Novels by Keisha lane

THALIA’S POVThe carriage door stands open, revealing a dark leather interior that looks far more comfortable than anything I deserve at the moment. I climb inside, careful not to put too much weight on my raw feet pressing against the boots, and settle onto the seat opposite her.The moment I sit down, the door slams shut.Outside, someone gives an order. The horses shift, their hooves scraping against the frozen ground, and then the carriage lurches forward.I catch myself against the seat.Wonderful. I've been married off to a stranger, stripped of my magic, and threatened by a woman whose idea of a proper welcome is informing me that I'll probably be dead within a fortnight.Duskmere is already making an excellent first impression. I glance at Isolde. If that was supposed to be reassuring, I would hate to hear her idea of a threat.The carriage rocks as we move away from the outpost. Through the small window, I catch glimpses of dark trees and patches of snow, the landscape blurri

THALIA POVThe palace gates came into view just as the sky was turning that pale, bruised gray that isn't quite morning yet, and for a long moment I simply sat there staring at them, unable to make my body want to move any closer.I had grown up on stories about this place. Not the palace specifically — the land itself, the whole dark shape of it in my childhood imagination, wolves who peeled the skin from witches who wandered too close, bloodlines with tempers too old and too violent to reason with. I used to think I was too clever to actually believe any of it. Sitting outside those gates with my ankle throbbing and my magic still sealed shut inside me, I found I believed every last word.I had run last night. I had actually tried, properly tried, not the half-hearted rebellion of a girl who expects to fail — and something out there in that forest had still been faster than me, stronger than me, closer to whatever those old stories described than I wanted to admit. I'd been carried

THALIA POV“It's now or never, Thalia,” I murmured in my head, replaying my plans over again."I need the restroom," I finally voiced, smiling at the guard nearest to the carriage door. He was a Lycari soldier, broad-shouldered, and ridiculously named after one of the Greek letters. He glanced at me with no interest at all; he looked like he'd rather be doing literally anything else than escorting a witch through his own territory.I knew he must have considered snapping my neck since it was his shift to watch over me, but I couldn't help but ramble and ask for his pet goat's name. He got pissed when I asked if he had the urge to eat them raw."There's a stop in two hours, my lady.""I don't have two hours," I said flatly. I wasn't ready to argue about that with him again. "Unless you'd like to explain to the Duskmere court why your new queen arrived having ruined an entire wedding dress on the road."That did it. Nothing moved men like the threat of an inconvenience they'd personally

RONAN POVI stirred slightly, my arm gone numb where it was tucked beneath Isolde's neck—a habit I'd warned her against more than once, though she never seemed to remember it by morning.I pulled her closer against my chest instead of moving it, my eyes catching the faint tracks of dried tears at the side of her face. She'd cried again in her sleep, hoping, probably, that I wouldn't take a new bride.She'd never said it outright in the daylight. She didn't have to. I'd learned the shape of her worry a long time ago, the way her jaw tightened even in rest."No one can replace you," I murmured against her hair, stirring her gently awake. Her pale blue eyes found mine almost immediately, the way they always did, like some part of her stayed half-alert even in sleep."You were moving," she said, groggy, rubbing at her eyes."It's nothing. Get a little more sleep."I brushed the hair back from her face and pressed my mouth briefly to the side of her head before turning to stand. Her hand c

As soon as I got back to the palace, I walked straight back to the room, not bothering to meet my father's furious gaze or Dorian's worried brow lift.I was kept locked in my room. I couldn't deal with anything right now, just staying as a prisoner in my own home.Not chained, actually not literally, just two guards outside my door who wouldn't meet my eyes, and a ward on the windows I could feel humming faintly against my skin whenever I got too close. My mother's doing, probably. She always did like to make sure a lesson stuck.I would have found a way to break out of it, but the combination kept changing every time.I was still furious about it.Not the confinement itself; I’d expected that, but the fact that I hadn't been able to fight past her blood magic at all. Not for one second. All that raw, useless power I’d never been able to properly wield through reading, and the one time I actually needed it, my body had simply obeyed her instead of me.I hated how easily I’d folded.Th

THALIA POV My bare feet hit stone slick with dew, and I didn't slow down. My heart kept thundering in my chest; I could hear the shouts of the wizards closing in.I didn't expect my cover to be blown this early. I didn't bother checking how close they were; my eyes were trained on the east gate, the ivy-covered gate from here, the one the guards always forgot to check twice a night. I had snuck out to the orchard over a hundred times through that gate as a young girl.My lungs burned as the gust of wind left my nose raw and tingly. My blueprint was still folded against my chest, tucked into the front of my nightrobe like it mattered more than my own feet digging through the raw, wooden stones.Behind me, the torchlights closed in even more as I moved along the upper terrace. They started shouting my name.“Thalia, stop right there!” My heart skipped as my brain processed the implications; no guard would call me by my name, it only meant they woke my parents.I kept on running, my rob