Goldfinch (The Plated Prisoner, #6)

by Raven Kennedy

But still, I try to fucking fight. Because I will always fight for her. For as long as I can.

I will not give up. I will not give in.

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.

“You can’t love me,” I tell him, my voice full of denial. “I can.” No argument. No added detail. Just a vow. “You don’t want me really,” I argue. “I do.” “You won’t always.” “I will.”

I can, I do, I will.

“My last name is Caddell.” “Your last name is going to be Ferox soon, because that’s mine.”

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.

There is no growth without rot. There is no sun without the dark sky. And there is no me without her.

“But it’s dangerous.” “It’s okay,” I tell her with a smile. “I’m dangerous too.”

“The wait is like a night that won’t end. You keep waiting for the sun to crest, but it doesn’t. So you gotta keep watching the horizon, because you know it’s coming, you know it’s inevitable, but the anticipation chews up your nerves and spits them back out. You don’t know when the wait is going to turn into something else. But it will. And that something else is really just death. It’s death that we’re waiting for. We just don’t know if it’s ours or theirs.”

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 missed you with my entire soul,”

“My heart didn’t work without you,”

“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.”

Lifeless. Unmoving. Useless rock.

I don’t want this life if I can’t share it with her.