Born of Silence (The League #6)

Funny how that was the only promise
someone had ever made to him that they'd kept.
Not the one to love or protect him.
Just the one to make him regret every breath he took.

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Born of Silence
Sherrilyn Kenyon
The League, book six
ebook, 436 pages
Published May 1st 2012 by Grand Central Publishing
ISBN 9780446573320

Death Stalks Them All...

Kere is the second most infamous member of the shadow organization known as Sentella. An explosive engineer who strikes terror into the hearts of the League, the bounty on his head is truly staggering. No one knows his true identity.

The daughter of a traitor, Zarya Starska grew up hard on the back streets of hell- her family hunted to the brink of extinction. But Zarya dreams of a different life and a different world. A world where the harsh hand of the Caronese emperor doesn’t destroy his subjects. As a Resistance leader, her goal is to topple the government that needlessly ruined the lives of her family and comrades-in-arms. In this deadly quest, the only person she can trust is a mysterious man known only as Kere.

By The Light Of Day...

Kere has a dark secret and a brutal past. As he aids the Resistance, he’s actually working to bring down his own family- the Cruels- so named for the viciousness in their blood that runs so deep, no other name would do. Born and bred from one of the oldest and noblest families in the United Systems, Kere’s real name is Darling Cruel. And the one thing he wants most is to see his uncle, who stole the crown by murdering his father, pay for his crimes.

If You Tell A Lie Long Enough, It Becomes The Truth...

In order to protect his mother from execution, Darling’s entire life has been built on a lie that he dare not breathe a contrary word about. His hands tied by his uncle’s cruelty. No one has ever seen the real him. No one except Zarya. She’s the only person he’s ever fully trusted with the truth. But when she betrays him by allowing a weapon he designed solely for her to be used against him, all bets are off.

The Hero Is Now The Monster...

Betrayed to the deepest level, Darling becomes an enemy even worse than his uncle. His goal is not only to reign, but to kill every Resistance member he can find. He won’t rest until all of them are dead and that includes Zarya.

The Twisted Hand Of Fate...

Zarya is the only hope to reach the heart of the man her people once considered their ally. A man who hates her with a fury so great that she knows it’s just a matter of time before he kills her. But if she can find the part of him that once trusted her, the part of him that once loved her, she might be able to save not only her own life, but those of her people.

It’s an impossible mission.

Too bad she doesn’t play the odds.

Nothing like a marriage proposal between secret lovers to get a story started. From there... how do I even begin?

Darling Cruel and Zarya Starska met when they were mere children. She was five. He, seven. Their fathers were allies, and friends. Until Darling's uncle murdered his father, the man's own brother, and proceeded to destroy everything Darling ever knew. Zarya's father was declared a traitor and her family became outlaws. Meanwhile, Darling did any and everything imaginable to spare his mother and his siblings the wrath of his sadistic uncle, even claiming to be gay in order to spare his mother's life when her lover was caught sneaking from the their family's private rooms. A lie that would crucify him. A lie, even we the readers have believed up until now.

But, in truth, Darling has loved a woman for two years now. A woman who leads the Resistance against his uncle. With Zarya, he finds the only peace he's ever known.

When Darling's endurance to his uncle's hatred becomes exhausted, and damn if that should have hit its limit years ago, he puts together a plot to finally challenge his guardian for right to take his place as governor-that is, emperor, of his people. Being under the age of thirty, he is still considered a minor in their culture but he is, firstly, determined to see his siblings safe from a harmful retaliation. As he goes to secure his sister, Lise, they are attacked by members of the Resistance acting outside of Zarya's command. Lise is left for dead. Darling is taken for a ransom that would never be paid.

For five months, Darling suffers at the wrath of the rebels.

Unbeknownst to Zarya.

With Nykyrian and Syn, we know their pains through their histories. Their memories. With Darling, we are with him through much of his suffering as he survives it. The rest, that which came before, will tear at your heart as more and more of his heinous past in unburied. It's sickening, the depths to which humans are capable of. To know that this, here, is a work of fiction. But somewhere, to someone, it is their reality.

When at last, Darling is freed from his hell, chaos ensues. And no one that has ever harmed him or his is safe from the bloodbath. Even Zarya, whose voice outside his chamber of torture haunted for so long, finds herself sold as a concubine by Jayne's doing.

This story, more so than any of the rest, truly tired my soul. I'm a cynic. I lost faith in the world long ago. And yet, to experience characters like Kenyon's men who have endured depths of pain and agony in ways I could never in a million lifetimes come close to, and to watch them come away with more compassion and gentility than any human being I've ever known or could ever hope to know...let alone possess for myself... It may be fiction. A Sci-Fi fantasy. But it's more inspiring than any other story I've ever heard told.

5 out of 5 stars.

Darling and Zarya being betrothed from the very beginning... Such sweet irony.

Darling, Nykyrian, and Caillen all throwing off their helmets, their very disguises, at the end... Shocking.


Previously in FIRST GENERATION of the series: