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Because love, at its root, is hope. Hope for tomorrow. Hope for what could be. Hope that the someone you’ve entrusted your everything to will cradle and protect it. And hope? That shit is harder to kill than a dragon.
“She doesn’t like anyone but Xaden, and she only tolerates me, though I’m growing on her.” “Like a tumor,”
He wrote me a letter, and I’ve read it so many times I already have it memorized.
My dad hoped I’d go into the infantry like he did. He thought riders were pompous pricks, and in his defense…we really are.
His slow smile stops my heart. “You think I’m beautiful?”
A corner of his mouth turns up. “You were worried about me?” “Not anymore, I’m not.” I see red. How can he find this amusing? “But you were.” A slow smile spreads across his face, and his eyes light up.
“I’m not always calm or collected, and I’m never in control when it comes to you.”
He knows exactly where I’m sensitive and damn does he use every bit of that knowledge, sucking and laving that spot at the side of my throat that melts my knees and makes my fingers curl against his skin.
“You just had your hand wrapped around my cock, Violet. I’m pretty sure you felt how fucking badly I want you.”
The last pin falls from my hair. “Choose, Xaden. You can let me walk out that door, or you can be the one who takes what I’m willing to give this time.” I shake my hair loose and run my fingers through the wet mass to unravel the braid.
“That was abrupt.” Good thing I’m still strapped in. “Next time, you fly and I’ll ride.” His head sweeps from left to right as Sgaeyl lands next to us, Xaden on her back.
“Tell your dragon he’s still the scariest fucking thing I’ve ever seen, Sorrengail.” “I would, but it would just inflate his ego,”
“I told you in Aretia—I would rather lose this entire war than live without you.” He skims my jawline with his fingers before dropping his hand.
And his body is most definitely a perk. I’m deliciously sore from more than just the flight as I dismount Tairn at the edge of the field to avoid the incoming landings as First Wing goes through third-year maneuvers.
Ridoc rolls his eyes. “Oh, good. I was wondering when it was going to start getting dangerous around here again.”
“Or at least I’ll be celebrating. Unfortunately, I think you limit yourself to celebrating with Riorson, now.”
“There’s nowhere in existence you could go that I wouldn’t find you, remember?”
“You’ll lose everything you’ve worked for.” My voice breaks. “Because of me.” “Then I’ll have everything I need.” He lowers his face, leaning in so he’s all I see, all I feel. “I will happily watch Aretia burn to the fucking ground again if it means you live.”
“You want to know something true? Something real? I love you. I’m in love with you. I have been since the night the snow fell in your hair and you kissed me for the first time. I’m grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won’t have to face a day without you in it. My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I’ll meet Malek at your side. It’s a damned good thing that you love me, too, because you’re stuck with me in this life and every other that could possibly follow.”
when I twist away from the sun-drenched window to face Xaden. Now, this is a view I could be more than happy to wake up to for the rest of my life.
he steals my breath. Gods is he beautiful. And he loves me.
His eyes are my favorite part of him, but damn if the chiseled line above his hip that disappears into his waistband isn’t a close second.
He leans over my back, then drags his teeth across the shell of my ear. “And I want them all to know you’re mine.”
I pull mine from Xaden’s grasp. He sighs like I’m his biggest problem and snatches it back.
“I have his throat, but I have not broken his scales,” he assures me like I’m the dramatic one here. “Well, as long as it’s just a threat,” I reply sarcastically.
“You’re all right?” “I am now.”
locate him within a heartbeat because he’s the center of my gravity.
“You’re wounded. You know that, right?” Dain questions me, glancing at his belt. “And you’re a memory reader.” His gaze narrows. “Oh, were we not stating obvious facts?”
She nods. “Impressive.” “Thank you.” “She’s ours,” Ridoc says to the fliers, pointing at me.
“Advice?” I ask Tairn and Andarna. “Don’t blow anything up.” Tairn shifts his weight behind me.
“I meant to tell you a lot last night, too,” he says, setting the disk back down on the desk with the others. “But once I found you in bed, my mouth was otherwise occupied.”
How did I not notice he’d been basically naked behind me this whole time? Such a missed opportunity…
“Keep looking at me like that and you’re not making it to class,” he warns, his eyes darkening as he crosses the floor and tosses his clothing on the bed.
His torso is still gloriously bare, but unfortunately—or fortunately for my schedule—he has pants on.
That’s one of the many reasons I will always choose you.”
“My house. My chair. My woman.” He punctuates each claim with a flick of his thumb, popping button by button free.
“Violet, you were just in my thoughts. You know I think you’re perfect, even when you frustrate the shit out of me.
“I do like to fuck you.” A slow smile curves his mouth. “I love it, actually.”
I blink, then scowl. “I hate it when you do that. Is my face really that easy to read?” “To me? Yes.”
“You’re alive,” he whispers against my lips. “So my heartbeat says.”
“I love you,” Xaden says as the wyvern closest to me banks away from the wards, falling into a turning dive, only to gain speed and climb again, leveling out behind the lead two before flying straight for us. “Even if you believe nothing else I ever say, please believe that.”
love you. The world does not exist for me beyond you.”
“Even Malek himself couldn’t keep me from you.”
Most generals dream of dying in service to their kingdom. But you know me better than that, my love. When I fall, it will be for one reason only: to protect our children. —Recovered, Unsent Correspondence of General Lilith Sorrengail
