Glow (The Plated Prisoner, #4)

by Raven Kennedy

Eleven years, my mother said. She’s been having this affair for eleven years. My brother is ten. Ryatt isn’t my father’s heir.

“You gave me a powerful heir,” he says to my mother, that voice of his still booming, still edged with impossible rage. “So I have no further need of you or the false spare.”

I wouldn’t know that I’d ripped a tear in the world until I woke up four days later. I wouldn’t know that I’d ripped myself in half in the process or that I’d ripped the other people into Orea with me, who would now depend on me forever. I wouldn’t know that everything was about to change.

“I know what you went through was horrible, but for what it’s worth, I am glad that you’re here in this world with me,” I say quietly. His eyes soften. “Oh, Goldfinch. I would’ve found you in whatever world you were in. In whatever life.” My lips tip up in a soft smile, because I believe him. “You would’ve found me in them all.”

“I see you, Goldfinch,” he murmurs, his eyes so full of tenderness that I still can’t believe I’m on the receiving end. “I see you too, Rip,”

With the right person, there is power when you kneel. There is adoration with submission. There is balance with control.

“This dirty fucking mouth taking my cock so perfectly.” He sweeps my hair up, fisting it in his hand, tugging just enough to keep my head firm, but not enough to hurt. “That’s what you are, you know that? Fucking perfect.”

“That’s right, drool all over my cock, baby. Get it nice and wet and sloppy, because I’m going to fuck you with it soon, and I want you dripping.”

“You are gorgeous, and I want nothing more than to watch my cum flood your mouth, but I want to sink myself inside your pussy even more.”

“This is it, isn’t it?” I ask quietly, feeling so soft and secure in his arms. “This is real love.”

Before, when I thought I had that, it was nothing like this. It was nothing like him. After tonight, I see with such clarity. I see what’s right in front of me. Slade’s arms tighten around me, and then he places a kiss on my forehead. “Yes, Auren. This is love.”

“The monarchs have demanded that you answer for the death of Midas—that you stand trial at a royal Conflux. They claim…” My heart crashes against my chest. “They claim what?” He lets out a weary sigh. “They’re claiming that you stole Midas’s gold-touch. That you became jealous when he announced his betrothal to Queen Kaila, and you killed him in a fit of rage. And…that you’ve seduced me.”

“We were just informed that our shipment of supplies never arrived. It was supposed to get to the outpost, enough for the army passing through and also to replenish Drollard, but it didn’t arrive. I looked into it, and it seems that the ships never came to port.”

my kingdom doesn’t make for very good farming land. Other than fish, we have to import most of our food from trade agreements between the other kingdoms.” He pauses. “So the shipment...” “It’s not coming, Gildy,” Judd tells me from his spot at the table. “The kingdoms are pissed off that Slade’s ignored their guidance and hasn’t shipped you off for the summons. This is their way of warning us.”

“Do you know what this means?” I ask. His hands grip my waist, fingers moving in a slow draw of mirrored strokes. “What?” “This is going to change everything,” I breathe. “If I can master this, then I can touch anything, any hour of the day. I can be casual and unrestricted. I won’t have to live in the dark anymore.” In more ways than one. “Because even if I gild something, I can ungild it.”

“Kiss me,” he commands again. I want to. “You want to,” he says, like the jerk is reading my mind. I immediately shake my head. “No, I don’t. I don’t even like kissing you. It’s the worst.” The corner of his mouth twitches. “Is that so?” “Yes,” I reply tartly. “You have bad form. I should’ve told you before.”

The Oreans didn’t resent me right away, but it came. With time. Especially when they realized I could leave and they could not.” I pause. “What do you mean?” He stops to turn toward me. “Lu told me what you said at the pavilion, that you could sense something was...off about them.” “Yes...” I say. “You were picking up on their life force being connected to Annwyn.”

they’d been taken from Orea by my father hundreds of years ago, when the Bridge of Lemuria still stood. Living in Annwyn fae-blessed them with long life. But when we came here... The rip is their last connection to Annwyn. If they stray too far from it, they will die instantly.”

“So none of them can ever leave here.” “Only Ryatt and myself and the very few children who have been born.” “Like Twig.” He nods. “Like Twig. We worry that leaving a child here too long will make them dependent on the rip as well, so I bring them to Fourth Kingdom with me when they’re old enough to be away from their family.”

“One person’s pain doesn’t negate another’s. Our heartaches are not competition, but the bridge to empathy. So that we can look at one another and know that on some level, we understand. That’s one beautiful thing about grief, I think. That sometimes, we can find someone in the world to look at from the other side of the bridge of our torments and know that we are not alone.”

“You are remarkable.” My skin tingles where his lips touched. “I think the same of you.”

When her hand comes up to cup my cheek, I go still. Elore gives me the softest, kindest smile that I have ever seen. And despite her youthful face, it’s so motherly. Maternal. Like she somehow sees the little girl inside of me and she’s come to comfort her. It makes my eyes want to well up right here in her kitchen. Her soft palm gently rubs my cheek, and then she drops her touch away and looks past me to her son. She nods at him, and he nods back to her like they’re communicating in their own silent language. Then he murmurs, “I know.” I glance between them, and this time, my eyes do start to well up, because I think I just got approval from Slade’s mother. I didn’t even realize just how much I needed that until this moment.

“Are you truly ready?” he asks, eyes watching me steadily. “To leave Drollard, to go to Fourth Kingdom?” To leave the cocoon. Slade delves into my thoughts with the look in his eye, like he’s always been able to root right down inside me. “Because fuck the rest of the world, Auren. If you need to stay here, we’ll stay here.” My lips tip up, even as emotion drags down my chest. “I’m ready.”

Now, even when I think of Highbell, I know that it was good that my people betrayed me, because it led me on this path. Tyndall’s treachery doesn’t matter to me anymore. The frigid fear, the hate, the bitterness, it’s simply...gone. Melted away within these remedying walls. That’s how I know being here is right. For the first time in a long, long time, I am at ease.

“Seventh Kingdom went from power to ruin. Much like you.” “But together, we can fix both of those things,” Fassa says, dark eyes glinting. “We can restore this kingdom and you to your rightful places. We can help make you the most powerful queen in Orea.”

I’ve been an unwanted heir, an unwanted wife, an unwanted queen. Yet if I was powerful, nothing like that would ever happen to me again. I’d make sure of it. “Yes,” I breathe. “That is what I want.” Friano smiles. “Then we will achieve it,”

“My brother and I have very unique magic, my queen. They work only in tandem. I can instill something new.” “And I can restore something old,” Friano finishes. My brows lift. “Restore...like this castle?” “Quite.” “But our magic always has a price,” he explains. “Not only do they have to perform at the same time, it also requires a sacrifice.”

The first is we must wait for the new moon, when the gods bless new beginnings and our powers are at their peak.” “And second, that the blood of a pure Orean royal is willingly offered to restore this Orean kingdom,”

“I believe the gods will see all those who have wronged you, all of your betrayals and hardships, and they will allow my magic to bestow something glorious in you. Something...powerful.” “Magic,” I breathe. “You think you can give me magic of my own.” “Is that not your heart’s desire, Majesty?” Pruinn cuts in quietly where he’s leaning against a gray pillar. “My magic is never wrong. It led you here for this reason.”

“It sounds too good to be true.” “You deserve it,” he says with a soft smile. “Exactly,” Fassa cuts in. “The gods knew that you were the queen this land needs—that the Colier line is pure and right. The moment you arrived, we could feel that you were perfect. You are the queen that will raise Seventh Kingdom to glory. You. No one else.” Me.

“All you need to do is say you agree.” I’ve never been more ready to do anything in my life. I take their hands, letting them lift me to my feet. “I agree.” Behind them, Pruinn murmurs, “And so the bargain is struck.”

“You’ve been having a good day every day since you’ve gotten here. You haven’t questioned anything at all.” “What would I question?” I reply with scorn. “I’m a queen, this is a castle. They’re treating me as they should, especially after the ordeals I suffered.” The man makes a noise that I think is supposed to be a laugh, though it sounds like gravel being scraped against glass. “I thought you were supposed to be at least a little bit intelligent with all of that cold bitch cunning.” “How dare—” “Look around you,” he says, cutting me off. “See. Observe. You can’t trust the people here.”

“Wake up, and don’t smell the flowers, Cold Queen, before it’s too late. You have to find a way to break whatever bargain you’ve made, because at this point, I don’t think your death is going to cut it.”

“Eyes up here.” They snap up on command, and heat catches in my cheeks. “I wasn’t checking you out,” I say. “No, I seem to remember it was my ass you liked to do that with.”

“Mm-hmm. Come to bed, Goldfinch.” I point a finger at him. “No ravishing, Ravinger. We’re both tired and you’re still recuperating from a power drain. We need to sleep.” His eyes skate up my body as if it’s something to relish, when really, I probably look like a wind troll with tangled hair and three-day-old clothing. “Fine. But I’ll be ravaging you tomorrow. I’ll wear tight pants to set the scene.”

“I thought you were smart.” I blink down at him. “What?” He shakes his head and lets out a sigh. “My lady isn’t in the kitchens or the dining room or the library.” Judd and I share a look while Lu comes walking over. “Okay...so you did see her this morning?” “No,” he says. “But I don’t need to have seen her to know where she is. Just like you would know if you’d pull your head out of your ass for a second.”

“My lady lived in the north of the world for ten years. That’s a decade of nothing but snow, seen through cages and windows and caves and restrictions.” His arms cross in front of him. “If you know her at all, you’ll know right where to find her. So where do you think she is right now, boy?”

For a moment, all I can do is watch. She looks like a sunlit goddess, gleaming in the light that’s been sheltered from her, soaking up the rays as if the sun is blessed to shine on her.

She’s basking in the sun, and it looks as if that’s all the daylight was ever created for. She’s so breathtaking up here in only my shirt, that I have half a mind to drag the guards back and demand they pluck out their own eyes for seeing what’s mine.

“Goldfinch,” I murmur quietly so that I don’t scare her. But I must not have been as stealthy as I thought, because she doesn’t so much as flinch. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Her eyes flutter open, lashes clumped together with gilded tears. But she looks at me, and my heart stops. “Can you hear it?”

“Hear what?” And she smiles, through the tears dried on her cheeks, through the glassiness of her eyes. The sight is so damn beautiful that it’s hard to breathe. “The sun,” Auren answers quietly, tone filled with a tentative, innocent joy. One that you’re afraid of saying too loud in case it breaks. “She’s singing to me.”

“And what does she sing, Goldfinch?” I murmur. Her smile breaks through like the sunlight above us. “The song of home,” she says. “The sun is singing the song of home.” My chest swells, and when she reaches a hand up and tugs at my arm, I lie back with her, situating until we’re arm to arm, leg to leg. “Listen,” she whispers. So I do. I thread my fingers through her own, and I listen. But my song of home doesn’t come from the sun. Mine comes from her.

“Well. We have a lot of things to still talk about. Like why everyone here wears such tight pants,” I say as I look around at all the guards. “Not that I’m complaining.” Slade cocks a brow, but the last of the anger seems to edge out from his eyes. “The only ass I want you checking out is mine.” I give off a lazy shrug. “I can’t make any promises,”

“Thank you for taking me to the clothing shop—you didn’t have to buy me all of that, by the way.” “You need clothes,” he says with a shrug. “Plus, it’s purely selfish.” “How so?” He leans in close. “I get to rip every single piece off you. It’s like getting to decide on the wrapping paper for my own gift.”

“You’re better than you give yourself credit for. You’re good. To me, to your Wrath, to your people.” “If you knew what I was thinking right now, the last thing you’d call me is good.”

What if I want to just...leave? To escape all the bullshit and stay in a little cabin in the middle of the woods where no one can find me? Or what if I want to travel all of Orea, never setting down roots, never staying anywhere long enough to outstay my welcome? I could...learn something new. Climb a mountain. Practice music. I could get a job somewhere. Build something. Get a pet. I could go flirt in a pub. Swim naked in the sea. Go dancing. Make a friend. Kiss a stranger. Maybe that’s what I want.”

“You want to be independent? You want to live your life however you see fit?” I tilt my chin up. “Yes. Is that a problem?” His eyes darken, like shadows filtered through a forest floor. “I must’ve made myself unclear.”

“You want to travel the world?” he murmurs against my skin, making it pebble, making it rise up to meet his touch. “Then I’ll be your escort.”

“You want to hide away? I’ll build us whatever cabin in whatever remote wood you want.”

“Who said you’re invited?”