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It is the valley above Riorson House, heated by natural thermal energy, that is its greatest asset. For there lie the original hatching grounds of the Dubhmadinn Line, from which two of the greatest dragons of our time—Codagh and Tairn—descend.
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.
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—
“Touch me and I swear to the gods, I’ll cut your fucking hands off and let the quadrant sort you out in the next round of challenges, Dain Aetos.”
“If you don’t, I’ll take personal offense. She made her choice, and it wasn’t you. It will never be you. I know it. She knows it. The whole quadrant knows it.”
“And what is that?” Dain seethes. “Athebyne.” Xaden pulls back, and the pure menace in his expression sends a shiver along my skin.
“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.
“Who the hell is Catriona?”
Home. Gods, he tastes like home.
“You didn’t want normal. If you did, you’d be in a relationship with Aetos.” She shudders. “Or hell, anyone else in this place. But you wanted Riorson. If you didn’t think the man was hiding more than a few battle-axes, then you’re mad at the wrong person, because you lied to yourself.”
BEWARE OF STRANGERS SEEKING SHELTER.
IN THIS TIME OF UNPRECEDENTED VIOLATIONS OF OUR SOVEREIGN BORDERS, WE COUNT ON YOU, OUR BORDER VILLAGES, TO BE OUR EYES AND EARS. OUR SAFETY DEPENDS ON YOUR VIGILANCE. DO NOT TAKE IN STRANGERS. YOUR KINDNESS COULD KILL.
“I’ll know. I’m an incredible judge of character.”
“Waiting for someone.” Nolon scratches a few days’ growth of beard on his jaw. “And I suppose I could use some rest. It’s hard work, mending a soul. Been at it for months now.”
the ones where their Sage takes him from me.
“They haven’t hidden it all away as well as they think they have.”
“Oh shit.” My chest feels like it’s caving in as I grab hold of his good arm, halting our steps before the tunnel. “You know, don’t you?” He lifts a brow, the mage lights catching on those royally green eyes. “Why else would I be here?”
it’s his red-rimmed eyes, the distended veins spiderwebbing across his temples and cheeks, that have me fighting to open my mouth, straining to scream. Venin.
“His intentions are pretty fucking clear. Trust me.”
“Join me in welcoming back your fellow rider, Jack Barlowe!”
“He’s definitely going to try to kill you. Again.”
“When I do sleep, I dream of the sounds you make right before you come and the way the blue in your eyes outshines the amber right after, all sated and hazy. I wake up starving for you—only you—even on the mornings you’re halfway across the kingdom.
“Gods, look at you. You are all I’m ever going to want. Just you. Just this. Just us.”
Cat. It’s a fitting name for the way she’s sizing me up.
“Let’s go, Catriona.” Catriona. Cat.
“Maybe,” Liam says,
“I’m not wandering, Violet. I’m exactly where I need to be.”
“I’d bet he already knows. Sgaeyl will have felt Tairn’s panic. That dragon of yours might not be able to reach you this deep under Basgiath, but Xaden’s going to rip this place apart brick by brick. You just have to survive.”
I look up into the wrath of Dunne in the form of gold-flecked onyx eyes.
“There’s nowhere in existence you could go that I wouldn’t find you, remember?”
“I will happily watch Aretia burn to the fucking ground again if it means you live.”
This is what you get, Violet—me. The good, the bad, the unforgivable. All of it. I am yours.”
“I do love you,” I admit in a whisper.
the Sage says, holding me immobile, my feet just inches from the frozen ground of my own personal torture chamber.
“There are hundreds of people in this palace of a house.” How I can string together more than two words is beyond me. 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.”
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.
“She’ll fly, but she’ll never bear a rider.”
“Same last name, but he’s our cousin, and come to think of it, you’re just his type. He likes women who might actually kill him.”
The tall guy with shoulder-length brown hair—pretty sure his name is Trager—swung
Initiates have reddish rings to their eyes that come and go depending on how often they drain.
“My house. My chair. My woman.”
You ever want to bring me to my knees or win an argument? That’s a sure bet.”
“Did you steal my memories every time you touched my face last year?” I blurt out, letting the cold seep into my palm. Silence fills the chamber for a long moment before he finally responds softly. “No.”
“It’s already snowing up the pass. I bet we get seven inches tonight.” “Maybe more if you’re good.”
“But you will turn for something much more dangerous, much more volatile.” He wraps his hand around my throat loosely.
“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.”
her scales reflecting the snow in an almost silvery sheen in places.
Liam. I must be dead.
“You’re a siphon.”
“Slayer.”
