Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

Varrish isn’t waiting on the other side of the door to break me again because he’s dead. I killed him.

Good riddance

Now, this is a view I could be more than happy to wake up to for the rest of my life.

There are a hundred and seven of them, representative of the marked ones he took responsibility for to give them a chance at life in the quadrant.

“This is my house.”

“You’re not recovered enough for the things I want to do to you,” he growls.

BARK BARK BARK

“You have to stop. Or I’m going to lose it on you.” His stomach flexes as he lifts his head to watch me. “And I’m not sure I can be gentle.” “Lose it.” Sounds excellent to me. “I don’t want gentle.” “Mending bones isn’t instant. You’re still heal—” I suck him deeper. He growls. “You really want this?” “I want you feral.”

“And I want them all to know you’re mine.”

“Could you not crush our human?” Tairn barks. “I wasn’t even close,” Andarna snaps in return with a quick glare in his direction as she flares her wings with the same result. “I told you to be patient,” Tairn chides.

“Speech isn’t necessary when I can hear your thoughts. I am no more broken than you are.” Her lip curls and her teeth flash. Ouch. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t what I meant to imply.” The thought is barely a whisper.

“Adolescents,” Tairn grumbles. “They’re insufferable when hungry.”

“Welcome to your first official Battle Brief as traitors,” Devera announces.

“She makes a good point,” Andarna agrees. “Can you carry a luminary?” “That question insults me.” “Can you carry a luminary while insulted?” she prods.

The blood of life of the six and the one combined and set the stone ablaze in an iron rain. —The Journal of Warrick of Luceras —Translated by Cadet Violet Sorrengail

“But it’s possible to be angry while still madly, wildly, uncontrollably in love with me.”

“I am no one’s miniature.” Andarna’s head darts toward him, and she snaps her teeth less than a foot in front of his face.

“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.”

“Keep looking at me like that and you’re not making it to class,”

“Scratch her eyes out,” Andarna suggests. “Really. The eyes are the softest tissue. Just jab your thumbs in there—” “Andarna! Use some common sense,” Tairn snaps. “The kneecaps are a much easier target.”

Holy shit. She fights like Xaden. He trained both of us.

Ahhh shit

“She wants you for your name.” “I know.” He braces his hands on the arms of the chair and leans in, brushing his lips over mine. “And you love me in spite of it. That’s one of the many reasons I will always choose you.”

“My house. My chair. My woman.”

He’s the only person in this world I can’t get enough of. The only one I constantly crave. Love. Chemistry. Attraction. Desire.

“This is what I fantasize about when I’m away from you,” he says against my heated skin. “Your taste. Your scent. The little gasps you take right before you come.”

“You have me.” I whimper at the mindless pleasure that rushes up my spine. “And I have you exactly where I need you.”

Gods, the sight of him kneeling, fully clothed, the leather of his flight jacket against my bare thighs, pushes me all the way to the edge and burns itself into my memory.

“Right there. Those gasps. That’s what I hear when I wake, already hard for you.”

“Look at how beautiful you are, Violet, coming for me on Tyrrendor’s throne.”

I need to fuck her, to flip her over the arm of this throne and drive into her, but I can’t. I need her nail marks in the wood, need her cries filling this whole fucking house, need her knowing what I can be for her—anything and everything she needs. She’s heaven in my mouth. Flawless. Mine. And she’s almost there. Gods, yes, her legs are shaking, her walls are fluttering around my tongue. I love her so fucking much.

I think hes my favorite simp

“As I recall, you didn’t exactly like me the first time—” “Do not finish that sentence.” I jab my finger in his direction. “On the other hand, I was already in love with you.”

“Sorry to inconvenience you, but this year the role of Violet Sorrengail”—he points to me—“will be played by Xaden Riorson”—he taps his chest—“who will drag her, kicking and screaming if he has to, into a real relationship with real discussions, because he refuses to lose her again. If I have to evolve, you do, too.”

“That trick you mentioned? You know, with the fingers?” A slow smile spreads across my face. “Thanks.”

“Good idea. I could use a snack.” Andarna’s tone is indecently excited. “We do not eat our allies,” Tairn lectures. “You never let me have any fun.”

“Because Garrick and I heard the end of what he said in the interrogation chamber, and trust me, I might be in love with him after that declaration, but are you? Really and truly?”

“Less than a minute,” Xaden whispers as Sgaeyl moves toward him—toward us. “That’s how long it took for you to fall out of love with me.”

“Do not speak to her as if death is a possibility,” Tairn snaps, slamming his own shields around us both, an impenetrable wall of black stone, blocking out Xaden and Sgaeyl.

Mom and Dad are fighting, and everyone knows it.

“But I have always lacked a certain element of self-control when it comes to you, and our bond makes it way too easy for you to send your intentions without even realizing it.”

“I could torch him if you would like,” Tairn offers. “But you do seem attached.”

“I need to know you’ll be here. That no matter what happens, you’ll come back so we can talk it out or fight it out.”

“I love you,” I whisper. “You could throw my entire world into upheaval, and I would still love you. You could keep secrets, run a revolution, frustrate the shit out of me, probably ruin me, and I would still love you. I can’t make it stop. I don’t want to. You’re my gravity. Nothing in my world works without you.”

“With all due respect”—Rhiannon straightens her posture and stares him down—“unlike War Games, Second Squad, Flame Section, Fourth Wing will remain intact, though you’re welcome to join us.”

“I love you. The world does not exist for me beyond you.” Leaning down, he rests his forehead against mine. “I couldn’t tell you that the last time we flew into a fight, and I should have.”

“My saddle is stuck!” I tell Tairn as we climb back to the battle. “Good. Maybe you’ll stay in it.”

“No.” Even now, her scales are changing, taking on the grayish hue of the stone around us. “But he is, and I so badly want to be just like him.”