The Cursed Crown

Title: The Cursed CrownAuthor: May Sage & Alexi Blake

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Illustrator: Gabriela Dea Julia

Typography: Sylvia Frost from The Book Brander Boutique

Release Date: 1st of December

About The Cursed Crown:

My lips hitch up an inch as the hulking, slender man bends down to whisper in my ear. “A divided kingdom without a leader is weak. You will fall. You will fail. You will all die without my kindness, little girl.”
He expects me to falter, shiver, and drop my gaze to the ground like the flock of gentry buzzing around him.
My eyes widen in feigned dismay. “Kindness? Why did no one think to tell me you had any?”
I have to allow him that one concession: Rydekar is fun to tease.
He doesn’t even smile. I don’t think anyone has taunted him. “I have none. You will beg nonetheless.”
I just may, in his dreams. And in my nightmares.


No one was ever born less suited to ruling than Rissa, the thorn of the seelie realm—a half-fae so wild she’s spent the better part of a hundred years in the woods.
For all her flaws, she’s the last of the high court bloodline, and the southern king seems to think that’s reason enough to slap a crown on her feathered head. He needs her to unify the seelie forces. She needs him to forget about that nonsense.
In an effort to aid her people without condemning herself to a lifetime of misery, she sets off on a journey to find the one person with a stronger claim to the throne than hers: the cursed prince.
Sealed in the mountains of the Wilderness, under many spells, the heir of the first seelie queen is the only royal strong enough to protect the fae lands from their immortal invaders.
Surviving the untamed tribes and awakening a thousand-year-old prince seem a lot easier than ruling an entire kingdom where everyone hates her very nature.
And her choices won’t come without consequences.

Exclusive Excerpt:

The first time the high king sent hunters after me, I terrified them, drowning them in the depths of their worst nightmare. I can get rather bored in the forest, and their fear entertained me for a day or two.

The second time, I was less kind. Instead of a handful of men, he sent two dozen. Half returned home, none of them whole.

I am no simple beast foreign kings can summon at their leisure. I am no weakling to bow to the will of another court.

I am a nightmare.

Half a nightmare, if one wishes to be technical about it. No one does, however. The folk like to conveniently forget that I am part gentry.

Half a nightmare. Half a child of the Court of Sunlight. Entirely wild.

I didn’t expect a third assault. I should have. I may have met Rydekar Bane only once, but it’s enough to understand what kind of king ascended to the throne of Tenebris.

A single rider enters my woods this time. Just one man on a pale horse. Yet I bristle. The stems growing inside my veins, sprouting out of my pores, crawl along my arm, protectively wrapping me under their thorns. I feel the feathers on my shoulders flutter.

One rider on a pale horse, yet I am afraid.

It isn’t in my nature to fear anything. My instincts aren’t prepared for it. Am I to flee like prey? Am I to remain to await my fate? Prepare to fight?

I’m so lost I end up doing nothing at all. I’m still perched atop the sturdiest branch of the ash tree I’ve claimed as my home when he appears, standing alone.

Rydekar.

Somehow, I never expected that he’d come in person. Not here.

The first time we met, it was in the dazzling light of the Crystal Keep, right at the core of Court of Sunlight. I was but a child, but already, I knew a predator when I saw one. I knew a fellow monster, too.

A hundred years have passed, and nothing has changed at all. He wears layers of black, fashioned in a parody of a court outfit. He cannot fool me. His clothes are light and easy to move in, yet reinforced with spells and iron casts. This is a set of armor if I’ve ever seen one.

His hair falls in waves, coating him in a golden halo. Of the number of weapons in his arsenal, his beauty is perhaps the most insidious. From the way he smiles at me as he saunters, there’s no doubt that he knows how to make use of it.

“I see you’re tired of sending underlings for me to play with,” I say lightly, eyes closed.

Rydekar chuckles. “They tell me you’re a tricky beast to hunt, precious. I thought I’d give it a try. I rather like the chase.”

I don’t doubt it. “What do you want, Bane?”

I will not call him king, highness, or anything of the sort. His dominion ends at the border of my woods.

Rydekar is lord in the south, on unseelie territory. The Darker Woods are on seelie land, and answer to no one.

No one except me.

About May Sage:

May Sage is a USA Today Bestselling romance writer dabbling in different genres, although the readers who follow every series know they’re all related.

When she isn’t writing, she spends her time with her German Shepherd, her two Savannahs, and her black rescue cat, in England. She loves reading, ballet, running, and cake. Mostly, cake.

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