Queen of the Night (Starkeeper #2)

The hall empties, and I stand to make my escape, only to find my way blocked by a maelstrom of shadows. I shudder, the ruthless killing power of all those tendrils front and center in my brain. If they meant me harm, I’d already be dead, so I reach for calm and stay still.

In the next heartbeat, the king appears in the middle of the mass, the whorls of shadow sinking into his luminous brown skin, climbing his throat and settling into place.

Aether pillar, I think—moving through darkness has to be kinetic—and the ease with which he does it proves that he’s undoubtedly of sovran rank, which I suspected already.

Ashes below, the man is scarily large. Those epaulets make his shoulders seem even broader, the spiked edges adding a ferocity that makes my pulse skip. Or perhaps that’s just his looming presence, the magic within him barely contained by that powerful, lethal body.