Feathers So Vicious (Court of Ravens, #1)

by Liv Zander

I wasn’t fine. I was falling.

“Not until they will hurt me again.” “As they will,” he said. “How else could I reconcile how I kissed you, hmm? How my body longs for yours? How I brought you pleasure with my mouth on your cunt? How I spend… way too many hours watching you, annoyingly fixated beyond sense or reason?”

“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."

I looked up at him, barely able to hold his intense stare as I scrambled for an explanation as to why I’d interrupted his bath. “I—” “Took you long enough,” he growled.

“I am not gentle. I was once, I think, but not anymore.” I knew that, too. It was the reason why I’d come.

“Don’t make me wait because my patience for the moment you finally come to me started wearing thin long ago.” You came to me.

“You didn’t see me, but I saw you.”

I stared at him, flabbergasted. He was… concerned about me waking stiff and sore? The gods fetch him, this man never failed to confuse me by being a walking, breathing conundrum.

Lmaoo Gods fetch him

“You’re no decent man.” “No, I am not,” he said. “I cannot help but feel a sense of pride, eagerly awaiting the blossoming of my marks and bruises.”

as if he was saying I love hurting you and I hate that I hurt you all at once, his touch the most delicious contradiction.

“Corvin is a white raven, little dove.”

A single white feather among an ocean of black.” It sounded beyond beautiful…

“To forget who I am and start seeing what we could be, if only you allowed it?”

hate that I hurt you. Until he set his teeth to it. I love hurting you.

So they had escaped together, just like I thought, which explained the connection they’d forged over it.

“love is tragedy.” I hate that I love you.

Not with how one arm cradled that filthy unborn half-blood they’d fucked into her, her other arm fighting for balance whenever she struggled over trunks, through vines, and around boulders.

She was one of them. Human. I wanted to forgive her even that. Because she was beautiful beyond words,

I looked up and over at the sky that hung over the bay. Not a seagull… a white dove. Like her.

Galantia of House Brisden would pay for the sins of her father. A Khysal would be her demise.

leaned forward. I lifted my arm. A strange force wrapped tightly around my chest, squeezing it painfully. My hand shook, sweat dampened my forehead, the underbrush blurred. Only the fever. Nothing but the fever. Do it. Kill her!

Eight days. Eight fucking days wasted, freezing my tail feathers off—three

I’d only heard him laugh twice before—both times I thought his mind was about to crumble.

Lmao

Galantia wasn’t in her chambers… because she sat at Malyr’s desk. On. His. Lap.

“Make a zé? No. But after five cups of wine, someone cross-eyed might let it pass as a gé.” Galantia laughed. Malyr laughed. What the fuck was going on here?

Im dyingggg of laughter

Oh, shit, he was kissing her.

I stammered in a lungful of air, breathing through that sudden stickiness in my chest that shouldn’t be there. She wasn’t mine… could never be. What claim did I have on her? None. What right did I have to interfere? None.

Awweee baby. Ofc she is yours too

“Yeah, I could see that when you fucking… devoured each other on that damn desk.” He kissed her! Goddess help me, why did my chest ache?

Until my lips touched hers, full and warm and puffy and soft and giving, reminding me of how they could never truly preen… and… and… I couldn’t do it. I pulled back right then,

“I’m sorry, I just…” Couldn’t give her that…

“Stop fussing about it!” All blood left my face, letting my cheeks prickle with the onset of numbness. “I just meant to help.”

Yeah, Malyr had obviously kissed her wits goodbye, because something about this story didn’t add up.

Which meant that something was going on here that required Malyr to cause strife between Galantia and me—something he kept me in the dark about. Luckily, now I knew exactly where to go looking.

No, they shoved me straight into life, demanding I participated. And I loved it.

“Maybe you need to rethink your punishments and stop making them sound like rewards.” His lips curled up at the corners as his gaze lifted to lock with mine,

Gods, I’d wanted him to kiss me so badly that day… As I wanted to fix this between us, but how, if he kept disappearing?

Especially when one’s heart and body longed for two men, both equally complicated. How did that make any sense? How was that even possible?

I turned toward the gardens, just in time to catch a glimpse of how Cici ran her hand down along Malyr’s arm in a way much too familiar. He didn’t react to it. Didn’t reciprocate.

“Oh, and she said she’s sorry.” “Sorry for what?” I called behind him. He only shrugged.

The wind was a bastard, its icy bite never letting up,

Lmao i just love the way he talks

“Human or Raven, I am to guard these wagons with my life, and not let anyone near them.” “I’d feel fucking insulted if my life is worth a mere sack of grains and a cured ham.”

He could go fuck himself. No way was I flying back with no idea as to what was going on here to watch Galantia fawn over that fucking liar of a friend, Malyr. How could he betray me like this?

Malyr wasn’t going to feed Tidestone; he was going to attack it. And what in the name of the goddess had he promised Taradur to gain him as a trustworthy ally?

“Asker, call me a reckless fool all you want, but I’m telling you… Malyr is taking Tidestone.” Malyr is taking Tidestone. My home.

red strands framing her wide eyes in the same way the fraying fabric of my sanity shaped around her hips. “Galantia…” “Oh dear,” Darien, the dressmaker, said where he knelt by the bottom seam of Cici’s gown. My gown.

NO WAY! THIS BITCH!

It was magnificent. Just like Malyr had said. But it wasn’t mine, was it?

“Did you truly think I would marry you? You? A Brisden? I have nothing but hate for you.” With the world tilting on its axis,

“All this came at a cost. Obviously, Taradur only made a reliable ally by me promising him to take his daughter as my wedded wife.”

“Did you really think that I could ever love you?” A faint laugh. “Yes, you did. Poor little Galantia, abandoned, ignored, utterly worthless. Never loved, and oh, so foolish.” Never loved. Oh, so foolish. Another crack in my heart.

Empty. Meaningless. Another crack to my heart.