The Queen of All That Lives (The Fallen World Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

doors.
    “Your chambers, Your Majesty,” one of the soldiers says. “Make yourself comfortable. We’ll be right outside.”
    I nod to them and enter the room.
    I could still be an emissary and this my suite for all the similarities I see.
    My eyes move over a large, gilded mirror, a canopy bed, and elaborately carved table and chairs to match.
    I run a hand over and intricately carved piece of furniture. This is too similar to the time I left. It’s destabilizing. Confusing.
    On the far side of the room, two French doors lead out to a balcony. They have already been thrown open, and a sea breeze rushes over me. I’m sure that if I walked out there right now, I’d see the ocean in all its glory.
    Instead I pace.
    I’m right back to where I started, here where the tragedies of the world can never touch me. Everything about this place mocks my existence.
    He should’ve just left me to die.
    I press my palms to my eyes.
    I don’t want any of this.
    And then there’s what I do want. Answers, revenge, repentance.
    I have a sick feeling I won’t get any of them.

Chapter 5
    The King
    She’s here, in the palace. Awake.
    Even if I didn’t hear the cars pull up or receive updates from my soldiers, I would know it.
    Every square inch my skin is buzzing in a way it hasn’t done for decades. Not since those beautiful eyes of hers closed a hundred years ago. I’m mortified to admit that I’ve long since forgotten their exact color.
    I can’t escape her face. It’s everywhere—printed onto posters, mounted on billboards, tagged across the sides of walls—but I can escape all those details about Serenity that used to haunt me. I’ve avoided the footage of her I’d once so liberally dispersed.
    Up until now, my feelings for her had moved from a fresh wound, to an old one, to a dull ache, to a fond memory. A perfect memory.
    That all ends today.
    From the reports coming in, my men say they found her covered in blood. That the vehicle she was pulled from was full of dead men.
    I put a fist to my mouth.
    My wife’s awake.
    Awake and on a warpath.
    And I’m her target.
    Serenity
    Once I’m in the shower, I begin to assess myself.
    Other than a few absent freckles, my skin looks the same. And from the brief glimpse I caught of myself in the mirror, I still retain the scar on my face, as well as the thin white ones that crisscross my knuckles.
    I might be heartsick, but physically, I feel great. If I’m still riddled with cancer, then my health will change soon enough. For now, I count my blessings. I have few enough of them.
    It’s only once I leave the shower that I encounter disappointment.
    I frown at the lone gown and heels that sit inside the closet. It’s the furthest thing to combat gear I can imagine. The lacy lingerie that accompanies them is little better.
    It takes me almost five minutes to dress, due largely to the number of holes and straps the deep crimson gown has. I ignore the heels altogether.
    A thud at my back has me spinning around. My eyes lock on the gilded mirror that takes up a good portion of one of the walls. The surface of it trembles ever so slightly.
    I walk up to the mirror and press my palm against its surface. The tremors die down, and eventually vanish altogether.
    This eerie place.
    Someone raps on the door. “ Your Majesty ,” they say, “ The king will see you now .”
    More cavernous halls, more empty corridors. Everything is pristine, but there are no signs of life.
    For the first time since I woke, I feel the stirrings of trepidation. I’ve been angry at the man who put me in the Sleeper, not the one who refused to let me out.
    I don’t know this man.
    The guards that surround me carry no weapons. I was so confident that I could steal one off of them, but there are none to steal.
    They take me to a room I assume is used for extravagant parties, judging by how large the double doors are.
    We stop in front of it, and one of my guards knocks.
    No one answers the door and no one