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“I’ll see what we can do.” Brennan glances up at me and grins. “Now to real business. We’ll start with your update from Navarre. As far as we can tell from our sources, the public doesn’t know.”
“To our surprise, the outposts have successfully dispatched with the wyvern Lieutenant Riorson gifted to them, and General Melgren has kept the news from reaching the general public, though obviously all present military now knows. And unfortunately, they are still turning away every Poromish citizen at the border.”
“The good news is: as far as our extensive sources can tell, your families have not been targeted, and we are reaching out with not only your letters but offers of sanctuary. If they’re willing to risk stepping into the unknown, we’ll work to get them here.”
The blood of life of the six and the one combined and set the stone ablaze in an iron rain.
Ablaze = Flame
“So what are the Sorrengail siblings going to do now that you’re all reunited?” Xaden asks, lifting his head to look at my family. “We’re going to beat the shit out of our brother,” Mira answers with a smile. “Survive,” Brennan chimes in.
LOL
His first true action of rebellion was to seek allies, the first of which was Viscount Tecarus of the Poromish province of Krovla. —The Tyrrish Rebellion, a Forbidden History by Colonel Felix Gerault
Fen or Xaden
“You are slated to be the most powerful rider of your year—perhaps your entire generation—and yet you are just a glorified light show—”
“Lightning may appear from various sources, but Tairn channels his power through you. You are the vessel. You are the pathway. You are the cloud, for lack of a better term. How else do you think you can wield from a blue sky? Did you never realize it’s easier for you to wield during a storm, but you’re capable of both?”
There can be control in Voilet's signet.
The wyvern, the exposure, breaching Basgiath, stealing half its riders. All for you.
“I’m sure this is the only way we’ll be able to make the weapons we need.” I fasten the top button of my flight jacket to ward off the late-October chill. “And sure that if we stay on task, we can be back in two days max. I’m definitely sure that this will stop the gryphon attacks on Navarrian outposts. But am I sure that we won’t fail or end up permanent guests of Viscount Tecarus? No.”
“Be careful what you say in here. Tecarus will hold us to whatever deal we make. He doesn’t take kindly to broken words. And keep your shields up, though I’m not sure they’ll do much good,” Brennan orders when we’re less than a dozen feet from the fliers. “Fliers might not wield signets, but most of their lesser-magic gifts involve mindwork, and it’s the one area where they have the upper hand on us.”
“Seeing as you’ve arrived without invitation, we require you have honest intentions before traveling farther.” His hands flex near his daggers, and Mira palms the hilt of her sword. We’re one misstep away from drawing weapons, and we all know it. “I’m here to wield lightning in return for asking your viscount for help.” May as well start us out. He cocks his head to the side, then nods, glancing toward Brennan. “I’m here to broker a deal for your luminary in return for weaponry,” Brennan declares. The flier nods and looks at Mira. “Fine.” She sighs. “Make one wrong move toward my sister, and
...more
Requirements to see Viscount Tecarus; one truth from each Sorrengail.
You will not be happy with the welcome we’re about to receive.
“An alliance my father made that I officially denied last year. The chest is priceless. If he wants you to destroy it with lightning, then this is more a statement about me and less about you.”
“If you ever want to have words about why I severed that alliance, then you come for me. Violet is beyond your reach. If you so much as look her direction with anything but the utmost kindness and respect, I’ll kill you without a second thought and let Syrena take her place as your heir. Do you understand me?”
“Weapons are a good start,” Tecarus agrees with a nod, his gaze sliding to Cat. “And you take the hundred flier cadets I’ve given shelter to after their academy was destroyed back to Aretia with the luminary.”
pearlescent power
Andarna power color... does it have meaning?
“Challenges between squadmates are forbidden under the Codex,” Devera explains to fliers, then turns to us. “And tomorrow each squad of riders will absorb one drift of fliers.”
“Who wouldn’t love all that power and the case it comes in? But I’m sure as hell not fighting you over a man’s affections. I’m going to war with you for a crown. That was the reason we were engaged. It was promised to me, and I’m not giving it to a damned Sorrengail who chose to drop the flier instead of her squadmate. Your entire family deserves to die for what you’ve put us through.”
“My house. My chair. My woman.”
YUUUPP!
“Look at how beautiful you are, Violet, coming for me on Tyrrendor’s throne.”
Shimmering onyx wraps around my mind and everything intensifies. A driving, pounding, uncontrollable need courses through me with every beat of my pulse, demanding an outlet, demanding I rip through the confines of the leather and trade her sweet taste for the incomparable perfection of sinking into her when she comes.
Xaden's thoughts.
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.
And to answer the question, I’d feel jealous, which is something you have a unique ability to bring out in me. And then I’d kick his ass, partially because that’s what I do when someone challenges me, and more importantly for implying there’s any other future besides the one where you and I are endgame.”
“That trick you mentioned? You know, with the fingers?” A slow smile spreads across my face. “Thanks.”
“I’ll never say this in front of the others, but we’re fifty years too late.”
The six doesn’t refer to riders.
Finally... I knew it.
“I know how to raise the wards. I’m just not entirely sure we should.”
ummm.
The breath of life of the six and the one combined and set the stone ablaze in an iron flame. —The Journal of Warrick of Luceras —Translated by Cadets Violet Sorrengail and Dain Aetos
The key to the wards.
“And you won’t do it for something as trite as power or as easily satiable as greed,” he promises in a whisper, “but for the most illogical of mortal emotions—love. Or you’ll die.” He shrugs. “You both will.”
“Second signets only happen when a dragon bonds a rider in the direct familial line as its previous,” Sloane says, misunderstanding Visia’s question. “But there’s an equal chance of it causing madness. From what Thoirt told me, that’s why Cruth wasn’t punished for bonding Quinn. She’s only the great-niece of her previous rider. Her signet’s more powerful but not entirely different.”
Xaden has a second signet.
“Your signet manifested,” I whisper, my eyes straining to see into the cave opening. “You’re a siphon.”
“You killed him.” My shoulders dip in relief. “You killed Solas.” Pride and worry assault me at the same time, but I can’t force my shields up before Tairn’s voice fills my very existence. “Slayer.”
“I know you have one,” I whisper as the pounding continues. “You told me that Sgaeyl was bonded to your grandfather, which makes you a direct descendant. If a dragon bonds a family member, it can strengthen a signet, but a direct descendant will either produce a second signet…or madness, and you seem pretty sane to me.”
It was never our continent. From the very beginning, it was theirs, and we were simply allowed to live here.
Dragons.
“Signets have to do with who we are at our core and what we need,” I think out loud. If he won’t tell me, then I’ll figure it out my damn self. “You are a master of secrets, hence the shadows.” I gesture at the ones curled around his feet. “You’re deadly with every weapon you pick up, but that’s not a signet.”
“You need to question everyone to make your own impressions. You need to be a quick judge of character in order to know who to trust and who not to in order to have run those smuggling missions at Basgiath for years. More than anything, you need control. It’s woven into every aspect of your personality.”
“You’ve always deserved better than me. And no one knows,” he repeats, his voice dropping. “Because if they did, I’d be dead.”
“You’re an inntinnsic,”
Think of that breath of a second before the actual thought, the subconscious motivation you might not even be aware of in your mind, or when instinct drives you to move or you’re looking to betray someone. The intention is always there. Mostly they come across as pictures, but some people intend in really clear pictures.”
“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.”
“A kingdom who never comes to the aid of others doesn’t deserve aid in their time of need. Personally, I think you all deserve whatever the dark wielders do to you.”
“We rule by committee,” Brennan announces, his arm brushing mine as he stops between Mira and me. “And I think I’m safe in speaking for the quorum when I say that we do not defend kingdoms who sacrifice neighboring civilians”—his head turns toward Mom, and her eyes bulge—“let alone their own children so they can hide safely behind their wards. You will not escape the suffering you’ve forced the rest of the Continent to endure.”
“Fix your wards.” She pulls a leather notebook from her jacket, and my eyes widen with recognition. “If you don’t, they’ll decline over time to nothing. Your father told me once that his research showed that Warrick never wanted anyone else to hold the power of the wards. He wanted Navarre to eternally hold the upper hand. But Lyra thought the knowledge should be shared.” “Warrick lied,” I whisper. But about what?
Warrick is THE SAGE!
“You’re capable of hurting me in ways I’m not sure you’ve even begun to fathom, Violet. I might be skilled enough to land a death blow, but you alone have the power to fucking destroy me.”
“No,” I reply. “That portion of the wards would fall back to its natural distance, about a three- or four-hour flight from Basgiath, just like ours. The power supplies in the outposts extend the wards, they don’t create them, so while a large piece of Navarre would be unprotected—” Blinking, my gaze finds my brother’s.
We do not eat our allies. —Tairn’s personal addendum to the Book of Brennan as quoted by Cadet Violet Sorrengail
Love him!
“Perhaps I will be the eldest of my own den.”
I think she is on to something.
“You don’t act a day over a hundred,” I reassure Tairn, then offer a smile to Maren as she approaches with Cat.
