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A stream of blood ran down from beneath the manacle into her palm, joining Ferron’s on the floor.
“I will die before I lose her,” Ferron said, his grip tightening.
She tried to rip herself free, but she couldn’t escape. Ferron squeezed harder as he dragged Helena out of the hall, pulling her through winding tunnels, not stopping even when her legs failed, feet tripping. He wouldn’t let go.
“Did this happen to you?” Her tongue was sluggish. She felt Ferron look at her, his pale eyes gleaming briefly in the darkness. “More than once…” he said after a long silence. “My training was rigorous.” “Why?” He shifted, muffling a low groan. “To see if I’d be better than my father, or if I’d break under interrogation, too.” She furrowed her eyebrows. “Was that—before you killed Principate Apollo?” He released a huffing breath, as if suppressing a laugh. “Are you wanting a confession?” he finally asked. “Shall I tell you everything I’ve done?” She could only make out the vaguest shape of
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She was a vibrant corpse, hardly different from the necrothralls haunting Spirefell.
A ligature. Which meant she could still bleed.
No. Too good to be true. Strous put back her primary reproductive system. She will be raped.
Little bitch managed to bite me, but she was very cooperative after I broke her jaw.
Ew
“Ghastly. Couldn’t even sleep after I saw him. Cut him to bits, sliced so thin, light shines through the pieces. Stuffed it all down his throat.”
Is Sen okay?? How do you imagine this stuff?!
“The Celebration Purge,” Ferron said when no one spoke. “The killer’s imitating the executions. Vidkun was a copy of Bayard and his wife.”
Oh this is interesting!
They spent a long time describing various precautions they were taking—trick steps and hidden defences within their homes, all keyed to their repertoires.
If Ferron is the assassin, he is taking notes and this is halarious
She turned, eyes dazed, and found Lancaster crumpled against the wall as Ferron stood over him, kicking so violently that bones cracked each time.
Hot
“She’ll never be yours.”
HOT
Without lowering Lancaster from where he was holding him, Ferron shoved his hand into Lancaster’s abdominal cavity as easily as if his hand were breaking water. He pulled out Lancaster’s organs, winding them slowly around his fist.
Not as hot…
“Ferron always comes for me,” she whispered.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said in a tense voice. He took her by the shoulders, turning her towards him.
He only hurt her on certain days, and this wasn’t one of them, so she sat very still.
A memory? A double meaning?
I was the third girl. My mother always said the first two babies were hers, and I was—Kaine Ferron’s.
Oh thats so sad. Sges never been wanted by anyone who was deemed valuable.
If you ever go near her again, or speak to her, or so much as set foot in this wing again, I will kill you, and I will do it slowly, perhaps over the course of an evening or two. That isn’t a threat. It’s a promise. Now get out of my sight.”
Hot and ON SIGHT BITCH
Aurelia scrambled up clumsily, her face contorted in fear and pain as she fled, limping, from the room.
Is tgis technically domestic violence
“Well, you—you have a natural talent for it. In another life, you could be a healer.” “One of life’s great ironies,” he said, glancing towards the door, his jaw tight.
Don’t cry. Don’t cry, she told herself.
Relatable Mantra
Very impressive. You should work in the hospital.” “So I’m told,” Ferron said with an insincere smile. “Do you think they’ll still hire me after I murdered someone in the lobby?”
“Yes, I know.” Stroud just nodded. “I believe I may be the first vivimancer to manage a full ligation reversal.”
“Anyway, I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure. I thought you’d figure it out. I suppose you’re not as bright as everyone says.”
Bitch! Microagressive bitch!
“You’re having me raped, and you expect me to be grateful about it?” Helena’s voice was dead, coming from far away.
“Wait—” She held her hands out, as if she could ward him off. “What if you just kill me?” she asked, her voice shaking. “You could now. You said that everyone knows now that you’re the High Reeve. Morrough wouldn’t be able to justify killing you because of me. I’m no one.” Ferron’s attention sharpened. For a moment, he stood considering it, calculation visible in his eyes.
Helena opened her eyes and couldn’t see him anywhere. The violent sound of retching emerged from the bathroom. Eventually she heard the toilet flush and the sound of water running from the tap for several minutes.
This was the cruellest thing Stroud could have done.
In an instant, he was gone, recoiling as if he couldn’t get away fast enough.
How did people read this part?
She’d thought sometimes that someday, when she’d repaid her debts, accomplished all that was expected, and reached her own goals, she would like to be loved. To know what it was to feel wanted. Now this sick shame was all she knew.
“But at this point I suppose I deserve to burn. I wonder if you’ll burn, too.”
She was not as stilted and blank as Helena was accustomed to; she moved more like a lich.
Mother?
“You would have done anything for your friends: made all the hard choices, paid the price without complaint, whored yourself for the war effort.
This was her fault. She’d complied, she hadn’t struggled.
Oh god thats awful
“Holy white flames rose everywhere, consuming every necrothrall,” Lila’s voice boomed grandly.
Foreshadow
“I’ve tried everything, Soren. I try to believe, but it’s never enough. Even if I did really believe—if my soul’s the price of saving you, of saving everyone”—she choked—“that’s not a price. That’s a bargain.”
He’d murdered Luc’s father by ripping out his heart at the foot of the Alchemy Tower.
Interesting. Did she choose to forget this?
When he was reminded of that, he admitted he has a few—conditions for the services he’s offering.”
"i didn't realize there was a time limit to grief."
Ilva stared at her and then at Crowther, and she gave a sharp nod. “All right.”
This makes me so mad. So quick to sacrafuce her. Shes so disregarded now. Possible always. This has so many implict implications. Race, money, rank, sex, relegious piousy. Pisses me off man.
She stared at him, stunned that he’d read everything in her expression so quickly. Then she realised he was staring at her clothes.
Agin!!! Only seen for what she ks valued at, not a person.
while forbidding all other forms of vivimancy. Becoming a healer would slowly carve away Helena’s life span, like a candle being burned at both ends.
Oh. This is going to end tragically .
The protruding sunrays bit against her palm, leaving a circle of indentations, threatening to break skin. She squeezed harder until they sank into her palm and her blood ran across the gold.
“Ferron was already gone when your vivimancy was discovered. He doesn’t know what you are. With your abilities, you can make him feel however you want him to feel about you. Enthral him.” Helena sat stunned. “I’ve never used my vivimancy to—” “But you could, couldn’t you?” His face hardened, dark eyes narrowing. This was the point of the conversation, the destination he’d been leading her to the whole time. “Your job, Marino, is to use any means necessary to bring Ferron to his knees. You will use those cursed abilities of yours to make him forget he ever wanted anything but you.”
Oh my god how interesting
His eyes were languid again, lashes low as he met her eyes. She wondered what he saw when he looked at her.
The tension is sending me
A first kiss, because it was her first kiss.
Oh my gosh. My mouth dropped. Idk why this struck me. The parrells between her losing innocense and him appearing innocent maybe .
Ferron was not human.
His eyes were darker, and he looked significantly less composed with his hair rumpled and falling over his face.
However, this ring was hand-forged rather than transmutationally crafted; she could see the hammer marks that had beaten a scaled, almost geometric pattern onto it.
I’m not a fucking dog.
Like a dog on a chain.
