Goldfinch (The Plated Prisoner, #6)

by Raven Kennedy

“You like that?” he rasps out. My head tips back, eyes fluttering closed as I simply let myself enjoy it. “Yes.” “Your gorgeous cunt is wet. Getting my fingers covered.”

Before I can ask again, he swings me up and around like a rag doll, until I find myself lying over his seated position, ass up, head down over the side of his legs as he sits at the foot of the bed. “What are—” WHACK!

“What are you doing?” I screech indignantly. “You faked your pleasure,” he grumbles, and then he spanks my ass again. I cry out, and while it’s not overly painful, his hand is large enough that the strike stings the entire cheek. “Vow to me now, you will never fake it again.”

“How could I ever get impatient when I’m seeing you? When I’m touching you?” he grinds out, swirling his finger for a second before he takes it out. I look up to see him suck his finger into his mouth, licking my juices clean off with a satisfied groan. “How could I get impatient when I’m fucking tasting you?”

“You don’t fake with me. You not ready to come? Then that’s fucking heaven for me because it means I get to keep touching you.” His mouth comes down, beard scraping against my neck. “Get to keep tasting you.” Those lips press against mine, making me taste my own arousal with decadent wickedness. “Get to keep fucking you…” Pulling back, he looks into my eyes. “Now take your pleasure, Rissa.”

“You feel…” “Fucking perfect,” he finishes. Yes. Exactly that.

“Well?” he asks, cracking one eye open as if he could sense my gaze. “Are we a mistake, Rissa?” The answer is easy, and I smile at him. “The best mistake I ever made.”

“Ranhold is lost.” She and Warken jump to their feet. “What?” “By the time our Elites arrived, the fae had already marched on the walls. They breached it within minutes. Ranhold wasn’t ready.” My eyes meet theirs. “It’s been overtaken.”

Everything I’ve ever done, ever strived to do, was to protect this kingdom. To defend our people. And I will do that. I will find a way, even with these odds stacked impossibly against us. I will do it, even if it costs me my life. For Fourth.

My eyes drop down to her blue dress. It looks good on her. Then again, everything looks good on her. Actually, everything looks really fucking good off of her too…

“You sure you don’t want me to go handle him? Last chance.” She shakes her head. “No. I’m sure. Thank you for offering though. It was…sweet. In your own barbaric, brutish, ridiculous way.” “I can threaten, hurt, or kill anyone you want. You just give me a name.” She snorts, her fingers tangling in my beard. “Thank you. I’ll be sure to do that if the need arises.” My need is going to arise if I don’t let go of her soon.

“Firstly, why are you going to a battle? And secondly, are you mad? Why would I go with you to a battle?” “I’m a soldier and a captain,” I say slowly. “Battles are what I do. That’s why I’m going.” “Okay…and why the hell would I come?” My brows drop down into a frown. “You think I’m leaving you behind? Fuck that. You’re safer with me.”

“I am not the kind of woman who will just wait around for a man who’s going off to get himself killed!” she seethes. “Okay…” I say, thoroughly fucking confused. She storms past me, heading for her closet. After a few seconds, I call out, “So, you do want to come?” “Of course I’m coming!”

“I need a bag.” I glance down at the huge pile and start counting all the pieces. “This is too much shit, woman.” She gives me a look so chilling it might actually make my balls shrivel. I clear my throat. “I meant, I’ll make this shit fit.”

“It’s gonna be okay,” I tell her before pulling back to look her in the eye. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.” Rissa blinks, but she can’t fool me. I see how shiny her eyes are. She’s scared. “What about you?” she demands. “What if you die? Then I won’t be protected at all, and you’ll be dead!”

“Remember, dress warm.” She stands and points her finger right back at me. “Remember, don’t die,” she mocks. “Or I’m going to be absolutely furious with you.” Grinning, I lean in and give her another kiss. “I wouldn’t fucking dare.” “See that you don’t, Captain.”

She thinks I’d go off and die? No fucking way. I’ve never had more to live for than I do right now.

“Winged creatures will feel a kinship because of what you are. Of what we are. This,” he says, moving his finger to press against the side of my spike, “is a symbol of that. We are Culls. But more than that, we are the dragon-wielders of old.”

And I pull the rot away. One by one, the hatchlings’ bodies return to normal, as if time turned backward. The rot leaves them, and their little hearts start pounding wildly in their chests, throats opening to utter small cries. I pick up the mother marewing, ripping off a piece of my sleeve to set and bind her wing before I pull the rot back from her too. Then I gather them all, shaking and terrified, and take them outside into the crisp air to sneak them into the woods. Because my father’s wrong. I’m not a Cull, and I never want to be. I’m my mother’s son. I’m a Ravinger.

And she’s calling to me. Like her aura did that night on the pirate ship. Leading me. Until we’re back together, our bond will carry this underlying urge. Päyurs don’t do well apart. We are meant to be together. That’s why we’re a pair. We’re no longer meant to be separated.

We made it. “Okay,” I say, turning. “Everyone in—” “What do we have here?” Everything in me freezes. My blood stops like it’s iced over, plugging up every vein. Jerking around, I see them file out of another shoddy building just three houses up, and my stomach plummets. The fae have found us.

Infected veins spread up his neck to feast on his face, just as his panicked gaze meets mine. Cold retribution solidifies in my chest and ices over my panic, filling me instead with cruel satisfaction as his eyes brim with fear and confusion. “I’m watching,” I hiss. A second later, he falls dead at my feet. I look up just as the roaring timberwing lands amongst the dead, bulging corpses of the fae. My people who are still alive cry out with joy and relief, while a shocked breath shakes out of me. “King Rot! King Rot has saved us!”

He has brought terrible power and terrifying wrath, and yet…he also just saved my people. Saved them, when I could not. So I do something I never would have ever done in the past. Something that I would have been too proud for, too selfish for. Too short-sighted for. I, Queen Malina Colier, fall to the ground and kneel.

“No more death. Please. Not him. Not any of them. The only person who deserves it is me. Don’t hurt him.” “Queenie—” the man chokes out. She ignores him, her glacial eyes unblinking. “Thank you,” she whispers, surprising me. Her gaze flicks behind me to look at the Oreans. “Thank you for saving them when I couldn’t. I owe you everything. Truly.” Droplets of freeze seep from the corners of her desolate eyes. “I know you want to kill me, and I understand. But monarch to monarch, thank you for coming to our aid. This is all that’s left of my people, and if I can die knowing they will live, then that is enough.”

I told her I’d be the villain for her, and I was. Now, I need to also be the hero she would want me to be.

We were both trapped by King Midas, though in very different ways. Both blinded—her, by love, and me, by hate. I think I see things now because I’ve finally started to look. My body stiffens with the residual waves of shame, and I swallow hard. Thinking of her trapped in here. Thinking of how it must’ve been. The favored was nothing but a prisoner. A whisper trembles from my lips, shaking out into the cold and empty room. “I’m sorry,” I say. Though it’s far too late for her to hear it.

“My baby.” She starts sobbing in earnest, tears contorting her face. “I pushed and pushed. For so long. I was alone.” Teardrops fall from her eyes, soaking her shirt, landing on my hand. “I tried to be quiet, but then I finally got him out…” My throat cinches. Him. A boy.

“He was born with sandy hair, just like the king. So beautiful…” Her wails are torn, ripping right through her, and I’m utterly stricken. “I tried to wake him, but he wouldn’t… He never breathed. And then the fae came and took him out. They took him.”

“He was so beautiful… You’ll tell the king, won’t you? Midas will be so happy.” She lets out another sigh. “I hope I get to hold him soon.” “You will,” I whisper as a frigid tear cuts down my cheek. “Rest now.” Mist nods and her expression smooths out, and then her eyes flutter shut. She doesn’t open them again.

I always wanted to be a mother. Not just because the kingdom expected it, not just to make an heir, but to have a love that could be mine. To love a child, the way my mother had loved me. Yet the Divine gods were right to deny me my wish. I would’ve failed at that too.

“And do not be fooled, Queen Malina. There is no guarantee that even Fourth Kingdom will be safe, nor any of the others. I suggest you and your people lock your castle doors and hide inside for as long as you can. My power has given Orea a chance by buying you some time, but more fae could still come. This isn’t over.”

“Take me with you.” The words blurt out of me, and across the courtyard, I hear Dommik’s voice shouldering in. “No.” King Ravinger narrows his eyes on me. “Why would I do that?” Desperation creases into my face and pours into my tone. “Because I caused this. Because you’re right—nowhere is safe. Not while that bridge is open.”

“I must go so I can do everything in my power to stop more fae invading our land.” The dread is visible in their faces, but so is the slow acceptance of my stated truth. I look over at Dommik, my eyes tracing over his features. “Protect them,” I murmur. His eyes flash and then he practically snarls in my face, though his words are only loud enough for me. “I’m going with you, you ridiculous fucking fool.” “But—” His hand tightens on my arm, and he pulls me closer so that I see his whole face beneath the hood. “Don’t. Argue.”

“Who is Auren Turley to you?” the leader asks. Who is she? She’s fucking everything.

There is nothing I won’t do for her. Auren is life. I am death. That is why the goddesses paired us together. She is the gleaming power of light, and she needed her antithesis to stand at her side. Because she’s the golden sun of warmth and growth, while I am decay and darkness, with a magic that comes from the deepest core of the earth. There is no growth without rot. There is no sun without the dark sky. And there is no me without her. But even if we were never paired, it wouldn’t matter. Because I would have made her mine, whether the goddesses deemed it or not. And I’m going to find her. So I turn and start to walk. “Let’s go.”

Ribbons. They’re my ribbons. My elation is even brighter than the glow that surrounds them. I look down at the gold that drips from their lengths onto the floor. Like the flexing of fingers and extending of arms, I’m able to control the drenched strands at my back with ease, and I sigh in relief at the feel of it. At the heady strength that emanates from every strand.

At least I convinced him to wear a damn helmet this time. Although, I think that might actually be because Rissa glared at him when he started to refuse it. When he put it on, she nodded victoriously and then breezed back inside the barracks. I think she’s good for him.

To this piece of empty, frozen land where he’s poured out all of his pent-up power. He’d loose his deathly magic right here, partly to deter people from traveling near Deadwell, partly to protect our border, and partly just because he had to expel his magic. Which means the rot he’s dumped into the earth has accumulated. Decades’ worth of rot amassed within Fifth’s frozen soil. The frigid cold and empty landscape has always helped hide it. And for the most part, the freeze has contained it. Until now.

“Hey, fucker, you miss me?” I’m stunned for a second, and then my head snaps up. I blink up in shock, brain trying to catch up to the fact that somehow, fucking Judd is on the back of his timberwing and

“What the hell are you doing here?” I ask as I start fumbling with the straps, trying to get Tyde buckled in as fast as I can. Judd tsks. “What, you thought you could just go and have a battle without me?” he replies with a scoff. “Fucking rude. You know how much I like battles. They’re my favorite hobby, Commander.”

Red Raid ships. “What the hell are the snow pirates doing here?” “Oh that? Called in a favor,” Judd shouts back at me with a grin in his voice. “Thought we could use the help.” “And the timberwings? Are those King Thold and his Elites?” The beasts are everywhere, attacking the fae in fatal swoops and roaring mouths. “Nope,” Judd calls.

Queen Kaila. She came to help. She actually came.

I’ll keep running all the way back to Brackhill if I have to. I’ll keep her safe. I have to keep her safe.

“Don’t you speak to me like that. I am not a child, nor am I one of your soldiers you can order around.” “No,” I say, taking a step forward. “You are my woman, and if I’m going to keep you safe, during a fucking battle, then you have to listen to me!”

“I saw the wall and the guard towers start to fall. The ground was shaking so hard I couldn’t even stand straight. But I wanted to see where you were. I needed to make sure you were okay too, you giant oaf!” she yells, her fiery tone lashing at me with accusation.

“You’re not good. You’re covered in dirt and sweat and blood.” “It’s really very normal for him, love,” Judd says, sidling up beside us. “Don’t call her love,” I growl. “Yeah, don’t call me love,” she snips, giving him a look of disgust that instantly makes me feel even better than good. Judd grins. “Wow. You two are made for each other.” “Of course we are,” we both say in our own irritated tones.

I’m going to have to talk to her about letting me kill people for her. Later. After I fuck her in whatever building still stands.

because there, in the city, something appears in the air. Like a flare in the swallowed dark. A soft golden light illuminates from the city’s depths, its rays breaking through the high treetops like sunlight. I stagger back. Because there, Auren’s aura shines from the city’s core. Leading me to her. My bond doesn’t just sing inside my chest now—it peals. Thunders. Releases with a clamor that even the stars can hear. The song it plays is the perfect rhythm of her beating heart. Just like the beacon that first led me to her in the Barrens, she calls again to me now.

“How do you know?” he asks. “How do you know where she is?” I glance at him. How do I know? Because I’d know that light anywhere, whether in the depths of darkness or in a sea of stars. Her brightness, her soul, sings a song I’d follow anywhere. I know because she’s my other half, and her aura is leading me back to her. I know because she’s mine.

“Here is this Lyäri that the Vulmin have claimed. The one they say leads you. She does not! She is no rightful heir. Auren Turley will bow to the true king with you all here to witness!” With her chin up, eyes straight ahead at King Carrick, Emonie does exactly as he said. The crowd shouts wildly as she bends one knee, and then the other, until her legs are curled beneath her. Then she lowers even further, until her arms are outstretched, palms and forehead kissing the ground.