An excerpt has just been released for Kendare Blake’s newest YA fantasy novel THREE DARK CROWNS!
It looks like Kendare Blake is back and with a new YA book, Three Dark Crowns! Blake’s newest book will be a fantasy book with queens and magic. In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born. All three of them are equal heirs to the crown and a possessor of a coveted magic. On there sixteenth birthday, the battle for the crown will begin. The sisters won’t just fight, they’ll fight till death.
Synopsis:
Every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.
But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown.
If only it was that simple. Katharine is unable to tolerate the weakest poison, and Arsinoe, no matter how hard she tries, can’t make even a weed grow. The two queens have been shamefully faking their powers, taking care to keep each other, the island, and their powerful sister Mirabella none the wiser. But with alliances being formed, betrayals taking shape, and ruthless revenge haunting the queens’ every move, one thing is certain: the last queen standing might not be the strongest…but she may be the darkest.
Read the excerpt down below!
Greavesdrake Manor
Giselle pours warm water over the raised blisters on Queen Katharine’s skin. The shiny, fluid-filled red welts stretch in bands across her back, as well as her shoulders and upper arms. The blisters are the result of a tincture of nettles. Natalia striped Katharine with it that morning, painting it on with a soaked ball of cotton.
“She was careless,” Giselle mutters. “This will scar. Don’t move, Katharine.” She touches Katharine gently, and a tear rolls down the young queen’s cheek.
Natalia would never have made the tincture so strong. But she was not the one who made it. That was Genevieve.
“When she sees what it has done, how high they have raised, she will have that sister of hers whipped in the square.”
Katharine manages to laugh a little. How she would love to see that. But she will not. Natalia will be displeased when she sees the marks. But any comeuppance Genevieve receives will be kept quiet and private.
She breathes out as Giselle gently pours more water over her shoulders. The maid has infused the bath with chamomile, to ease some of the swelling, but even so, it will be days before Katharine can dress normally without fear of the blisters popping.
“Lean forward, Kat.”
She does and begins to cry again. Through the open door of her bathroom, she can see her bedroom and dressing table, and Sweetheart’s empty cage. Her little snake was frightened when she fell during the Gave Noir. She crawled off Katharine’s wrist and disappeared. She is probably dead now, lost forever somewhere in Greavesdrake’s cold walls.
The nettle poisoning was not a punishment. That is what Natalia said, what she assured her in a calm, even voice as she applied stripe after stripe. But Katharine knows better. There is a price for failing an Arron, and even queens must pay it.
It could have been worse. Knowing Genevieve, she could have been injected with spider venom and forever borne scars from necrosis.
“How can she do this to you?” Giselle asks, and presses a warm cloth to the back of Katharine’s neck.
“You know why,” Katharine says. “She does it to make me strong. She does it to save my life.”
*
Read the Rest of the Excerpt Here!
Three Dark Crowns hits shelves on September 20, 2016, and you can pre-order a copy here
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