Blog Tour for Queen of Thorns and Roses by Connie Suttle!

Title: Queen of Thorns and Roses

Series: Black Rose Sorceress #4

Author: Connie Suttle

Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

Release July 5, 2018

The present King of Az-ca has been rendered powerless through an unsuspected coup, and is overcome with despair. 

Kaakos has escaped death, but is forced to leave Ny-nes. Now, his sole focus is revenge. 

Az-ca's citizens have fallen victim to the enemy's lies, and civil war threatens to split the country. 

Sherra is forced to divide her attention between searching for the enemy, dealing with traitors and struggling with the King's misery and desolation. 

When the blood spell that rendered Kerok powerless takes a turn even its maker didn't expect, only her dream walker, with help from another, can hope to turn the tide...

Ny-nes  

Kyri  

There are three of us. How do you suggest we teach the entire population to read, write and follow a new set of rules—all at the same time? I demanded. North wasn't speaking to me. I was barely speaking to him.  

His back was turned toward me as he gazed out a window in what was left of Kaakos' suite. Garkus ignored both of us in favor of showing the few who still lived inside the city how to clear ground and plant seeds.  

The seeds he'd scrounged from the kitchen—beans, corn and such, that hadn't yet been used as food. At least it was late spring, and if the ground were willing, we might see results—unless the soil and air were so toxic that plant growth was no longer possible. -

I watched as North's shoulders drooped, letting me know I'd hit a sensitive spot with him. I was hoping we could bring teachers and such from Az-ca. 

After you rendered their King helpless? Those people from Az-ca? Sherra would make his life miserable—and mine, too, if we even suggested such a thing. 

You say she's smart, he whirled to face me. What if there's a way to reverse this? he tapped his chest in frustration. I wasn't intending, he stopped before saying something else. 

Intending what? I thought we could unite the country—like it once was. He turned his back to me again. - 

You thought you could walk right into Az-ca, take over where you left off centuries ago, and everybody would just fall in with your plans. Is that it? I didn't count on her—never saw her in all my divinations.  

He meant Sherra. An unseeable. He'd divined Thorn II, just not his Queen and partner. So. You wanted to take over after practically destroying their current King—who was a very good King, and before that, an excellent Commander of the army. 

That's a hell of a way to get Az-ca's population to adore you, isn't it? I can offer them peace, he began. Except you can't. Kaakos is still alive, remember, and he'll be coming for you—of that I have no doubt. You know it, too, and you can't take him on without Thorn's army at your back.  

I thought we could work together—Thorn and I. That he'd see the reason in it after a while. And, as he's currently powerless, what choice would he have? I sniped. 

Except he has the strongest Queen you've ever seen at his side, and she certainly won't fall for that bullshit.  I could be his right arm. His power, North turned to argue with me. 

It's not the same, and you know that. It's what I'm willing to offer. Go ahead. I want to hear what Sherra says when you say it. Frankly, the only reason you're still alive is that you and he are connected.  

You think she can kill me? He snorted and turned his back to me again. You saw what she was doing with that army—she'd have taken Kaakos down and his palace with him, if you hadn't done what you did and distracted her.  

She kept him inside this place. He'd be dead, if you hadn't decided to pull Thorn's power away. This time, I watched him stiffen. He knew it just as I did. Had he left things alone, we wouldn't be having this argument, now. 

Had he not interfered as he did, Sherra and Thorn II would be happy to send troops and teachers, I think. Instead, Kaakos was still alive, and that meant he was a hidden threat to anyone who thought to stand against him. 

Like his bastard son, Thorn I didn't think any woman was good enough to do the job—not when a man was available. Both those things—his son and his attitude—had ruined our relationship centuries before.  

Not much had changed between then and now. How—is he? His voice was quieter, now. Depressed. Not eating. Refusing to leave the palace. 

That's how he's doing. I received regular mind speak from Doret—there was no sense in attempting to contact Sherra. I was too ashamed to try, actually.  

You should have told her the moment North pulled you away from Kaakos' clutches, a small voice taunted me. Yes, I should have. I'd told Doret, but as neither of us wanted to inform Adahi, we'd kept that secret from him and everyone else.  

Now we were left with the aftermath of that malformed decision. Will it do any good to write her a letter, asking Az-ca to stand with Ny-nes for a common purpose? 

She can hate me as much as she wants, and he can, too, but until the threat of Kaakos is eliminated, neither Ny-nes nor Az-ca will be safe.  

Feel free, I tossed a hand in the vague direction of Az-ca. Just be prepared to have your ass handed to you. It's what the diplomats of old would do, he said. The enemy of my enemy, and so on. We can send the letter—and Jubal, at the same time. 

You think returning a traitor to Az-ca is a peace offering? His execution belongs in the hands of Az-ca, not Ny-nes. If I thought I'd receive a civil audience, I'd go myself. You try that, I said. To see how far you get.  

What about approaching the army Commander? Armon? He'd be waiting with Sherra at his side. You have no idea how close she is to him and much of the army.  

Then I'm back to writing a letter, or contacting her in some way, to request a civil audience with the King and Queen. If I thought I'd be welcome, I'd go, just to watch them take you down a peg or two. 

If they accept my request, feel free to accompany me. 

* * * 

Secondary Camp Armon Wend and Marc have been permanently assigned to the King, I sighed as I took a seat beside Levi for our midday meal. I suspected as much.

Sherra wants somebody who actually cares about him to stay at his side during the day, whenever she can't be there.  

Levi looked grim. Misten, who sat across from us, looked pale. Caral was at the palace more often than not, as was Cole. Sherra called them in frequently, to act as assistants and advisors.  

Thorn would only speak if compelled, nowadays. I can't say I blamed him; I'd be furious and seeking revenge against the one who'd removed my power. 

Except Thorn's life was now tied to the one who'd stolen his power to begin with. 

I worried that the King would let it affect him in adverse ways, and that eventually, he'd shut himself off from all of us. Doret and Barth acted as liaisons between the Crown and the Council, thank goodness. 

I felt Sherra could blast someone if they asked the wrong question at times.  Sherra and her dreamwalker had modified the shields around all the villages already, to watch for Kaakos' arrival. 

She was sure he'd come eventually. After hearing some of the story from Doret, I imagined Kaakos would go for his father and Kyri first, then come after Az-ca afterward. 

Hard to believe that Thorn the First has been alive and plotting all this time, isn't it? Levi nodded his thanks to Caral's sister, who set plates of food in front of us. 

It's infuriating, Misten hissed. That fucking piece of—I don't have a good word to describe what he is and what I think about him.  

Levi and I stared at Misten—I could count on the fingers of one hand how many times I'd heard Misten swear. Well, it's what I think, she sniffed. We think the same, it's just—different, hearing it from you, Levi said.  

Not that we're complaining, he held up a hand. You're free to speak your mind whenever it's just us. I know. I wish Caral were here. We haven't had much time to ourselves since—well—you know. We know.  

I don't know how Sherra is able to deal with all this, she added. I'd be crazy by now. Levi and I looked at one another. We were worried that Thorn would be the one to follow that path. Very worried. 

As for Hunter, he could feed himself, now, but he'd not attempted to speak, and still stared blankly into the distance most of the time.

We'd been so close to eliminating Kaakos, when Thorn I decided to pull his stunt and fuck it up.  

Sherra had punched him in the nose, breaking it. I wanted to do much worse than that. Like her, I had to quash those thoughts, as any violence against the one who'd named himself North was irrevocably tied to Thorn and his continued existence. 

In all my life, I'd never imagine anything like this was possible, Levi said and stabbed green beans with his fork. That's the honest truth, I agreed and started eating.  

 * * * 

King's Palace Sherra How much faith do you have in your shields around the villages? Pottles asked. She and I were having lunch at the outdoor table in the garden. They'll do what they did when I was alerted to Narvin's presence at North Camp.  

I don't know whether they'll actually hold Kaakos back if he's determined, but I'll know when and where, if all goes as planned. 

Ever since I'd returned from Ny-nes, she and I had carefully skirted the subject of Kyri and her former lover, North. 

I hadn't yet heard how they'd separated centuries ago, but I really had no desire to do so. It was understood that Pottles stayed in touch with Kyri—I would have in her place. 

Besides, we needed to know if Kaakos came back to Ny-nes, bent on killing his own father.  Kerok's life could depend upon that outcome. 

I let my shoulders droop with a sigh as I considered the King of Az-ca, who was now so deep in depression he would hardly speak to anyone.  

I'd already asked Barth to begin gathering information to add a new law—forbidding blood spells of any kind in Az-ca. That's how we'd come to this impasse with Kerok and the former King of Az-ca, whom he was named after. 

After considering another mind speaking of fuck you, North, I decided against it. If he didn't know already how I felt about him, then saying it again would likely be ignored. 

A part of me felt sorry for Pottles, because she was caught between two angry people that she cared for.  

Another part of me was angry with her, too, because she knew things she should have told me long ago—that North was alive in Ny-nes. 

That Kaakos was his son. Perhaps she'd been right about Kaakos' mother being a whore, but I didn't really want to hear that story, either. 

Not now. They'd damaged Kerok. They'd damaged our relationship. Az-ca still had a King—in name only. Nothing I could do or say would convince Kerok to return to his study and begin working again.  

Rumors abounded that Kerok had been injured more seriously in Ny-nes than anyone had reported, and those wounds kept him away from his desk and Council meetings. 

Only a handful understood that his power had been stripped away by a man who should have died centuries earlier.  

At first, Pottles said the Council asked about the King. They'd stopped after only a few meetings. Fuck. I dropped my fork onto the white tablecloth covering the table. I had as little appetite as Kerok did on some days. 

We didn't know what North was planning, Pottles sighed as I turned my head away. That doesn't absolve us of guilt in any way for not telling you, but it's what I have. 

I need to be somewhere else for a while. Without telling her where I was heading, I stepped. - 

©Connie Suttle 2018

CONNIE SUTTLE is the author of the Blood Destiny series, the Legend of the Ir’Indicti series, the High Demon Series, the God Wars series and the Saa Thalarr series. Other titles are scheduled for release very soon.

Connie earned her MFA from the University of Oklahoma and has taught courses at the university level. Reading (and writing) have been a constant throughout her life.

The author lives in Oklahoma with her patient, long-suffering husband and three cats. Obviously, the cats are not so long-suffering and are certainly not patient.

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