Goldfinch (The Plated Prisoner, #6)

by Raven Kennedy

I kick off my boots and let my trousers drop. Auren reaches up and rips my shirt right down the middle, shocking us both. “Hmm,” I say, glancing down. “Very demanding.” She looks at me with defiance. “I’m not sorry.” I chuckle before dragging my cock out of her.

They did all of that while he was still inside of her and she was laying on the bed? Fucking gymnastics.

My canines sink down, plunging into the curve of her neck so I can lap at the small beads of gold.

Turns out he's a vampire instead of fae.

“You’re mine now.” My heart squeezes at the fierceness in her words. “I was always yours, Goldfinch.”

“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 watched Auren run toward me with fear and anger, but she couldn’t get to me in time. The world crumpled away, and the king kept hold of me.

Meanwhile, they're fucking like no one has ever fucked before.

I’ve been counting every single one of Slade’s heartbeats since I woke up.

With how they've been going at it, I thought she was counting something else.

“I keep every part of you you’ve ever given to me,” he murmurs. “Your heart, your soul, your mind, your bond, your body…and your ribbon.”

“Most of them are lying low. We closed this street while you two…occupied it,” he says, clearing this throat.

That's not awkward at all.

“You are magnificent,” I tell her. Her pulse quickens. “I’m just me.” I nod. “Yes.” Exactly.

Husband material.

we turn back toward the city’s arch. Where everyone suddenly drops to their knees, repeating one thing. Lyäri Nōhcra. No longer the golden one gone, but… The golden one who rules.

“So long as I never disappoint you, Goldfinch.” “You never could,” I reply before looking back at him teasingly. “And I’ll tell you a secret.” His eyebrow cocks up, waiting. “I’ve always loved hearing you call me Goldfinch.”

With the last spot of vision, with our bodies wrapped tightly around each other, Dommik and I fall into the void. Into the death. Willingly. As shadow and freeze, we embrace it together. Then, the bridge is no more. And neither… are we.

This is only the beginning of the end and I'm already done.

Movement next to me has me turning, and I’m shocked as Lu comes up beside me.

If she left Judd, I guess it means he actually died?

But he’s not standing. He’s lying on the ground somewhere, gone where Wrath can’t reach.

I was still in denial.

“For Judd,” I say as I grip my sword, muscles tensed and ready. Lu and Osrik both nod. “For Judd.”

I'm so sad.

My chest hammers like it’s being pelted with hail. “Judd…” My voice is thick, my jaw tight. Lu meets my eyes, hers red-rimmed as she shakes her head and says the most devastating words. “He died in my arms.” Her voice is broken, misery punching straight through.

My haert is breaking.

then she opened her mouth and spoke a single word, in a voice that was not entirely her own. “Goldfinch.”

“With skin of gold and wearing feathers of a finch, I knew right then that you were mine. I realized what that divined word had meant,” I tell her, emotion cracking through my constricted throat. “While I was broken and ripped and utterly lost, my mother gifted me with the promise of you, Auren. The promise of my päyur.”

Love and misery carried in each drop and drowning out my existence. “My foretelling, my life’s prophecy, my purpose, my divined was you,” I choke out. “Always you.”

“Goldfinch,” I murmur miserably before I gently place my lips at her cheek, fingers still cradling her face. Trying to cradle her fading soul. “You were always mine, and I was always meant to love you with every single part of my existence.” Always.

“We…we won’t g-get our one days, Slade,” she says with anguish. My heart fucking disintegrates, but I manage to shake my head. I curl around her, offering her shivering body every ounce of warmth I have. “Yes we will, baby,” I rasp out as I stroke her tortured expression. “Don’t you remember? I will find you in any life. So just wait for me, okay?” My breath snaps off, but I force my voice to keep working. “I will find you wherever you go, and we will have endless one days of happiness.

I’M NOT CRYING YOU ARE

“I love you, Goldfinch. In every life,” I choke out, my tears falling onto her cheek. “I love you…in them…all,” she says back, her voice a struggled whisper.

WHY

I can feel the earth quake. Hear it roaring down at me as it falls away. But I clutch Auren to me and run as fast as I fucking can. But I’m not fast enough.

Why do I feel like they need to fall in the void.

I have a split second to look at Wick, and then Auren and I… Fall.

I really feel like this is a good thing.

What if I do not want to fall? And this time, a voice answers. One familiar echo. Then, little sun…don’t.

I echo those words Slade first said to me, so long ago. Don’t fall. Fly. And I do.

“Am I dead?” he whispers hoarsely. I shake my head and grip his face too, relishing the stubble that scratches my fingertips. “No. I came back to find you.”

The wing brushes over me again, but this time…lower. Auren’s head snaps over with a blush branding her cheek. “Stop that,” she hisses beneath her breath as it caresses my ass.

The mourning stretches inside of me, emanating from the place where the dragon slept, right at the core of my healed selves. The spot now lies empty. I’ve lost my dragon.

He only just got it.

I hope they defeat him and that my brother and my Wrath are okay.

WELL JUDD ISN'T

“And you, Commander?” “I’ll be behind you,” I say. “Captain Tyde.” His eyes widen at the new title. “Me?” he asks in shock. I nod. “You’ve earned it.”

AND JUDD IS DEAD SO THERE WAS AN OPENING

I go flying off Argo’s back. I tumble through the air and land in a heap of snow,

Dammit I really thought he was going to end up in Annwyn.

I quite like the sound of his voice. And he’s handsome too. Sure, he’s threatening me at sword point, but we all have our faults.

Are we getting another unexpected love arc?

little liar.

Great book by Leigh Rivers.

“The only one who will be killed is you. Unless you take us through.” Fury hardens his face. “Fine.”

That was too easy.

“Go back to Fourth, Argo,” I call to him, but he snarls at me, snapping his teeth.

He's going with them.

Teeth bared, I yank the dagger out of his clutches and then stab him in the chest. His shocked face stares up at me for a second, and then his entire body goes lax. Dead. In an instant.

And now you're stuck in Annwyn.

“I love you,” I tell him, watching his aura drift off his body, the black and the gold flowing together in gentle wisps. “Oh, Goldfinch,” he murmurs. “If ever there was a person for whom love was created, it was for you.”