Onyx Storm (The Empyrean #3)

by Rebecca Yarros

You might be angry when you realize I didn’t wake you to say goodbye. But it’s only because I no longer fully trust my ability to walk away. —Recovered Correspondence of His Grace, Lieutenant Xaden Riorson, Sixteenth Duke of Tyrrendor, to Cadet Violet Sorrengail

Hello?

I adjust the straps of my pack on my sore shoulders.

Oh mygod we get it youre in pain all the time

“Why only me?” I repeat, more than aware of the other cadets staring as I find my balance, studying me as if hoping to discover a mark, since Xaden walked away unscathed. “Xaden!” He doesn’t so much as pause his ascent. “Because you’re the only one capable of killing me.”

Barf

I pick up the scrap piece of parchment Dad had stashed in a roll beneath the lock and read his formal handwriting again. First love is irreplaceable. Fuck. Nothing Dad wrote was ever this simple. So what the hell is that supposed to mean?

Something corny im sure

He lifts a hand toward the loosened strands of my braid, but never makes it. Shadows blast straight through the wards and hit Halden in the chest like a battering ram, sending the crown prince of Navarre flying backward—straight into the rock wall. Shit.

Literally why. This is just annoying. And dumb

“Yes, love, I’m jealous.” He splays his hand over the small of my back and tugs me toward him. “I’m jealous of the armor that holds you when I can’t, the sheets on your bed that caress your skin every night, and the blades that feel your hands.

LMAO CRINGEEE

“Searching the isles means we’d need the audience with the king, which requires leaving the wards to get an artifact for the King of Deverelli and calling in help from Halden, so it’s not that easy a choice—”

This all seems overly complicated for no reason

cringing at the slight slip I feel in the right joint as my head starts to swim in an annoying wave of dizziness. Exhaustion, dehydration, and heat are never a winning combination for my body.

Oh my god WE GET IT

“Will you still keep me if I have to crawl up the stairs?” I ask Tairn. “You’re not crawling,” Xaden answers. Wrong pathway. Gods, I really am in trouble.

Nope. Hes reading yo mind again girl

It feels so right to be in his arms. “Because it is,” he says, holding me tighter. I blink and pull back to look at him. “I didn’t say that out loud.” His brow furrows. “Then you must have thought it down the bond, because I wasn’t pushing into your intentions.” My heart races for a different reason. No. But…maybe. “Or your signet is growing.” His eyes flare.

Called it

Windows stretch from floor to ceiling, allowing natural light to pour in over the rows of bookshelves taller than I can possibly reach that jut out lengthwise from the wall on my right, matching their three-foot-long counterparts on our left, leaving a lengthy, clear aisle to a single counter.

Holy run on sentence

“What made you leave the prince?” She tilts her head to the side, and her eyes light up like we’ve gathered for tea and gossip. “I’m sorry?” I lean forward, like it’s at all possible I could have misheard her.

This is stupid

I’m too short to see the spectacular view of the water,

Literally why is that necessay we get it

Every touch of his lips sends a jolt of yes straight down my spine, and they quickly gather into an aching knot of please right between my thighs.

LMAO cringeee

as if my slight stature could possibly affect his aerodynamics.

AHHHHHHH

Pushing into my stiff trapezius muscle doesn’t help soothe the protesting joint, either.

Like why

The whites of his eyes are clear, but something about the color…

This style of foreshadowing is old, it was interesting in the first book but now its just too predictable

“No.” I shake my head. “I mean…” The heat. The anger. The snap. Weird. “Just coincidence.” Or Dunne. “There isn’t any magic here.”

It was you. I bet her second signet is like magical conduit or something. Like i said this style of foreshadowing is TIREDT

“Xaden?” Talia whispers, lifting her hand, then quickly dropping it. “Is it really you?” My eyebrows hit my fucking hairline. Xaden reaches across me and wraps his hand over my hip like I need protection. “Mom.”

Bruh am i rereading divergent

Xaden’s gaze drops to mine, and my stomach flips. It’s like I’m staring at a stranger dressed up as the man I love. “Get off the ice,” I whisper. “Pull your shit together and come back to me because I need you. Not this. You.”

Corny

past the coast if they don’t get some rest tonight.” “Not there, either. We can’t trust anyone not to dig up whatever’s left of her bones out of morbid curiosity.” Cat shakes her head. “There are dozens of uninhabited minor isles within a day’s flight north. Pick one.”

If this is how they find the irids i might have to kms thats so predictable

“We can split up after they’re given to Malek and search the minor isles three times as fast. Most will only need a flyover.”

They can literally camouflage what makes you think a flyover is enough