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They have a silly, childish name, given to them by the very kids who fear them. It’s almost hard to take them seriously when you hear it, which is part of the appeal.
If you can laugh at it, it doesn’t seem true—like the Nabbers are nothing more than a childhood legend.
And we all know who the Nabbers actually are. Siphons, our ancient, monstrous enemy from the neighboring country of Astreona.
immortal vampires
AKA siphoms AKA nabbers
He said you never know when you might need to make someone shit their pants by tossing a dagger at their head.
Lolz
The Bonded are the king’s most elite forces, soldiers who have mental bonds with massive, fearsome direwolves.
She’s obsessed with the idea of the Bonded. I can’t totally blame her—superhot warriors riding mystical beasts and wielding mysterious magic?
Technically, anyone can become Bonded, and during Bonding Trials, when the direwolves have enough young to bond en masse, all of Nocturna’s army
direwolves almost exclusively choose people who come from Bonded families.
Even us commoners know what those are. Kill tattoos. For someone to be so thoroughly cloaked in them… He’s killed hundreds, easily. Maybe more. Monster. This guy’s a fucking psycho killing machine.
And you are going to be fucking by the end of this book
The Siphons might be our enemy, but I’m certain this man is the true face of evil.
Daddy
And then there’s the other thing I’ve been hiding from him, the part that tortures me in my dreams. How my grandmother had this madness, too, and her mother before that. How the madness runs in my blood, lurking in the shadows, waiting to drag me down into its depths.
I promised her. Promised Saela that nothing would hurt her. I fucking keep my promises.
“The timing is just… fucking awful.” “The timing?” He reaches up and pushes his fingers through his thick hair, then lets his hand drop to his knee. “There are about to be Bonding Trials.”
“Look, they’re going to make you do the first Trial. From what I’ve heard, it’s a perilous mountain climb, and the direwolves are at the top. But you don’t need to try to bond with one. All you need to do is survive. As long as you do that and avoid bonding, you’ll be sent along to the front with the rest of the commoner soldiers immediately afterward.”
“Fight, Meryn. Win. Find Saela and come back to me.” “I will. I—I love you, Lee.” “I love you, too,” he says, reaching out to cup my cheek gently.
She's gonna leave you my dude
“Hold on,” he says, gaze sparking. “Don’t let go, no matter how badly you want to touch yourself.”
Well fuck me sideways
I
Ok daddy warbucks
It’s only goodbye for now, he assures me. We’ll see each other soon, he insists.
Dammit now i am team lee....but the good guys never win.
Carefully picking the pendant up between two fingers, I hold it to the light. It’s as if a rainbow has been frozen into ice and then polished and chiseled into a precious stone.
Foreshadow
“It’s for protection,” she says. “It’s been in our family for generations, passed down from woman to woman for I don’t know how many years.”
The pendant is prob what makes the women in the family "crazy"
While it’s perpetual winter here in Sturmfrost, the fiefdoms closer to the border are perpetual autumn.
“The recruits from Bonded families will head straight up the mountain, racing one another to the top. Killing one another off, even. There are a limited number of wolves and plenty of would-be riders who want to bond. The wolves choose their riders from the group that makes it up first.”
“I am Stark Therion, Alpha of the Daemos pack and one of the instructors during this year’s Bonding Trials.”
Good for you, I want to snark back at him, bristling at his imperious tone. And I’m the Queen of Shit Mountain.
“I’m Venna. That’s Izabel.” She waves toward her sister. “I’m hard of hearing, so it’s easier sometimes to sign.
for Izabel, deep blue for Venna. Does that mean… Four packs
bloodred streak, the same color that Stark Therion has in his hair. So Jonah must have joined Daemos.
“It’s Anassa,” whispers one of the men near me, his gaze as focused on the massive silver wolf as everyone else’s. “She never bonds. They say she’s been here for hundreds of years…”
What the fuck just happened?
You just bonded a bad bitch
Silver. All my dark hair has turned a luminous silver-white, the same color as Anassa.
All of them have only a streak in their hair to mark their packs. I yank my hair out of my tie and pull it in front of me to confirm—and yes, it’s all changed, every fucking strand. I’m an anomaly.
Rawbond, a trainee.
I hate him. I fucking hate him. Stark is callous and bloodthirsty and dangerous. Men like that have no true loyalty to anyone but themselves.
No he probably has mommy and/or daddy issues
But that’s life. It’s always been my life. Pain and persistence.
Same
“Welcome to training, Strategos Rawbond.”
Wtf did you just call me
Strategos pack,” Izabel says proudly, beaming at me. That’s the same word I heard the woman at the gate use. “The leaders.”
Venna joined Kryptos.” She points at the smattering of Rawbonds in the eastern corner of the courtyard. The ones with the deep bluish streaks in their hair. “They’re the spies,”
“Daemos. The warriors.” The warriors with the bloody red streaks.
Phylax, or the guardians,” Izabel goes on, gesturing to the calmer-looking group where Henrey stands with his hands resting passively on his hips.
Egith Hartsfeld, Beta of the Strategos pack,”
“Hungry?” Izabel teases as I chew. I swallow and nod. “Fattening myself up for when Anassa decides to eat me. Want to make the experience nice for her.”
Le sass
And in that darkness, a voice that turns my blood cold, chanting like the beat of a heart. “Lumina, Lumina, LUMINA.”
Our group steps into a wide hall with blazing braziers lining the walls.
Not me imagining flaming bras
I can make out the dark ink of his tattoos more clearly, especially now that he’s in a short-sleeved shirt. They twist around his arms and up to his neck in intricate designs. On his arms, they look runic, naturally inspired—geometric shapes hidden between chaotically elegant lines that make me think of fir forests and heavy antlers. They climb up the side of his neck and disappear beneath the curl of his dark hair behind his ear. Up higher, they almost start to look like claw marks around his throat, a collar of pain.
“He’s the Sovereign Alpha’s son, too, you know.”
“Your training begins with the Forging, a two-month process with your own pack’s Rawbonds. This period is intended for you to get to know your future packmates and ensure you can work together.
“In a month, we’ll have the Voice Trial,” Izabel recites as if from a book, “where we prove that we can communicate well with our direwolves.”
And at the end of Forging?” “The Purge Trial,” Izabel says confidently. “Where the packs have a chance to cull their own numbers and remove any riders and direwolves not fit to join them.”
“The Proving is a two-month period where packs learn to work together in coordination.
