had fallen from the sky. My hands flew to protect my ears. We all stood and stared, with our hands as muffs, while gargoyles sprang into existence all around us.

  The fear that had churned in my stomach lifted, and awe took its place.

  “What the sard is happening?” Ryan asked.

  It was Blue who reached over and squeezed my arm to get my attention. I turned away from the sight of a hundred gargoyles growing legs to see what he wanted. Blue’s hand went to Quinn’s shoulder and he turned the other knight to face us.

  Quinn’s face was pale. His eyes were wide. And unlike the rest of us, who wore a mixture of confusion, relief, and astonishment in our expressions, Quinn’s face was terrified. His grey eyes met mine and his lips opened and closed.

  “Quinn?” I reached for him. He grabbed my shoulders and stared at me desperately. His eyes squinted and his face scrunched, but he didn’t say anything. Didn’t send me any silly images. “Quinn?” I asked again.

  He shoved my hands up to his forehead and put his face closer to mine. The desperation in his eyes started to scare me.

  “Quinn, what is it?” I whispered.

  His only response was to throw his head back and scream at the sky; a wretched, broken sound erupted from his unused vocal chords.

  I leaned to the side to stare at my other knights. Ryan looked horrified. Declan had tears in his eyes and he clasped his hands in front of his chest—as though Quinn’s sadness was too heartbreaking for him to bear. Connor looked pensive. I turned to Blue, the first knight to somehow notice Quinn’s behavior.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, as I pulled Quinn into me for a hug
. His cold, wet arms enveloped me. My poor silent knight clutched at me desperately and I tried to reassure him by running my hand up and down his spine.

  Blue’s deep brown eyes were solemn as he gazed down on me. “I think I may have been wrong. At least about some things. I think Quinn somehow came back with djinni powers. I think what he and Ryan wished for came true.”

  My mind felt as though it had been dropped like one of the black boulders that had transformed in front of me. My brain felt as though it had smashed into the ground at high speed. Everything I’d thought was true … wasn’t. The new reality I’d started to accept, that my knights had no powers … was that wrong?

  I stared beyond Quinn’s shoulders at the massive gargoyles. They blinked, but otherwise stood still and silent, as though they were awaiting orders. But whose? Were they waiting to attack? Or was Blue right?

  Cerena cleared her throat. “Might as well test that theory, no?”

  Ryan was the first to act, his military training sending him out of our huddle to stand in front of the foremost gargoyle. “By order of the General of her Majesty, Queen Bloss of Evaness, you will stand at attention.”

  The gargoyles’ wings snapped into his sides and he straightened. But he must have been standing off balance, because that tipped the beast forward and he face-planted in the mud. Ryan barely jumped out of the way in time. The gargoyle scrambled back up to standing.