Reader's Edyn: Blitz: Queen of Fate & Fire (Rogue Ethereal #6) bu Annie Anderson + GIVEAWAY

**Queen of Fate & Fire by Annie Anderson**

Good Morning, Everyone! So thrilled to see you all today! Today I am happily welcoming back an author I have had the pleasure of being introduced to a while ago with this very series. Please allow me to once again feature on the blog Annie Anderson and her latest release, QUEEN OF FATE & FIRE … Plus, a GIVEAWAY!

**ANNIE ANDERSON**

**BIO**

Annie Anderson is a military wife and United States Air Force veteran. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she is a southern girl at heart, but has lived all over the US and abroad. As soon as the military stops moving her family around, she'll settle on a state, but for now she enjoys being a nomad with her husband, two daughters, an old man of a dog, and a young pup that makes life... interesting.

To find out more about Ms. Anderson, please visit:

**QUEEN OF FATE & FIRE**

Publication date: July 28, 2020

Series: Rogue Ethereal #6

Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy

**BLURB**

A crown I don’t want. A bargain I can’t take back. A life I refuse to sacrifice.

After four hundred years on my own, one would think I’d be able to walk away and never look back. I’d done it a thousand times before with nary an inkling of guilt. But with my brand new predicament, there is no way I can turn down the offered bargain—not if I want everyone I love to stay alive.

Now, all I have to do is trek through the very realm I nearly died to keep sealed. Sure. Because there’s no way that could go wrong.

Unseelie Court, here I come.

**EXCERPT**

They say the first year of marriage was the hardest. If the blade to my new husband’s throat was any indication, they—whoever they were—would be right.

But this wasn’t my husband—not really.

Sure, this was Alistair’s body, and sure, he was probably hidden somewhere, crouched low in the recesses of his own mind, but the man looking through Alistair’s eyes, and wearing Alistair’s skin was not my husband. He was some kind of dark Fae, and he’d taken over.

“What have you done with him? Where is he?” I’d meant it to come out as commanding, but I didn’t quite hit the mark. I was a frantic mess at best, and the monster wearing my husband’s skin knew it.

This was what I got for coming to Faerie. Literally every single person with any lick of sense said demons could get possessed here. They said it was too risky. They said Alistair was in danger by following me to this place.

Did I listen?

Of course not. I smiled, nodded, and did whatever the fuck I wanted to anyway, and look where we were. Look at what happened to the man I loved.

I should have known something was off the moment I saw Alistair fall in the gorge. We’d been trying to keep the Unseelie Fae back. We were trying to stop Verena and whatever cracked plot she was trying to carry out. I’d thought we’d succeeded. Peering into the strikingly blue eyes of Alistair’s hijacked face, I’d say we missed one.

I saw the lie cross his face before he opened his mouth. No. Not today, buddy.

“Think very carefully about what you say next.”I could practically feel my molars cracking from how hard I was clenching my jaw, and if my blade happened to nick his neck, well, it was just a sign that I meant business.

And yeah, this was far too close to home for me. Not just that it was Alistair—not that it was the man I loved being used in such a fashion. No, this was Maria all over again. This was everything I’d buried bubbling up to the surface.

And if Alistair’s face wavered a little due to some unshed tears, well, I’d say I’d earned them.

Not-Alistair took that moment to pounce, bringing the sword from his scabbard up and knocking my blade away from his neck.

I scrambled back a step, before our swords clashed—or rather my athame went from dagger-sized to short-sword sized after I pressed the rune on the handle, and I attacked. My fencing skills were weak at best, but no-rules swordplay? Aidan had once said I was a natural.

Still, this guy was parrying every single strike like he was humoring me rather than fighting for his life.

“I am not your enemy,” Not-Alistair’s mouth said, but his voice was no longer my husband’s. It had a burr of something else I couldn’t place. A smokiness that had never been there before—not even when he’d been phased.

“Really? You got a funny way of showing it.” My frustration bubbled up inside my chest as I slashed and parried. I couldn’t say why I didn’t want to use the power that roiled beneath my skin, but I didn’t.

I could kill him.

I could hurt him.

But I didn’t want to.

“Way to be vague, Atropos,” Marcus growled. “What kind of Fate are you? Yeah, let’s just let a whole fucking realm tank and not say anything.”

Then it was Atropos standing in anger, her red hair flying about her head in a halo of rage. I wondered if we should all start standing when we had a grand statement to make. “I do what I can. You know the laws I am bound to. You know, Marcus. So, don’t sit there and tell me I’m doing a shitty job. I’m doing what I freaking can, okay? I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Settle down. I’ll just talk to him, okay? I’ve done it a couple of times already. I’ll talk to the guy and see if we can get him out of whatever pocket dimension he made for himself, and we’re good, right? Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy and shit.” Yep, I was slurring the shit out of my words, but I had a feeling my message was clear enough. “Then you can give me back my husband, the world won’t end, and things can calm the fuck down.”

I took a little sip of what was left in my cup, and gently set it down on the coffee table. Okay, so I had to close one eye and aim extra careful, but I at least attempted to set it down gently.

Then I snuggled into the blanket and closed my eyes, calling on the element that was as elusive and ephemeral as smoke. Spirit wasn’t like the other elements. Those I could feel all the time here. They were like breathing or my heart beating—they seemed to flow into me without thought. Spirit only wanted to touch me when I was at my lowest, when I didn’t have enough strength to go on.

Kinda like right now. I felt the pull at my chest, the heat of all the elements filling me, healing me… stealing my damn buzz, but whatever. Then it felt like I was falling for a second, a sensation I hadn’t yet felt while contacting Dušan.

I opened my eyes, but he wasn’t there. The forest that was blurry at the edges, the night sky that was too close and too far away at the same time, the wooden stump he sat on—those were all there.

But he wasn’t.

Frantic, I called out, “Dušan! Come out. I need you!”

My eyes swept the tree line for the giant of a man with purple hair and lightning in his eyes.

But no one came.

Pulling out of the little pocket world took far too much effort, and by the time I made it back to my body, I could tell something was wrong.

Teresa and Andras were holding onto me, forcing my arms to my sides as I thrashed. Also, I was on the floor—that was another clue that something was amiss.

“He isn’t there.”

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