All her life, Vaasa Kozár has been sharpened into a blade.
After losing her mother—her only remaining parent—to a mysterious dark magic that has since awakened within her, Vaasa is certain death looms. So is her merciless brother, who aims to eliminate Vaasa as a threat to his crown. In one last political scheme, he marries her off to Reid of Mireh, a ruthless foreign ruler, in hopes that he can use her death as a rallying cry to finally invade Reid’s nation. All Vaasa has to do is die.
But she is desperate to live. Vaasa enters her new marriage with every intent to escape it, wielding the hard-won political prowess and combat abilities her late father instilled in her. But to her surprise, Reid offers her a deal: help him win the votes to rise in power, and she can walk free. In exchange, she will share his knowledge about the dark magic running through her veins—and help keep it at bay.
This proposal may be too good to refuse, yet Vaasa and Reid’s undeniable attraction threatens to break the rules of their arrangement. As her brother’s lethal machinations take form, everything is at stake: Vaasa must learn to trust her new husband, but how can she especially when their perfect political marriage begins to feel like the real thing? In The Serpent and the Wolf, Vaasa and Reid must confront deadly betrayals, unravel the enigma of her dark magic, and decide whether their growing bond is their greatest strength—or the ultimate risk—in a world where love and power are the most dangerous games of all.
Why You Should Read This Book
Tropes
Trigger Warnings
The Serpent and the Wolf
“I want to live, Reid. I want to live long enough to see more of the world before Dominik erases all the color from it.”
“Then it’s one less thing we’ll have to argue about. Marital spats are no fun, or so I’ve heard. Not that my wife has been around long enough for me to discover their level of joy.”
“It did not infect you. Veragi magic is generational, passed down from a mother to her eldest daughter. It only passes upon the witch’s death.”
“Being the ruler of anything is a corrupting job, and no man walks out of it the same as when he walked into it. If you value anything about yourself, which I gather you do, given the seeming resilience of your ego, you’ll settle for being a councilor and mind your own.”
“There are few things I fear, Wild One.”
“I know you speak four languages, and that men threw themselves at your father to get you in their homes and their beds. Never once did he concede. Which means you were useful, and that he honed you no differently than a blade.
“I believe you said a powerful man who has drunk wine all night and watched strangers dance with his wife will want her in his bed.
“I am the great-granddaughter of one of the most powerful Veragi witches known to this world, and she made her home in Mireh.”
“No man walks out of the position the same as he walked into it. To be the leader of anything can be a corrupting job.”
“I wanted my wife to know everything she needs to in order to lead confidently at my side.”
“I have collected a thousand words, and yet I cannot find a single one to tell you what comes alive inside of me when you are near.”
“I propose the following: You act as my wife for a time, and I will help you discover all you wish to know about Veragi magic.”
“This is my line, Vaasalisa. Do not threaten my country.”
“Pick one you love. For if you don’t love it, it will mean nothing to you, and it must mean something to you.”
“You are my wife, and everything begins and ends with that.”
“I got word from the High Temple that Isabel and Marc fucked so loud they could be heard until the early hours of the morning. I expect I have plenty of time to discuss this.”
“For you, Vaasa. She thought if you were brave enough to be here, she should be, too.”
“Your mother made this arrangement, Vaasalisa, not your brother. She spoke directly with my own mother. While I made the formal request of our councilors, it wasn’t your brother’s idea, or mine.”
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