Feathers So Vicious (Court of Ravens, #1)

by Liv Zander

Had I been born a boy, Father would expect me to be loyal, brave, and strong. Surely, I could manage all that without having a wrinkly organ hanging from between my legs.

“You’re so beautiful, Galantia,” he murmured. “Fuck, I want you so badly.” My heart sang in my chest. He wanted me. Badly. Nobody had ever wanted me at all.

“You’re getting what you want. Why won’t you leave me alone?” “Because you’re mine. Mine to hurt. Mine to agonize. Mine to break.” His cool, minty breath broke against my skin, sending a shudder across my heated body. “I will come for you, Galantia. May it take a year or a lifetime, I will come for you.” “And then?” “Then I will shatter you into a million pretty pieces.”

“No matter how much you want to hate me, it’ll never measure up to the loathing my father clearly harbors for me. You think you rendered me worthless? Don’t flatter yourself, Malyr. I was born worthless.”

I sat beside the Raven prince at our richly decked and decorated table, eyes nervously jumping from one black shroud to the next. Captain Asker. Tjema, who danced with another young Raven girl. Darien. Where was Lorn? Killing puppies? Digging my grave?

“If I ever find out who dared to court you, little dove, I shall cut off his balls and feed them to my ravens. And you will watch.” My breath hitched at his possessive tone, the warning that growled through his voice. He sounded angry. Enraged. Jealous?

“A Khysal and a Brisden,” I murmured. “A union forever thwarted by a malign star.” Gentle fingertips once more combed over my scalp, each caressing stroke urging my head deeper into his chest. There it rested, in the crook between his pectorals, one ear close to the elevated beat of his heart, the other exposed to his whisper. “Fated only to end in emotional tragedy.” His fingers stalled in my hair, and I only now noticed the slight tremble they carried. “As it should. As it ought to. Anything other than that, Galantia, would be too great a betrayal to my family, no matter my personal… affliction.” His personal affliction. What did that mean?

That was new. New and terrifying. And confusing, because… how could I press myself against Sebian like this, soaking up his warmth, his care, the sense of protection he provided? And in the same moment, long for the closeness of the man who insisted on hating me? How could I enjoy them both, each in a different way? How could I long for them both? My throat tightened. How could they allow it?

“You said you hope that your actions added months to my time in the dungeons, but little dove, I never escaped them. They are with me, inside me, forever a part of me.” Another beat of silence. “I would rather suffer The Endless Ache than watch my mate endlessly suffer me. You, however, will.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why watch me?” “Presume it is something as simple as the fact that you are beautiful,” he said. “Except when you fight me… then you are stunning.”

“The longer you make me look at you, little dove, the harder it is for me to remember what you are. And I fear that, if I look too long… I just might forget who you are."

If gentle touches weren’t a surety for love, then what were the chances that pain and love weren’t as mutually exclusive as my sheltered mind had thought them to be? Could there be love in pain? The creepy-crawly pinpricks on my scar intensified. How far would I go to find out? To feel loved? Would I bruise for it? Hurt for it? Bleed for it? Yes. And who did it better than Malyr?

He had waited for me? But… why? “Since when?” I asked. His hand gripped my throat once more, tilting my head just enough to expose the side where he nipped along a tendon strung tight. “Longer than you can imagine, little white dove.”

“Maybe we are truly fated only to end in emotional tragedy…” “Little dove,” his whisper came with a salty kiss to my lips before he straightened and placed his own by my ear, “love is tragedy.” I hate that I love you.

“Little dove… why did this look as though you failed on purpose?” I glanced over my shoulder at him, finding his smoldering gaze going straight to my lips. “Maybe you need to rethink your punishments and stop making them sound like rewards.”