A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)

by Sarah J. Maas

he murmured, “My love,” and kissed me.

wish I had days to spend with you—like this,” I managed to say as my eyelids drooped. “Just me and you.” “We will.” He kissed my hair. “We will.”

“I love you.” His head lifted, eyes churning. “There was a time when I dreamed of hearing that,” he murmured. “When I never thought I’d hear it from you.” He gestured to the tent—to Adriata beyond it. “Our trip here was the first time I let myself … hope.”

If he was the sweet, terrifying darkness, I was the glittering light that only his shadows could make clear.

I see all of you, Rhys. And there is not one part that I do not love with everything that I am.

He’d held me all night, tucked against his chest, his wing draped over me. A different sort of intimacy than the sex—deeper. Our souls entwined, holding tight.

My throat had closed up as I’d studied his sleeping face, my chest tightening to the point of pain. I was well aware how wildly I loved him, but looking at him then … I felt it in every pore of my body, felt it as if it might crush me, consume me.

Rhys’s lips began a journey from my temple down my jaw. And even with the weight of exhaustion pressing on me, as his mouth grazed over my chin, as he nipped at my bottom lip

we are mates—I am yours, and you are mine.

“And if I had not met my mate …” His words failed him as silver lined his eyes. He said down the bond, I would have waited five hundred more years for you. A thousand years. And if this was all the time we were allowed to have … The wait was worth it. He wiped away the tears sliding down my face. “I believe that everything happened, exactly the way it had to … so I could find you.” He kissed another tear away.