#valorian

[kosenart]

Just a simple fan art of Godfall’s Silvermane.

Even with all the flaws, I like the game.

[silent-again-art-archives]

[phantomrin]

the Moth (aka Kestrel) 

(”The Winner’s Crime” by Marie Rutkoski)

[boysofbooks]

Few would think that he was a fighter. Until he smiled.

Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Curse

[n0thingbutqu0tes]

He knew the law of such things: people in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark.

Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Curse

[phantomrin]

Some simple stuff.

Arin & Kestrel (”The Winner’s Curse” by Marie Rutkoski)

[phantomrin]

Since I’m re-reading “The Winner’s Trilogy” (by Marie Rutkoski), here are the first headshots of Arin & Kestrel.

[msshadowqueen]

The Prince and his Witch part 1

Apollo should've ended up with Aurora. Rewrite from the scene where Aurora first led Apollo to the Tree of Souls.

Aurora dropped flower petals on the path as she walked. She tossed them out before her like some fairy goddess of the forest. And the path to the Cursed Forest treated her as such.

It always rained on the roads to the Cursed Forest—except where Aurora Valor walked. As soon as she tossed her petals and took a step, the rain fell no more. All Apollo felt was a subtle breeze as he walked in step beside her on a path paved in shoes and lined in overturned carriages, some of which still had wheels spinning.

“You haven’t told me what this will cost,” said Apollo, “or where we are going.”

“I’m taking you to the Tree of Souls.”

“Your father—”

“Is very stubborn,” Aurora interrupted. “He knows a great many things, but he does not know everything.”

Something twisted inside Apollo—a feeling that told him either he’d eaten some bad mutton earlier or this was a very poor idea. He knew better than to trust Aurora. She was not half as sweet as she looked as she continued to pull flower petals from her silver cloak and toss them onto the path.

Yet, how could he walk away from this? A chance to be immortal.

“There’s just one small thing I ask in return,” Aurora said, so softly he almost missed it.

Apollo immediately tensed. “What do you want?”

She slowly turned toward him, and for once there was nothing sweet in her expression. She looked wolfish in the moonlight, white teeth gleaming as she said, “I want you stop this nonsense about trying to kill Jacks. After tonight, you will clear his name of crimes and he will no longer be wanted or hunted.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Then I cannot show you the Tree of Souls.” Aurora stopped walking as the path ended and they reached the misty in-between that led to the Cursed Forest. “Either you can have immortality or you can choose to hunt Jacks, who I actually doubt you’ll ever be able to kill—not as long as you’re human. You’ve sent a whole kingdom after him, and what have you come up with? Perhaps once you’re immortal, you’ll have a fighting chance. But I don’t want you to take that chance, which is why right now, you’ll swear in blood on your life never to harm Jacks.”

Apollo’s shoulders tensed. “Why do you want to save Jacks?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“It is if you’re asking me not to kill him.” Apollo glared. “Did he bewitch you, too?”

Aurora bristled. “No one bewitches me. I’m a Valor.” She looked at him with all the haughtiness of a princess.

And this was exactly why Apollo had never liked princesses. Like Aurora, they often looked good on the outside, but so many of them were rotten at the core.

“If you’re worried about Jacks winning back Evangeline or taking her away from you, you don’t have to,” Aurora said. “I’ve already taken care of it.”

“How?”

“You don’t need to fret about that. I keep my secrets, just as I’ll keep everything between us secret. Now what will it be, Prince?”

Apollo scowled. His father had always told him to be more, and there was nothing more than becoming immortal. But he had difficulty trusting Aurora’s motives. What was her endgame? And why did she want him to spare Jacks? He had got his claws in her as well, he was sure of it.

Nevertheless, he said, “I will swear the oath once you take me to the tree. If I refuse,” he added before she could intervene, “you can always tell the kingdom what I did to my wife.” She nodded ascent and continued to place the flowers. Apollo glared at the Tree of Souls. “It’s ugly,” he muttered. He had expected the tree to be as majestic as his phoenix tree, not this…monstrosity.

“Be careful what you say to it,” Aurora warned.

“It’s just a tree,” Apollo said, but even as he did, the words didn’t feel true. Especially as the pounding of the tree continued to increase, like a raging heartbeat. Evil. It felt evil, like Wolfric Valor had said. “Don’t tell me you’re scared now,” Aurora crooned.

Apollo scoffed, not failing to notice how Aurora didn’t dare touch the tree. “Do you plan on drinking from it as well?”

“I’m waiting a few more years. It’s hard enough being female. I don’t wish to be a young female forever.”

Apollo raised a brow. “What is not to like?”

“There’s so much of the world to experience as a human before I’m bogged down by immortality.” She stalked closer to Apollo.

She was beautiful and distracting- so distracting. But Apollo tried to remember she was no angel; she was the devil. She may play the simpering princess, but Apollo knew better. Aurora was a witch through and through.

Apollo told himself to breathe. “Why do you want to spare Jacks?” he asked again, though his voice didn’t have quite the command typical of a prince. He knew the answer, but he didn’t want to hear it.

“I already told you it’s none of your business.”

“Actually, it is, if you’re going to force me to swear a blood oath not to kill my sworn enemy.”

Aurora sent him a withering glare fitting for a queen. She grabbed him by the collar, eyes searing. “Ask any more questions and the kingdom will know what you did to your wife.”

“And? You have no leverage, Aurora. You’ve already brought me to the tree. I can drink from it whenever I like. And whose word will they take? Mine, or yours? To them, you’re just a silly girl. And if you reveal my secret, there’s nothing stopping me from going after Jacks.”

She clenched her teeth. “Fine. I liked him when we were both young humans, long before he became immortal, and I went into the Valory Arch. But that pissant was in love with some ordinary girl who could turn into a fox. What did that bitch have on me? Well, if I couldn’t have him, then no one else could. I put a curse on him to hunt the fox girl for eternity.”

“You- “Apollo was suddenly overcome with so much rage he couldn’t speak for a moment. “You set the original curse?” He clenched his hands into fists. “You’re a complete fucking asshole, Aurora.” And then he remembered. After what Jacks himself had been through, for him to put that spell on him… “And then Jacks put the very spell that tormented him on me.” He laughed bitterly. “What a man. You and he are well suited for each other. Both of you are monsters.”

Aurora smiled wickedly, gently pushing him backwards. Apollo could’ve easily resisted, but caught off-guard, he let her push him.

“Let’s not be too quick to judge, Apollo,” she purred when she’d pinned him against a tree. “Love makes all of us a little…passionate, does it not? After all, you wiped your fox’s memory of Jacks.”

Apollo opened his mouth to snap back, but then he closed it. She was right. He might not have put the Archer’s curse, but he had wiped Evangeline’s memory.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” he said, voice brittle. “Every moment from the second Evangeline entered my life was pain; yet I couldn’t stay away. And somewhere in the midst of everything, I fell for her. But she was going to reject me. She had been hoodwinked by that Fate who ruined my life. I had to do something. I had to protect her.”

It was all a lie. He’d never returned from the dead. He’d merely been cursed, and cursed, and cursed again. Now, for the first time in nearly three months, he was no longer under any spell, and yet he felt cursed by what he had done to Evangeline.

Apollo pulled himself out of the memory. “But even now, Evangeline runs for Jacks. After everything he did to her, after everything he did to me. Despite losing her memory. I can’t explain it. And now you,” he snarled at Aurora, “of all the people, are hoodwinked by him too.”

Aurora dragged a nail across his collarbone. Ran her hands over his chest. Apollo didn’t dare move. “Tell me,”She said, pulling her mouth to his ear, “Do I look like a girl who can be hoodwinked?”

“You want me to spare Jacks.”

“It’s more entertaining that way, Apollo. For both of us. To watch as he pines over the love he can never have.” She laughs. “To watch the curse ruin him again.”

“Curses ruined me, not him,” Apollo said, voice brittle. “Because of him, I was cursed again and again, and I’m starting to think my life is destined to be a very short tragedy.”

One of Aurora’s hands slid into his hair. “What’s there to make a tragedy about?” Her fingers curled. “You’re a handsome prince who cheated death and has a beautiful girl in front of him. That sounds pretty good to me.”

Apollo suddenly became aware of Aurora’s body up against his, deceptively soft as she smiled bewitchingly up at him. Wrong wrong wrong. He had a wife he loved and needed to protect. This woman would be his doom. Yet he didn’t pull away. Couldn’t pull away. It was like he was under a spell.

“Let Evangeline be with a man who can’t even kiss her. While she could’ve had it all, a prince, a kingdom, and a good kiss, she opted to go for broken leftovers. She deserves whatever fate comes out of being with Jacks.”

Her lips were just centimeters from his. “What is there to like?” she whispered, her breath washing over him. “Her rose-gold hair? Well, I have vibrant purple hair that’s far prettier than hers.” She took his other hand and placed it in her hair. God, it was soft. Apollo couldn’t resist running his fingers through it. “Her kindness? When has she ever been kind to you?” Apollo tried to think of one moment, but he couldn’t find a single moment she had been kind where he hadn’t been under a spell. “I tried to help you, though,” she said. “I gave you the potion so that you could start over. Have another chance. I took Jacks’s heart so that he could never love Evangeline. But why do you want to settle with her?”

“And I suppose you’re a much better choice?” Apollo hissed. “A pretty girl who acts all sweet and nice but is actually a manipulative witch.”

“At least I’m trying to help you, which is more than Evangeline can say. Besides, you know just as well as I, Apollo, that it’s all just part of the game.”

The never-ending political game. Apollo swallowed. “So, what- you wish me to marry you instead?” “Why not? I’d make a far better queen than Evangeline. She slipped her hands underneath his collar. Apollo’s heart was fluttering like a hummingbird’s. He’d completely forgotten about the Tree of Souls behind him. “It won’t end well. I’m cursed.”

Aurora laughed under her breath. God, her laugh was so charming. “You’re always getting cursed while I’m always cursing others. We’re the perfect match.” Those pouty lips so close to him were tilted in a tantalizing smile. But it was the bare want in her eyes that gave Apollo pause. As a prince, he was so used to getting everything he wanted; yet the past few months had been anything but. And it seemed that the thing he wanted most, Evangeline, was something he would never get. Evangeline didn’t want him; she wanted a Fate. A monster. It felt so nice to be wanted, especially with the intensity with which Aurora looked at him. Apollo had forgotten the feeling. Aurora bit her lip in anticipation.

Apollo closed the distance between them.

It was pure fireworks. Aurora kissed him so hard it was difficult to breathe. Their tongues danced around each other in a war for dominance. Apollo’s hand moved down to her waist, and he pulled her flush against him. He lazily dragged his lips down her neck before she grabbed his face and pulled his lips back against hers. He was lost in the taste and feel of her when a voice called, “What’s going on.”

It was Wolfric Valor. Apollo hastily shoved Aurora away. “Nothing.”

Wolfric rolled his eyes so hard Apollo could almost taste the derision rippling off of him. But then Wolfric turned to his daughter. “You should’ve known better than to come here.” He turned to his sons. “Take her back to the camp. Her mother and I will deal with her there.”