“And while we wait, we should probably get into as much trouble as possible.”
I laughed. “Agreed!”
We talked all the way to my rooms. Oliver was no longer posing as a Soravalian servant. He was in residence as my invited guest.
We had sent word to Father Garius that my quest was complete and that he could soon expect an invitation to the coronation. Until then, Oliver would stay with me and help me adjust to palace life. It wasn’t easy.
I found it especially troubling to not have anything expected of me. I often tried to help with chores and cooking, but both maids and cooks would chase me off. I had classes and responsibilities, but nothing that truly challenged my mind.
Just like the last eight years, Oliver was the only thing keeping me sane.
“Let’s get Shiksa,” he suggested, “and steal some tartlets from the kitchen. She loves the cherry ones.”
“Because you spoil her with them!”
He paused in the hallway, “Here she is now.”
I bent down to scoop her up. She was just now back to her old self, able to leap from bed to wardrobe and back to the ground again with all the energy a pup of her age should have. “How did you get out here, little one?” She curled into my arms, her claws digging protectively into my sleeve.
“Tessana,” Oliver warned.
We stepped into my room and I gasped. The place had been destroyed. Bedding had been ripped to shreds. Clothing had been torn and thrown on the floor. Paintings had been sliced down the middle and furniture had been chopped to pieces.
“Dragon’s blood,” I cursed. The guards peered in behind me and quickly got to work summoning the rest of the royal guard to investigate.
I shared a look with Oliver and he murmured, “Never a dull moment with you.”
I blinked at the room, unable to process what this meant. “Look,” I whispered.
“What is that?” He walked to the center of the room and picked up a long black feather.
“This isn’t over,” I heard myself say. “They won’t stop until I’m dead.”
Oliver turned around, feather in his hand. “Unless you kill them first.”
Someone was trying to kill me.
But it hadn’t worked when I was a child.
And it hadn’t worked when Crenshaw attacked.
This was my fate. I was meant to rule Elysia and the entire Realm. I was meant to be Queen. And they would not stop me. Whoever they were.
Oliver was right. If I had to kill them first, I would. I would spend my life fighting and surviving and searching for them.
Because at the end of the day it wasn’t about me.
It was about the peace I would fight for.
The evil I would destroy.
It was about the Crown of a Hundred Kings that would soon belong to a Queen.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading Crown of One Hundred Kings! Be on the lookout for book #2 in The Nine Kingdoms Trilogy coming June 2021. Keep reading for an excerpt from Rachel’s young adult paranormal romance, The Rush!
The Rush, Book #1 in The Siren Series
A life not her own—A future already decided.
Every facet of Ivy Pierce’s life is meticulously planned out and plotted. Cynical and jaded by sixteen, Ivy’s only hope is to escape the legacy she was born into.
She has a plan—a carefully thought out, feasible plan. She just has to play by the rules until everything falls into place. Unfortunately, as predictable as her days can be, she never sees Ryder Sutton coming. He tumbles into her way unimpressed and untouched by her and the life she lives. He’s an enigma to her. A gorgeous, frustrating, sincere mystery and a complete phenomenon in the ugly world she exists in.
What blooms between them is a fiercely intense attraction that cannot be ignored. Even though they would both be better off without each other—even if both their lives depend on staying apart.
Acknowledgments
I wrote Crown of One Hundred Kings years ago! I held off publishing it for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because of fear. Publishing is hard, but the toughest thing about it is the straight, honest, raw look in the mirror every time a book is released into the wild. This look in the mirror took me longer to face than I want to admit, but I am finally glad and relieved and all the emotions that Crown of One Hundred Kings is out in the world and in your hands. Writing books and releasing them is gritty, painful work. But it is also wonderful work. And even when fear gets in the way and trips me up, I am always grateful for the process, the journey and the heaps of humility I take away from it.
I have to thank God first and foremost, for His sovereignty in preparing this book for just the right time. To my husband, Zach, for persistently encouraging me to release Tessana and her adventures to the world. His belief and confidence in me and my stories pushed me through a crisis of self-doubt and career. I also have to credit him with the gorgeous cover, sensational formatting and for all the relentless work he does behind the scenes, both with publishing and with our crazy kiddos. I want to thank them too, all five of them, for not exactly being helpful… but for understanding when I work long hours and get immersed in different worlds than the one they live in and forget all things all the time. I do this all for them. Thank you to Tamar, who spent so much time and energy going over and over this book with me. It is what it is today because of you. I cannot thank you enough for all you do. Thank you to Lenore, for reading the earliest version and the newest version and for always, always being sweet, gracious and honest. To my Reckless Rebels, who walked through the first part of this
