Goldfinch (The Plated Prisoner, #6)

by Raven Kennedy

Remember, you are stronger than the dark, and you have the wings to fly.

“I will find you. I will find you in that life. I fucking promise you that. But you have to go. Please, baby.”

As long as there is breath in my lungs and a heart in my chest, I will fight for her with everything that I am.

Our souls are now bound together. Our lives forever connected. Our magic entwined. It means that she and I are a match fated by the goddesses. It means that we have been given the greatest gift ever bestowed on a fae. It means that she’s mine.

You have your own light, little sun. So you must carry it with you when it grows dark.

When tears are like starfall, when bleak is like night, We remember the dawn that will bring back the light.

I might not know anything else yet, but I do know this truth with innate certainty. My name is Auren Turley. And I am stronger than the dark.

“It would be my fucking honor, Rissa Bell.” A tear threatens to slip from my eye, but I sniff and clear my throat. “My last name is Caddell.” “Your last name is going to be Ferox soon, because that’s mine.”

“Are we a mistake, Rissa?” The answer is easy, and I smile at him. “The best mistake I ever made.”

“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.”

“is a symbol of that. We are Culls. But more than that, we are the dragon-wielders of old.”

“Every bird knows what lives in your blood. They can sense the dragon in you.”

“I’m watching,” I hiss. A second later, he falls dead at my feet.

I, Queen Malina Colier, fall to the ground and kneel.

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.

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.

The guards might as well be holding their dicks instead of swords for all the good it does them.

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.

“Oh, Goldfinch. My love for you consumes every part of my soul. It’s in every word, every movement. With each morning that dawns and every night that falls. You are completely mine, and I am yours, and that is all I ever need in this life and all the others.” I kiss her forehead, tears burning in my eyes. “I love you, Auren.”