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“Vi…” He hesitates for a second, then wraps his arms around me and pulls me into a hug, rocking slightly like I’m a kid again. “We learned from Fen’s mistakes. We’re not attacking Navarre like he did or declaring independence. We’re fighting right under their noses, and we have a plan. Something killed off the venin six hundred years ago during the Great War, and we’re actively searching for that weapon. Forging the daggers will keep us in the fight long enough to find it, as long as we can get that luminary. We might not be ready now, but we will be once Navarre catches on.” His tone isn’t
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Her scales are so deeply black they glimmer almost purple—iridescent, really—in the flickering sunlight that filters through the leaves above. The color of a dragon’s scales is hereditary—
“I’ll earn your trust as soon as you realize you don’t need full disclosure. You only have to have the guts to start asking the questions you actually want answers to. Don’t worry about the bed. We’ll get back there. The anticipation is good for us.” He smiles—really fucking smiles—and it almost makes me rethink my decision.
“I wish we had a break like the other quadrants.” Ridoc taps his pen on the desk. “Even five or six days to just get away.” “I’m still recovering from the last six-day break I had away from here,” I try to joke. Rhi’s face falls, and the rest of our squad quiets. Shit. That was not the right thing to say, but I’m exhausted. There’s no point trying to sleep when I can’t quit dreaming about Resson.
LMAO
“If Solas comes near you again, he knows I will devour his human whole and let him rot within me while his heart still beats, and then I’ll take the eye I so graciously left him.”
Get a man like Tairn
“Secrets die with the people who keep them,” he whispers, bringing his nose an inch from mine. His eyes are light brown but rimmed in red as though he’s on some kind of drug.
“I can’t control her feelings.” He scoffs. I arch a single brow. “I just want to meet her.” He lifts his hands, palms outward. “So you can see if she’s trustworthy? By looking at her? Even you aren’t that powerful.” I open the door and step out into the hallway. “Let’s go.” “I’ll know. I’m an incredible judge of character.” He walks out after me, pulling the door closed.
“Tell me something real.” It comes out as a plea, just like it did last year. He sighs and curls around me. “I know who you really are, Violet. Even when you keep things from me, I know you,” he promises.
“I thought not. Sleep, Violet.” His arm tightens around me. “You love me,” he whispers. “Stop reminding me. I thought we agreed not to fight tonight.” I snuggle in deeper, his warmth lulling me into that sweet middle space between wakefulness and oblivion. “Maybe you’re not the one I’m reminding.”
just UGHHHHHH
Faster. I have to run faster. Fear holds my throat shut as a tidal wave of death chases me across the sunburned field to where Tairn waits, his back turned. Wind roars around me, stealing every other sound, even my own heartbeat. Tairn’s going to die, and he doesn’t even see it coming for him. Gold flickers near the tip of his wing. Gods, no. Andarna. She’s here. She shouldn’t be here. The wave nips at my heels, transforming the ground beneath my feet into an ashen, desiccated wasteland. “There is nowhere to run, rider.” A hooded figure steps into my path out of nowhere, raising one arm. I’m
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This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Was this the Venin actually in her head?
“She’s on leave.” Xaden sweeps me to the side, putting me behind his back. “And recovering from an injury.” Shadows race from the edges of the stairwell, rising to form a waist-high wall. “He’ll use this opportunity to kill you for the embarrassment Tairn put him and Solas through.” “You can’t possibly know that.” “His intentions are pretty fucking clear. Trust me.”
Reading intensions
“That’s Markham,” I say quietly. “You think only riders can be vicious? Words are just as capable of eviscerating someone as a blade, and he’s a master.”
The younger woman walking on Syrena’s right is dressed in a paler shade of brown than the others. She looks to be my age and shares enough of Syrena’s features that they could be related—cousins, maybe…or even sisters. They have the same straight noses, full mouths, lithe builds, and glossy black hair that contrasts their fair skin, though the younger one’s is plaited in a simple braid over her shoulder. Her eyes are slightly larger, and her cheekbones are a little higher than Syrena’s. She’s the kind of beautiful that would normally lead to positions
Cat
“Since I took over as vice commandant.” Varrish lifts his head, standing to his full height. “This doesn’t involve you, Kaori.” “Nevertheless, I’ll be staying,” Kaori retorts. “Power must always be kept in check, don’t you think, Major Varrish?”
“I’ll be damned,” Rhiannon mutters as Aaric dismounts from the Blue Clubtail like he’s been doing it for years, with an ease that reminds me of Xaden and Liam. I smile as he keeps his head down while recording his dragon’s name and makes it back without my mother recognizing him.
She nods. “I can distort my own features a little, but it’s way easier in the astral plane. My signet is stronger because Cruth was my great-aunt’s dragon. But she’s not a direct descendant, so I don’t have to worry about going mad like those whose dragons bond in the direct familial line. Dragons aren’t supposed to even get close to family lines for that exact reason—like they listen to human rules.” She glances at Imogen. “I still can’t quite get the right shade of pink for your hair.”
The only signet more terrifying than an inntinnsic is a truth-sayer. And yet we let them live. —Major Afendra’s Guide to the Riders Quadrant (Unauthorized Edition)
“She’s telling the truth,” Nora says, tilting her head to the side. “My signet detects lies. Tell one, and I’ll know.” My heart jolts. Truth it is, then. After this is over, I’ll have to explain my answers—or lack thereof—to my mother. Every single word matters.
Nora=truth-sayer
“Gods, you’re good. Or you’re in too much pain to react.” Varrish tilts his head, reminding me of an owl as he studies me. “Do you know what my signet is, Cadet Sorrengail? Why it is I’m so good in this room? It’s classified, but we’re all friends here, aren’t we?” I stare at him but don’t reply. “I don’t see people.” He tilts his head and studies me. “I see their weaknesses. It’s a great advantage in battle. Honestly, you surprised me when we met. From everything I’d heard about the youngest Sorrengail, I expected to look at you and see pain, broken bones, or maybe shame for never living up
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The signet
“We could bring in Jack Barlowe if this doesn’t work.” Nora’s voice rises, bringing me fully awake from where I’ve dozed off in the chair. “Gods know he’s been waiting for retribution.” “Tempting,” Varrish replies. “I’m sure he’d be happy to find new and inventive ways to motivate her, but we can’t trust him not to kill her. Can’t trust that kid for anything, really, can we? Too unpredictable.”
They obviously know
“You taught us well, Professor,” Bodhi says, holding his hand in place. “Maybe a little too well.” Damn. “He can counter signets,” Xaden tells me.
“Bold choice to move so far from what you perceive as the safety of the wards,” the Sage says, holding me immobile, my feet just inches from the frozen ground of my own personal torture chamber. I’m trapped in this fucking nightmare again, but at least I made it farther across the sunburned field this time. “Of course, again,” the dark wielder hisses, his face contorting into a sneer. “You will never be free of me. I will hunt you to the ends of the Continent and beyond.” Throat working, I struggle to relax, to calm my heart and change my breathing in hopes of waking myself up. But it’s only
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Then he lines us up and rolls his hips, pushing in and in and in, until he’s so deep that I can feel him everywhere. I moan at the stretch, the fit, the utter perfection of him, muffling the sound in my pillow. He grabs the pillow and throws it to the floor. “I want them to hear,” he says, withdrawing slowly, stroking every inch of me, then slamming home again. “Gods, you’re fucking perfect.”
"I want them to hear" - UGHHHH
Andarna is napping, her body curved into an S-shape. Grass moves in front of her snout with every gust of her exhale, and she looks quite content with her scorpion tail curled around her. And kind of…green?
No, her scales are still black. It must be an adolescent thing that they’re so shiny she reflects some of the color around her.
has me breathing through another wave of nausea as we file into the rebuilt theater in the northwest wing of Riorson House. The sight is more than impressive. Not just that there’s enough seating for every cadet, but that of all the things they could have rebuilt in the last six years…they chose a theater.
“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. Tairn growls.
“Brennan?” Mira croaks, and I move back a couple of steps to give them room. “How?” “Hey, Mira.” He’s less than a dozen feet away, his grin widening. “You’re alive?” She stumbles forward, shaking her head. “After… I mean… It’s been six years, and you’re…alive?” “In the flesh.” He opens his arms. “Gods, it’s good to see you.” She draws back her fist and punches him straight in the face.
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
The shimmering black pillar rises to over twice the height of Xaden and would take all nine of us holding our arms outstretched to surround it. Etched in the very center, at least six feet across, is a series of circles, each fitting within the next and boasting a rune carved in along its path. It’s almost the same pattern as on the pages of Warrick’s journal. I move toward it, soaking in every detail. “Is it onyx?” I ask Xaden. It’s massive. Too heavy for even a dragon to carry. They had to have carved it in this very chamber.
Wait. He has a room here? What else has he not told me? Or what haven’t I asked might be the better question.
Liam and Sloane’s mom. I take the palm-size stone and study the intricate lines of the rune. “It had to have been giant when she tempered it.” “I assume so. She must have collapsed it to fit when placing them into the stones.” “Stones?” I look up at him. “As in more than one?” “A hundred and seven,” he answers, watching me with expectation. The marked ones. He wants me to ask. “What does it do?” I rub my thumb over the blackened design. “Did. It’s a protection rune, but it was only intended to be used once.” He runs his hand through his damp hair and pauses. “As you get better with runes, you
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Xaden nods. “Each of the children of the officers were given them before our parents left for the Battle of Aretia. We were told to carry them at all times, and we did, even to the execution.” His fingers brush mine as he takes the stone.
“It was designed to counter the signet of the rider whose dragon would kill them.” He swallows. “But it could only activate when killed by dragonfire.”
He nods. “I kept it closed in my fist—we all did—as we stood there, watching our parents put into lines for execution. And the second they were…” His shoulders rise as he takes a deep breath. “…burned, heat raced up my arm. The next time I felt anything like that was after Threshing.”
I’m going to fucking kill her. How dare she come after me, like I had a choice in Luella’s fall? Like I had anything to do with Xaden’s choice to leave her? Fuck that. How dare she come after what’s mine. He isn’t a crown. He isn’t a stepping stool for power. He isn’t a tool to elevate her standing. He’s everything.
This with the next highlighf
“Because she cheated!” Imogen shouts. “She used mindwork!” “She’s the one who’s unhinged!” Cat’s voice breaks multiple times, and she jabs her finger at me. “I’m unhinged? I’ll show you unhinged when I kill you for fucking with my head!” I lunge against Xaden’s arms, but he holds tight.
And the nexg one
Xaden tosses the conduit into the massive middle chair before lowering me, my body sliding against his until my toes touch the dais. When our gazes collide, he arches his scarred brow. “She got you good.” He reaches for my face, turning my head gently to examine my cheek. “But I think you got the last word.” “And how many of those humiliating words did you hear?” I don’t want the answer, but I need it. “All of them.”
“My house. My chair. My woman.”
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.
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. I gasp for breath, gripping the conduit so tightly I prepare for the sound of breaking glass. It’s his desire flooding our bond, compounding my own. His desperation. His power brushing against mine. I need to fuck her, to flip her over the arm of this throne and drive
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Xaden fucking riorson
“Oh! And one more thing.” I lower my voice just slightly, well aware of every head within our squad that turns our direction. “What?” she snaps. “That trick you mentioned? You know, with the fingers?” A slow smile spreads across my face. “Thanks.” Cat’s eyes bulge.
“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.”
He lifts his hand and puts it against the stone mere inches from mine, splaying his fingers wide. “I did it by accident the first time. I was just so used to touching you. And you’d gotten close to Riorson, and my father had pretty much bragged about the way your mother cut into him. I knew he had to be after revenge, but you wouldn’t listen to me—”
“It’s already snowing up the pass. I bet we get seven inches tonight.” “Maybe more if you’re good.” A corner of his mouth lifts as he cuts into the cake with the fork.
The breath of life of the six and the one combined and set the stone ablaze in an iron flame.
The six breeds of dragons
the one Combined could be the dragon breed who shows all the colors of the other breeds?
“Remind her that I can sever her head with one bite,” Andarna growls, the sound higher than Tairn’s menacing rumble. “I will not. What does Tairn tell us?” “We don’t eat our allies,” she mumbles, but there’s a distinct tap of her talons against the rock floor.
LMAO
“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.” “Thoirt shouldn’t be telling you matters resolved within the Empyrean,” Visia lectures, then does a double take when she glances my way. Gravity shifts. That can’t be right. That would mean— “Violet, are you okay?”
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Oh shit. What if he’s like Cat? What if he’s been manipulating my emotions this whole time? I swallow back the bile inching its way up my throat. “I would never do something like that,” he retorts, sending a sideways, wounded glare at me as he continues to watch the sky. “Shit.” I rub my hands over my face. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” He doesn’t respond.
He wasnt reading intention here
“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.”
Crying
