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May 08, 2023 18:02
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Chapter 17
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97.6%
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#DFC
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“There will be no more betrayals, prince,” I tell him. He struggles at first, but when I whisper the word of command, he stops. The straps settle against his skin
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May 08, 2023 18:01
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Chapter 17
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97.4%
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#DFC
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Mine the only way I can ever trust, the only way I can be sure of.
“Heir to Elfhame,” I say. “Get on your knees.”
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May 08, 2023 17:53
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Chapter 16
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92.1%
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#DFC
|
Her lips part, but she cannot disobey me, not after the vow she made before the mortal High Queen.
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May 08, 2023 16:58
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Chapter 16
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89.3%
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#DFC
|
“I’m never killing her,” Oak says softly, so softly I almost don’t hear.
“Then you better hope she doesn’t kill you,” the general replies.
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May 08, 2023 15:19
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Chapter 16
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89.1%
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#DFC
|
What happens when she discovers how you’ve deceived her? When she realizes her role in your plan?”
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May 08, 2023 15:19
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Chapter 16
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89.1%
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#DFC
|
Oak’s voice is full of resignation. “She will have to decide how much she hates me.”
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May 08, 2023 15:19
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Chapter 16
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89.1%
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#DFC
|
And yours is to throw yourself into the mouth of the lion and hope it doesn’t like your savor.”
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May 08, 2023 14:39
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Chapter 15
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87.5%
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#DFC
|
This time the guards bind his hands behind his back with a silver cord.
When he meets my eyes, his expression is anguished. He cannot help me.
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May 08, 2023 14:37
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Chapter 15
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86.7%
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#DFC
|
“I cannot make you human,” she goes on. “But I can come very close.”
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May 08, 2023 14:36
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Chapter 15
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86.5%
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#DFC
|
Somehow she’s woven a spell of control into the petal, no doubt plucked from the vine of the reliquary, where it grew impossibly from dry bones. If I try to speak, I will give up dominion over her.
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May 08, 2023 14:34
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Chapter 15
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85.6%
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#DFC
|
He cannot lie any more than the rest of us.
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May 08, 2023 14:33
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Chapter 15
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85.0%
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#DFC
|
When I look at her, I am filled with the same hate and fear that paralyzed me throughout my childhood.
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May 08, 2023 12:50
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Chapter 14
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83.9%
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#DFC
|
“I should never have asked you to come back here.”
“Just don’t leave me behind,” I say, feeling immensely vulnerable. “That’s what I want, for the game I won all those years ago.”
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May 08, 2023 12:46
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Chapter 14
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82.4%
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#DFC
|
A soldier kissing one of the serving girls. A bored ex-falcon attempting to amuse himself. Oak hiding our faces, giving us a reason to be overlooked. I understand the game.
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May 08, 2023 12:46
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Chapter 14
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82.2%
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#DFC
|
They are like me. Whatever they are, they are like me.
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May 08, 2023 12:25
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Chapter 14
|
81.6%
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#DFC
|
“Hard to know, but I’d guess there were a few dozen attempts since my sister came to power.”
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May 08, 2023 12:01
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Chapter 14
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80.7%
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#DFC
|
My blood was spilled for the glory of the Kings of Stone who rule from beneath the world, but my body belongs
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May 08, 2023 11:58
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Chapter 13
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79.2%
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#DFC
|
“Poison in my blood. I poison everything I touch.”
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May 08, 2023 11:58
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Chapter 13
|
78.7%
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#DFC
|
See, I tell myself. Not dead.
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May 08, 2023 11:57
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Chapter 13
|
78.3%
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#DFC
|
“It takes a great deal of it to affect me for long.”
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May 08, 2023 11:57
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Chapter 13
|
78.1%
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#DFC
|
“It’s my poison.”
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May 08, 2023 11:56
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Chapter 13
|
77.9%
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#DFC
|
“Forgive my greed,” Oak says.
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May 08, 2023 10:57
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Chapter 13
|
77.2%
|
#DFC
|
“There is still one more variation. It is said that before they declared war on each other, they had been lovers whose passion for each other had turned to hatred, until their desire to best and possess the other was all-consuming.” He smiles at me with crooked teeth.
I look over at Tiernan. He’s staring at the fire as though he cannot help thinking of his own lover, now his enemy.
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May 08, 2023 10:53
|
Chapter 13
|
76.2%
|
#DFC
|
“So we’re prisoners?” I whisper.
He sighs. “We are indulging the fiction that we are not.”
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May 08, 2023 10:52
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Chapter 13
|
75.8%
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#DFC
|
“And are therefore left without a reason not to partake in your hospitality.”
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May 08, 2023 10:51
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Chapter 13
|
74.9%
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#DFC
|
I can feel stone all around, and pressure, and thoughts that flow like honey.
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May 08, 2023 10:50
|
Chapter 13
|
74.5%
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#DFC
|
A moment later, a rain of ice arrows flies from the trees.
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May 08, 2023 00:53
|
Chapter 13
|
73.6%
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#DFC
|
“He believes you’ve been ensorcelled by Oak.”
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May 08, 2023 00:52
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Chapter 13
|
73.4%
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#DFC
|
So here’s where falcon Hyacinthe goes to Tiernan, who could have fed him and in a year had him back, but…”
He refused him.
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May 08, 2023 00:47
|
Chapter 13
|
72.8%
|
#DFC
|
I joined the Court of Shadows,” he says, answering the question I don’t ask.
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May 08, 2023 00:47
|
Chapter 13
|
72.7%
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#DFC
|
“There probably aren’t any spiders,” he says when
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May 08, 2023 00:45
|
Chapter 13
|
72.3%
|
#DFC
|
Not a real girl. A paper doll of a child, to play with, then rip up and throw away.
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May 08, 2023 00:42
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Chapter 13
|
71.7%
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#DFC
|
“I think we ought to assume that our presence is no longer secret.”
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May 08, 2023 00:41
|
Chapter 13
|
71.5%
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#DFC
|
“I’m fine,” I tell him.
“Of course you are,” he agrees.
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May 08, 2023 00:32
|
Chapter 12
|
70.4%
|
#DFC
|
we sleep in shifts, one of us left to navigate by the stars, I am drawn to watching his face, as though through his dreams, I will learn his secrets.
Something is very wrong with me.
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May 08, 2023 00:31
|
Chapter 12
|
69.9%
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#DFC
|
“If I could get into her chambers, I could command her,” I say. “Lady Nore won’t have many guards with her there.”
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May 08, 2023 00:26
|
Chapter 12
|
69.3%
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#DFC
|
If you marry the boy, Lady Nore told me, you can’t carve out his heart right away.
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May 08, 2023 00:25
|
Chapter 12
|
69.1%
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#DFC
|
For a moment, I don’t think he knows me at all.
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May 08, 2023 00:21
|
Chapter 12
|
68.2%
|
#DFC
|
“That’s what I am bringing north. A trick. Sleight of hand, like the coin.”
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May 08, 2023 00:19
|
Chapter 12
|
67.8%
|
#DFC
|
He gives me a steady look. “I hope you’re not about to tell me that you hate it and you were just being polite.”
“I don’t hate it,” I say softly. “And I am not polite.”
He laughs at that. “A delightful quality.”
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May 08, 2023 00:14
|
Chapter 12
|
67.0%
|
#DFC
|
You do like cruel women,” I say.
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May 08, 2023 00:13
|
Chapter 12
|
66.9%
|
#DFC
|
“Oh yes. Though you were a year my senior, and it was hopeless, I absolutely mooned over you. When you were gone from Court, I refused any food but tea and toast for a month.”
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May 08, 2023 00:12
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Chapter 12
|
66.7%
|
#DFC
|
“Tiernan says there were two ladies in particular that you wanted to impress. Violet, I think. And Sibi. But he also says you fall in love a lot.”
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May 08, 2023 00:12
|
Chapter 12
|
66.7%
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#DFC
|
Of falling in love. With great regularity and to spectacular effect. You see, it never goes well.”
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May 08, 2023 00:03
|
Chapter 12
|
65.2%
|
#DFC
|
“I wanted the bridle,” I say. “So that you could never make me wear it.”
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May 07, 2023 23:57
|
Chapter 11
|
64.2%
|
#DFC
|
The bus lurches to a stop, and I realize there is nowhere for me to go.
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|
May 07, 2023 23:50
|
Chapter 11
|
62.0%
|
#DFC
|
Chopping off the head of the serpent who’d once been her beloved, even if it doomed her side to failure, all to save a land that despised her.
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May 07, 2023 23:46
|
Chapter 11
|
61.6%
|
#DFC
|
If we were capable of putting mistrust aside, we might be a formidable pair.”
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May 07, 2023 23:46
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Chapter 11
|
61.6%
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#DFC
|
“It can be brave to hate. Sometimes it’s like hope.”
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May 07, 2023 23:41
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Chapter 11
|
60.7%
|
#DFC
|
If I snatched the bridle and ran, when I got to Lady Nore, I could be the one to make her wear it.
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May 07, 2023 21:06
|
Chapter 11
|
60.5%
|
#DFC
|
Everything died in the Ice Citadel, but hope died first.
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May 07, 2023 21:03
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Chapter 11
|
60.3%
|
#DFC
|
I am a solitary creature, fated to be one and better as one.
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May 07, 2023 21:03
|
Chapter 11
|
60.3%
|
#DFC
|
“Despite the deep pits that lead to oubliettes, the trees that move to make you lose your way, the ice spiders that wrap their prey in frozen gossamer, the mad king, and the curse.
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May 07, 2023 21:01
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Chapter 11
|
59.9%
|
#DFC
|
“As a prince of Faerie, I flatly refuse to leave cash. It’s inelegant.”
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May 07, 2023 21:01
|
Chapter 11
|
59.9%
|
#DFC
|
I would bring shame on the entire Greenbriar line if I left a gift card.”
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|
May 07, 2023 21:00
|
Chapter 11
|
59.6%
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#DFC
|
“I met the family at the farm stand, and they were enormously generous to a stranger caught in a storm on a windy night. Let me take a shower. Even blow-dry my hair.”
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May 06, 2023 00:27
|
Chapter 10
|
52.6%
|
#DFC
|
“We don’t need her!” Oak shouts, the first time I have really seen his emotions out of his control. “And I don’t want her.”
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|
May 06, 2023 00:25
|
Chapter 10
|
52.2%
|
#DFC
|
your agreement that when you become king, you will give me the very first thing I request.”
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May 05, 2023 21:10
|
Chapter 10
|
50.9%
|
#DFC
|
. “If I seem eager, it is only because the tale is so compelling and the teller so skilled.”
At this, she smiles, showing a cracked tooth. “Flatterer.”
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|
May 05, 2023 11:41
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Chapter 9
|
45.3%
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#DFC
|
Better to hurt someone else when I had a chance. Better to make them hesitate, to know it would cost them something.
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May 04, 2023 00:44
|
Chapter 5
|
26.0%
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#DFC
|
Oak and Wren. Wren and Oak. Delightful! Named for woodland creatures, but neither of you so simple.” He glances at Tiernan and Hyacinthe. “Not nearly as simple as these two.”
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May 03, 2023 16:59
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Chapter 4
|
23.2%
|
#DFC
|
“There’s not a lot of work for birds out there,” Hyacinthe says, putting up his hand in defense. “And I didn’t spy on you.”
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May 03, 2023 16:57
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Chapter 4
|
22.8%
|
#DFC
|
“I’m always being poisoned. Alas, that it wasn’t blusher mushroom,” the prince says nonsensically.
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May 03, 2023 16:55
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Chapter 4
|
22.1%
|
#DFC
|
I note how stiff they are with each other, how carefully they keep separate, as magnets must keep a safe distance or be slammed together by their very nature.
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May 03, 2023 16:54
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Chapter 4
|
21.9%
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#DFC
|
More loyal than my lover, who became twisted around the finger of another and forswore me
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May 03, 2023 16:53
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Chapter 4
|
21.3%
|
#DFC
|
Tiernan’s eyebrows raise. “You’ve got a suspicious mind.”
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|
May 03, 2023 16:51
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Chapter 4
|
21.0%
|
#DFC
|
“Why is Oak really doing this?” I ask.
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May 03, 2023 16:51
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Chapter 4
|
20.6%
|
#DFC
|
It must have been poisoned.
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May 03, 2023 16:51
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Chapter 4
|
20.6%
|
#DFC
|
That stuff can make you sleep for hundreds of years if you get enough in your system.”
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|
May 03, 2023 16:49
|
Chapter 4
|
20.2%
|
#DFC
|
I see that his eyes are shut, lashes dusting his cheeks, limbs gone slack.
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May 03, 2023 00:37
|
Chapter 4
|
18.2%
|
#DFC
|
Have you anything of your own, prince? Or just girls’ castoffs and scraps?”
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|
May 02, 2023 10:51
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Chapter 3
|
14.6%
|
#DFC
|
I wondered which sister he’d glamoured. I hoped not the one who sat on a throne now, his life in her hands.
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May 01, 2023 12:30
|
Chapter 2
|
13.5%
|
#DFC
|
I can command Lady Nore, but the Prince of Elfhame has the authority to command me.
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|
May 01, 2023 10:46
|
Chapter 2
|
9.9%
|
#DFC
|
Above them, a dusting of fur the same color as his hair disappears into a pant cuff hitting just below his knees, revealing the odd curve of his lower legs.
|
Great he doesn’t have goat feet he has goat legs
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May 01, 2023 10:44
|
Chapter 2
|
9.4%
|
#DFC
|
“There is too little beauty in the world,” says the prince airily. “But that is not my area of greatest conceit.”
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May 01, 2023 00:47
|
Chapter 1
|
8.6%
|
#DFC
|
A young man with goat feet and horns, wearing a shirt of golden scale mail and holding a thin-bladed rapier, steps into the pool of light near a building. His face is expressionless, like someone in a dream.
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|
May 01, 2023 00:45
|
Chapter 1
|
8.1%
|
#DFC
|
If being a queen doesn’t suit you, worthless child, then find your own fortune, she said.
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|
May 01, 2023 00:43
|
Chapter 1
|
6.9%
|
#DFC
|
Bex sitting in her closet, playing action figures with me, holding up Batman to kiss Iron Man and saying: Let’s get them married, and then they can get some cats and live happily ever after.
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|
May 01, 2023 00:38
|
Chapter 1
|
6.4%
|
#DFC
|
It is my revenge on Faerie to unravel the glaistig’s spells, to undo every curse I discover. Free anyone who is ensnared. It doesn’t matter if the man appreciates what I’ve done. My satisfaction comes at the glaistig’s frustration at another human slipping from her net.
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May 01, 2023 00:35
|
Chapter 1
|
5.6%
|
#DFC
|
He agrees eagerly, desperately, foolishly, and lets her tie an ensorcelled piece of leather around his wrist.
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|
May 01, 2023 00:29
|
Chapter 1
|
4.5%
|
#DFC
|
unsister
|
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|
May 01, 2023 00:29
|
Prologue
|
4.1%
|
#DFC
|
“Since no one loves me, I’ll go.”
|
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|
May 01, 2023 00:24
|
Prologue
|
3.2%
|
#DFC
|
Changeling child.
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|
May 01, 2023 00:23
|
Prologue
|
3.0%
|
#DFC
|
Have you never dreamed about being taken from your pathetic little life to one of vast greatness?”
|
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