Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)

by Rebecca Yarros

I’m so fucked.

Because you need saving, you fool.

I don’t want this. I don’t want any part of this Riders Quadrant shit. It’s not like I have a death wish.

I can handle my rucksack, and I will handle myself.

Not that I ever should have expected, or even hoped for, an ounce of mercy from a woman who’s been made famous for her lack of it.

Her gaze siphons every ounce of my confidence down to the marrow in my bones.

Violet deals with more pain before lunch than you do in an entire week. If any of my children is capable of surviving the Riders Quadrant, it’s her.”

“I love you, Violet. Remember everything I’ve told you. Don’t become another name on the death roll.”

don’t seek friendships in there, Violet. Forge alliances.”

“Stay the hell away from Xaden Riorson.”

“Stay. Away. From. Him.”

“Don’t die, Violet. I’d hate to be an only child.”

He’s the most exquisite man I’ve ever seen.

will not die today. The words become my mantra,

If I panic, I’ll die. If I slip, I’ll die. If I… Oh, fuck it.

Keep your eyes on the stones ahead of you and don’t look down.

Your mind already knows the answer, so just calm down and let it remember.

Arms out. Walk.

I will not die today.

You’ll be dead on impact.

There’s no room for fear, so I block it out, envisioning shoving the emotion behind locked iron bars in my mind.

“You’re dead, Sorrengail, and I’m going to be the one to kill you.”

Maybe I can do more than just survive.

I have exactly two shades when it comes to the sun, pale and burned.

A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.

He can’t protect me from everything, and watching me break, watching me eventually die is going to ruin him.

before he makes a twisting motion. White-hot agony erupts in my shoulder. My teeth slice into the leather as I scream, bearing down for one heartbeat, then two before blacking out.

I know how to survive.

“When do we get to kill Violet Sorrengail?” a guy toward the back asks. My blood turns to ice.

“Fascinating. You look all frail and breakable, but you’re really a violent little thing, aren’t you?”

I hate how beautiful he is, how lethal his abilities make him as he strides toward me, shadows curling around his footsteps. He’s like one of those poisonous flowers I’ve read about from the Cygnis forests to the east. His allure is a warning not to get too close, and I am definitely too close.

Dain. My chest tightens, and I smile as I finish braiding my hair into a crown. Seeing him is the best part of my day, even the moments when he’s anything but personable in public.

I turn around before I do something utterly foolish like make it his business.

Probably just to screw with you, a monster playing with his prey before pouncing.

I’ll be harder to kill than he thinks.

The bitter, illogical taste of jealousy fills my mouth, but there’s no time to examine that particular oddity,

You are not attracted to toxic men, I remind myself, and yet, here I am, getting all attracted. I have been since the first second I saw him, if I feel like being honest.

This is my way out, and yet, I don’t want to take it.

the little voice that’s been riding my shoulder lately, daring to give me hope that I might actually survive Presentation.

“Killing you wouldn’t be any trouble, Violence. It’s leaving you alive that seems to cause the majority of my trouble.”

Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities.”

You want to know why you’re still alive? Because you’re the scale I currently judge myself against every night. Every day I let you live, I get to convince myself that there’s still a part of me that’s a decent person. So if you want to quit, then please, spare me the temptation and fucking quit. But if you want to do something, then do it.”

“What changed between Parapet and now?” Dain asks again, a wealth of emotions in his eyes that I can’t begin to interpret. Well, except the fear. That doesn’t need any interpretation. “Me.”

Xaden’s not going to kill me.

I’ve always known deep down that Dain valued rule and order more than relationships, more than me, but to have it so cruelly displayed cuts deeper than Tynan’s sword.

I’m tethered to Xaden Riorson.

After years, Dain is finally kissing me.

It was everything I’ve ever wanted…except… Shit. I don’t want it anymore.

I wait for that familiar swell of happiness that we might have a minute alone, but it doesn’t come. Instead, there’s a sea of awkwardness that I don’t know how to navigate.

Dain is gorgeous and kind and a really, really good man. He’s honorable and my very best friend. So why don’t we have any chemistry?