Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

“Whatever is going through that beautiful mind, I’m here for it.”

“Like a moth to a damned flame.” The lament slips from my mind, into our mental pathway. He’s gravity, pulling me back to him by the force of his existence. “I’m more than willing to let you burn me.”

🥹😌🩷

As complicated as our connection is, it’s also undeniably simple. He’s the horizon, and nothing exists beyond for me.

One touch, that’s all it takes, and the world around us ceases to exist. This is everything.

“I’m not always calm or collected, and I’m never in control when it comes to you.”

“I would have done the same thing you did because I’m just as reckless for you as you are for me.”

“Gods, look at you. You are all I’m ever going to want. Just you. Just this. Just us.”

inches. “However much you think you need this, need me—I need you more.”

Tairn walks off with Sgaeyl, their tails swishing in rhythm. It’s a little thing, but it makes me smile.

“Me? Argue with you about books?” He shakes his head, sliding his hand to my cheek. “I only pick fights I can win.”

“You are astonishing,”

“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.”

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

“I could get used to waking up like this.” He looks at me with a hunger that mirrors my own,

“You really want this?” “I want you feral.”

“Gods, you’re fucking perfect.”

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

“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. Everything between us keeps me constantly burning like an ember; a single touch is all it takes to send us both up in flames.

“Look at how beautiful you are, Violet,

on Tyrrendor’s throne.”

I love her so fucking much.

stop it rn 😭

He untangles from my mind, and I mourn the loss even as my body slackens.

“I don’t like you thinking you’re not the center of my fucking world,

“Violet, you were just in my thoughts. You know I think you’re perfect, even when you frustrate the shit out of me.

“Stop talking to yourself,” Tairn grumbles, as though I’ve woken him. “It makes us both seem unstable.”

lol

his arm wraps around my back and pulls me closer like it’s a reflex, like this is the way we’ll sleep for the next fifty years. I settle in against his warmth and lay my head on his chest, above the most comforting rhythm in the world besides Tairn’s and Andarna’s wingbeats—Xaden’s heart.

aw

“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.”

stop🥲🥲

“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.”

“I love you. The world does not exist for me beyond you.”

🥺

I pull lightning from the sky so quickly that I no longer feel like I direct the storm. I am the storm.

“You are my home.

I throw down my shields— Pain. Agonizing, blistering pain roars down the pathway. Hopelessness and…helplessness? It hits me from every angle, stealing my breath, overwhelming my senses and my strength. My body sags—my full weight in Aaric’s arms—as my mind fights to separate Xaden’s emotions from mine. He’s… I can’t think around the pain, can’t breathe for the tightness in my chest, can’t feel the ground beneath my feet. “Xaden’s dying,” I whisper.

STOP RN

I drag my gaze to hers, but I’m not here. Not really. I’m dying on the battlefield, the last of my strength fading, burning, consuming my body. But it will be worth it to save the one I love. Violet.

crying. throwing up. stop this rn pls

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

😢

“You are alive. You will live today. You will wake tomorrow,” Tairn promises me as I force one foot in front of the other. “Xaden?” I reach through the bond, but his shields are up. “He lives.”

“Me,” he whispers, a faint, almost indistinguishable red ring emanating from his gold-flecked onyx irises. “You should be scared of me.”

OMG WHAT HES VENIN????

“I told you once that you’d turn for love,” he says, holding his arms out. “And so you shall.”

“Come on, shadow wielder. Turn. It’s the only way to save her.”

He’s too strong, and I have nothing left. But I’ll be damned if Violet suffers the consequences. He won’t get his hands on her.

“You cannot!” Sgaeyl shrieks. “I chose you!” But Violet chose me, too.

She’s so fucking beautiful I can barely breathe.

“I’d rather die than become one of you.”