Table Of ContentBLESSED BE THE WICKED
LUCY SMOKE
KEL CARPENTER
Blessed Be the Wicked
Kel Carpenter & Lucy Smoke
Published by Kel Carpenter & Lucy Smoke
Copyright © 2019, Kel Carpenter & Lucy Smoke
Edited by Analisa Denny
Proofread by Dominique Laura
Cover Art by Story Wrappers
Map and Graphic Designed by Zenta Brice
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of
the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons,
living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Map
1. The Pirate Queen
2. Inquisition
3. Tensions Rising
4. The Opal Room
5. Shackles of Control
6. Marked by the Gods
7. Like Calls to Like
8. Battle for Ilvas
9. Virulent Garden
10. Capricious Circumstances
11. Queen of Evasion
12. War and Reason
13. Dungeon of Deception
14. Tenuous Allies
15. Questionable Actions
16. Desperate Measures
17. To Track a Traitor
18. Pressure’s Peak
19. Apple of Discord
20. Something Wicked Comes This Way
21. Glass Palaces
22. Voyage to Winter
23. A Trade in Secrets
24. A Game of Truths
25. The Fallen Temple
Coming Soon
About Lucy Smoke
About Kel Carpenter
Also by Lucy Smoke
Also by Kel Carpenter
Acknowledgments
Lucy: That’s so fetch.
Kel: Stop trying to make fetch happen!
Lucy: Never…
Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail, and
never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a
chance to climb, but refuse. They cling to the realm, or love, or the
gods . . . illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.
But they’ll never know this. Not until it’s too late.
~ Littlefinger, Game of Thrones, Season 3, Episode 6
The Pirate Queen
“All queens are pirates in their own time.”
— Quinn Darkova, vassal of House Fierté, fear twister
G
old. It glittered at every turn. Quinn wasn’t sure what to expect
in the infamous city of Tritol, but true to the Pirate Queen’s
name, it was a city of fortune.
Burnished domes of yellow and bronze lit up like beacons under
the swelter of Leviticus’ eye. A hazy film obscured Quinn’s vision as
she squinted through the sand being swept around as they were
urged through the gates of the main plaza. Textiles in every color
hung from windows and doorways as shopkeepers opened for the
day.
She’d heard the rumors that Imogen liked her people to display
affluence and looked favorably upon it. If the overly friendly
merchants were anything to go by, Quinn was inclined to believe
those rumors as they offered gifts and trinkets to the girl who went
before them, urging her horse by its reins.
“For the Queen!” they proclaimed, holding out their best fabrics
and golden treasures. Axe simply shook her head and held up a
hand, brushing them off with ease as she rode down the sandy
streets as if she owned them. If she truly was Imogen’s adoptive
daughter—one day she might.
“You know,” Quinn started, glancing over at Lazarus, “you could
really learn a thing or two here.” She gestured to a vendor, and they
jumped forward, offering up a necklace made of several ropes of
gold. The man bowed his head, lifting it up, and just as Quinn leaned
over to accept it, Lazarus cast her a disapproving glance.
“It’s not for you,” he said.
Quinn narrowed her eyes but took her hand back without the
necklace and didn’t say anything more as they moved farther into the
city.
The heat bore down on them. The open air growing more humid
the longer they walked. Quinn glanced from side to side and then
focused straight ahead, keeping her eyes on the strange girl that led
them.
Axe continued to ignore the offerings of the citizens of Tritol as
she led their party toward the tallest building in the city. It jutted out
from the rest of the capital. The sharp edge of its tip glimmering
under the sunlight. More gold, Quinn affirmed.
She whistled beneath her breath as they arrived at the gates of
the building—tall arches were encrusted with jewels in sapphire blue
and royal purple. Sea creatures of myth and legend had been carved
into the stone itself. Mermaids. Krakens. Creatures from the deep
blue that had been rumored to be the goddess Myori in years past.
Only sunken ships and sailors at the bottom of the ocean could
really say.
“No wonder we curse her wrath,” Quinn murmured. Lazarus shot
her another look. One that she ignored.
The gates lifted when Axe raised her hand to the men at the top.
Just inside, they all came to a halt in the center of a blooming
courtyard. Towering trees dangled wisteria over the area; vines crept
up the stone walls.
“Alright,” Axe announced. “She’s expectin’ us.”
Quinn handed the reins to an approaching stable boy, then
turned and followed the others. She took an appreciative glance of
the glittering gold-encrusted moldings on the walls as they entered
