A review by lifeinthebooklane
Curse of the Dark Prince by Ariana Nash

3.0

He was heat and fire, rock and iron, and after everything they'd survived, after every hurt and obstacle, impossibly, Nikolas Yazdan was Vasili's.

Niko and Vasili's story has reached it's epic conclusion and boy do you need to gird your loins to read this one. It puts you through the emotional wringer, stands you up, dusts you down and then shoves you back through it again. Repeatedly.

Nikolas kissed him then - so softly, so simply. It was nothing, really. A brush of the lips, but if it were the last thing Vasili felt, he'd gladly take its touch with him to meet the gods.

I may have cried at this book. More than once. It didn't quite slay me in the same way that the Silk & Steel series did, but this author continually sets the bar so very high that this is still an amazing read.

Niko blinked at the man beside him. Because there he was. His hidden Vasili.
The man he loved.

Old friends become enemies, new alliances are formed and help comes from the most surprising of places. The story rattles along at a fair pace, twisting and turning and knocking you sideways at the most unexpected of times. The story had everything I wanted, adventure, emotion, desperation, hope, despair and glimpsed moments of what could have been...

He wanted to build a new life somewhere far away from it all, where the prince didn't have the weight of a crown on his head or a curse in his veins. Just a cabin in the woods, an open fire, and a burbling brook.
But those dreams were a fool's fantasy.
He'd seen this done. He'd keep his word because it was all he had left to give the man he loved.
Vasili's last order would also be his own.

My poor fragile heart is battered and yet I am completely satisfied and replete with how this adventure ended. I hugely recommend this series.

He was wildness, like the sea, and Vasili would willingly drown in him.

Of course, Nikolas wasn't a threat - well, not like this. He was a threat at other times. But in these quiet moments, he was everything Vasili needed him to be and so much more.