Realm of Wind and Vines (Flame and Thorns, #4)

by Marion Blackwood

An entire world of possibilities could be waiting there just on the other side of the horizon.

every word he speaks to me is always laced with threats.

The overwhelming heartbreak inside me threatens to rise up again. A massive black wave, pressing in on me from all sides, suffocating me. But I know that if I let it crash over me, I am going to drown in it and never recover. So instead, I feed the rage and hatred burning in my own chest. It helps me block out the agonizing pain inside me and turns my heart into cold black ice.

The overwhelming heartbreak inside me threatens to rise up again. A massive black wave, pressing in on me from all sides, suffocating me. But I know that if I let it crash over me, I am going to drown in it and never recover. So instead, I feed the rage and hatred burning in my own chest. It helps me...

i feel so bad for her

“If you really wanted me dead, you would’ve killed me already,” I declare. “But you haven’t. Because deep down, you know that you don’t actually hate me.”

“It’s not a theory. It’s the truth. You love me. In order to save your life, I made you hate me by forcing a wildfire of hatred into your chest.”

I have tried to explain to him what really happened. I’ve tried to remind him of everything we have said and done for each other before this. I’ve tried to convince him with logic and truth. But every time, that unnatural flame of hatred that still burns fiercely in his chest finds excuses and explanations to justify itself. To condemn or even outright rewrite his past emotions to fit this newfound hatred.

“I hate you because I finally realized what you really are.” “And what’s that?” “Someone who ruins everything around you.”

omg

The words are a precision strike right through my heart. It’s so violent that I almost gasp. My mother’s words echo through my mind. You ruined us. You ruined everything. They’re followed by the words of that Unseelie fae from the White Faction when she attacked me in that forest. You ruined him! You ruined everything! Pain crackles through my chest like a vicious lightning bolt. I try to swallow it down, but I can’t breathe. That oppressive wave of dark despair and crippling guilt inside me lurches in from all sides, wrapping around my chest like strangling vines. I try to draw in a breath, but no air makes it past my throat.

poor girl

Every time I create emotions from nothing, I’m rewarded by this euphoric sensation. It’s incredibly addictive, but it also helps smother the pain that flared up inside me, so I bask in that pleasure for another second before releasing my grip on my magic.

I know that the unnatural flame of joy still remains inside him. Just like the hatred remains inside Draven.

“Do you know how much easier everyone’s lives would be if you simply ceased to exist?” Draven snarls in my ear.

oh wow

The pain tries to strangle me again, but with both the burning rage and hatred that now fills my soul as well as the lingering feeling of pleasure from when I created that emotion just now, it thankfully can’t get through.

“It’s cute how you think that’s going to hurt me.” I give him a pointed look. “I grew up in a home where my parents told me that exact thing all the time, remember?”

He is mine. And by all the gods and demons in hell, I will make sure he fucking remembers it.

It’s wrong. I know that. But I still can’t bring myself to care. Because if I start to care about that, then I will start to care about everything else again too.

No. I can’t care about the fisherman. Because then I will start to care about the way Draven looks at me now. And I will not survive that.

I feel so fcking bad for her

I hated the sympathy in everyone’s eyes when they found out what happened to Draven.

You know, it’s very difficult to stab someone with a blade that has been melted.” “Hard to melt a blade when it’s already lodged in your back.”

now that I’ve seen more of the world, I understand the true extent of what the Icehearts have done to us.

felt like a child after I first left this court. I didn’t know anything and I just believed the things that I had been told all my life. Finding out the truth was a harsh awakening, but one I desperately needed.

I might have accidentally made my parents hate me with my magic.

All I need to do is to go down there and knock on their door. Then I can reach out with my magic and check. A few minutes. That’s all I would need. And then I would know. Do my parents hate me of their own free will? Or has it been forced on them by my magic?

in this place, of all places, it’s difficult to focus on anything other than my more personal problem. On him.

The spot where I, for the first time, admitted to myself that I felt something for Draven. The spot where I finally acted on those burning emotions inside me.

I know that he remembers. The unnatural hatred in his chest didn’t wipe his memories. It’s just forcing him to see his memories and his feelings through a manufactured lens of hatred.

Our mate bond is still broken. It still drifts there inside me like a violently snapped rope that ripples in the wind, seeking its other tether. But that tug.

It was there. I felt it. It was real.

There was a tug on our mate bond. As if it tried to reattach itself. As if he tried to pull it back to himself.

In the middle of that sea of dark despair and black rage that crowds my soul, a small spark of light suddenly blooms. Hope. That oppressive darkness inside me immediately tries to snuff it out, but it refuses to die. I lean into that small spark of hope with everything I have.

All is not yet lost. Draven is still in there. The real him is still fighting somewhere deep down underneath that massive flame of hatred that I forced into his chest. And if I can just figure out how to remove it, everything will be okay. The world will return to the way it should be. He will return.

I’m glad she’s here. I’m glad Draven has her friendship again. He needs it. In fact, I think we all need it.

when I’m interested in someone, I tend to notice things.”

omg

He has spent far too little time smiling in his life. He deserves a life full of joy. A life full of adventure and freedom. Full of love. And by his god and mine, I will make sure he gets it. I will make sure he gets everything. That we get fucking everything.

Why change something that is already perfect?”

“It’s like watching a shard of ice glinting in a harsh sun on a ruthlessly cold winter day. Lethal. Sharp. Unyielding.”

“Or what?” Draven flashes him a smirk full of challenge. “You’ll compose me a poem as well?”

lmao

“I simply prefer to strike when my victims least expect it. Better sleep with one eye open, you brooding beast.”

Draven chuckles. I watch him while trying to memorize that wonderful sound.

And that smile is immediately wiped off his face. Instead, hatred flares up in his eyes and he clenches his jaw. That dark wave inside me threatens to crash over me, but I cling to that small spark of hope as I hold his gaze. He felt something other than hatred when we passed by that rock wall. I know it. He knows it. And if he felt it once, he can feel it again.

“There is no point in lying about it. I know you felt something.” I lock hard eyes on him. “Because I could feel it too. Through our mate bond.”

“I might have felt something when you leaned against the rock wall like that. But it was gone so quickly that I’m not even sure what I felt.”

“This does bring back memories,”

He remembers. Oh Goddess above, he actually remembers. He is fighting against the hatred in his chest. Even if it’s only lust, and not love yet, he is still starting to fight his way back to me.

“Did you really think that I brought you in here because I suddenly realized that I felt something for you? That I brought you in here because I actually wanted you?”

omg that hurt even for me

“I would fuck that insufferable bastard Orion Nightbane before I ever fucked you,”

OMG

“Yes, little rebel?” The cruel taunting in his voice when he uses that familiar nickname sends another stab of pain through my heart.

there is no escape from the Shadow of Death.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he declares, authority dripping from his dark voice. “You’re going to stay here while I go back in there and eat my dinner in peace. Then, I’m going to come back here and do one of two things. Either I’m going to untie you, or I’m going to blindfold you as well and leave you here for the rest of the night. Which option I choose depends on how you behave when I return. Understood?”