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

by Marion Blackwood

If I kill Bane, Jessina is going to kill Draven.

I did it so that she would stop torturing Draven.

I try to pull my sanity back together again. It’s getting harder and harder every time.

wants you to get emotional and charge in there to save him so that she can capture you too.

If we just charge in there now, we’re only going to get Draven and all of us killed.

In the morning? I don’t fucking think so. I am getting him back. Tonight.

I really hope I’m not about to get my throat slit.

“You’re going to get yourself killed.” “I don’t care.”

“Ryat will care.” My heart squeezes painfully. “Draven hates me.”

First, I need to get him back. Then, I can worry about everything else.

“Ryat is going to kill me for this.” “That sounds like a you problem.”

I’m starting to get why people are so pissed off at me all the time.”

it’s a very useful skill to have when you need to assassinate someone. Or simply get through a door without having to kick it down.

“If you die over there, Ryat is going to try to kill me, which means that I will be forced to kill him,”

“So come back alive.” She flashes me a sharp smile. “Or things will start to get messy.”

I’m rapidly losing the ability to care about consequences,

Since they didn’t know me beforehand, this encounter will likely shape their entire view of me, so they will continue to fear me even after the magic is gone.

Thats creepy ngl

Once upon a time, a comment like that would’ve paralyzed me. Knowing that someone disliked me enough to call me something like that would’ve made me fret and worry and feel sick. It would have hurt me beyond belief to be called a monster. Once upon a time. Now, I find that I have, at long last, officially run out of fucks to give about other people’s opinions.

Too long. Everything is taking too long.

“You took Draven,”

I can’t win a sword fight against trained soldiers. I’m simply not skilled enough with a blade for that. What gives me an advantage is my magic.

your want is a drop in the world’s oceans compared to how deeply I want what I want. And I need it. I need it.”

I don’t give a fuck about my pride. I just needed to be in perfect health today so that I can help get Draven back.

“It’s Jessina Iceheart. All she ever does is to scheme and plot traps and try to outsmart people.

For someone who is supposed to be all kingly and refined, he can be surprisingly petty.

hate them more than I care about you and much more than I care about my own life. So if you’re going to kill me, kill me. I will continue torturing him regardless.”

the mate bond and my magic, woven together to form one braid.

“I know what it’s like to never have anyone to lean on,” he continues, his gaze searing into hers. “To always have to do everything yourself. To always be alone and unapproachable. But I will help you shoulder this.”

Yes. Yes, we will make them both hurt. For this. For everything. But first, we need to get Draven back.

I can barely hear anything over the roaring in my ears. I’m going to kill her for this. I’m going to kill them all for this.

All I want to do is to hug him and tell him that everything will be okay.

“I will never forgive you for this,”

two people who are being led over to where Jessina is standing. My parents.

No omg.

I can’t leave them. They’re… they’re my parents. I can’t leave them.

She slits their throats.

NO OMG OM OMG

Then the last flicker of light in their eyes dies.

I can see the moment it happens. The moment that the final spark of life leaves their eyes. The moment that they change from being people to being bodies on the floor.

someone is screaming. It takes me another second to realize that my throat hurts because I am screaming.

Panic clangs inside me. I can’t just leave them. I can’t leave them. My parents. I can’t just⁠—

I can barely see what’s happening around me. All I can see is the fear and shock in my parents’ eyes as Jessina slit their throats.

“Jessina killed her parents.”

There is a war going on behind Draven’s eyes as he looks at me. As if he wants to rush over and comfort me but at the same time doesn’t even want to touch me because of how much that flame of hatred in his chest is still telling him that he wants nothing to do with me.

Desperate longing and unyielding hatred fight in his eyes.

I need to be alone. I hate having people around me when I’m in pain. I want to be left alone. I just want to be left alone.

The moment the door clicks shut, everything inside me shatters.

I feel incredibly bad for her. She cant catch a break

They’re gone. My parents are gone. In less than five seconds, my entire world changed forever. And I can never get them back.

She killed them. She slit their throats like they were nothing. She wiped out their futures with one flick of her wrist.

I need to break something. I need to hear something break. I need to feel something break. Something other than my own heart.

I break everything I can get my hands on. But no matter what I do, I still can’t stop my own heart from being ground into dust beneath the mountain of grief and regret that is crushing me.

then I cry my eyes out.