Glow (The Plated Prisoner, #4)

by Raven Kennedy

“Judd can usually cheer you up enough to get you to stop being a prick and listen. But if that didn’t work either, I was going to go in last and just issue some good old-fashioned threats.” Despite my bleak mood, I feel my lips twitching. “What kind of threats?” “As if I’d spoil the surprise. I might need them down the road.”

“I do believe that we are simply less acclimated to the weather here.” He glances at me from the corner of his eye. “And yet here you sit, not shivering in the least.” On the contrary, my skin is raised with chills even beneath the thick layers of my gown and cloak, but I would never shiver in public. Even something so small as that innocent gesture could be taken as a sign of weakness when it comes to a widowed queen.

How the fuck did she pull that off? I thought shivering was involuntary?

“Beating your ass at cards every night doesn’t make me mean. It makes me superior.”

That’s the thing with trauma to the body—it shows up instantly. In breaks and bruises, in burns and in blood. But the trauma on the inside, that’s harder to see. It creeps around your mind, poisons you with disquiet. It can hit you out of nowhere, debilitating and ruinous. There are no marks visible for those. None, save the shadows in your eyes.

Maybe none of us truly know our own strength. Not until the world has hacked away at us.

“Seems to me you got one woman who you’re bending over backwards for who wants nothing to do with you...and another woman who’s done nothing but try to be there for you, who you’re happy to step on. Just thought you could consider another way.”

You never notice what’s keeping you balanced until you realize you’re not standing straight anymore.

I would like to have a husband who I actually liked. Who actually liked me.

“Oh, Goldfinch, I’d follow you to the end of the world and tip right off the edge, all because of a crook of your finger.”

“Do you really want to talk of sacrifices, brother? Because I’ve given up my whole identity to serve yours.”

So many little moments. Times I was too blind to see. Too cowered by silver-tongued words in a gold-plated castle.

To be honest, I was expecting to walk in here and have to come face-to-face with your lover.” Slade’s brows immediately slam down. “You think I would show you such disrespect?”

“I want you to understand something, Goldfinch. I am not good. I will rot every person in my way, will bring a blight to every corner of the world if I have to.”

I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.

I told him I wanted everything, and when you ask for everything from a person, you don’t get to pick and choose. You take them as they are.

“If you’re a villain...then I’ll be a villain with you.”

“Why are you sorry?” I reply. “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.”

Judd jumps down and stretches his back, rolling his shoulders. “Fuck. It’s good to be home and out of that Divine-damned snow.” Lu grins from where she’s petting her timberwing and feeding it a scrap from the pouch around her waist. “If you’re thinking it was just shrinkage from the cold, you’re going to be really disappointed.”

“If you give me names, I’ll rot their brains from their skulls.”

“I think a lot of them didn’t really have impressively thriving brains to begin with, so we’ll just let them rot in their own time.”

“Women in this world have to be more careful. Perceived reputations can be life or death.”

“I think I’m starting to learn that you’re just as unhinged as some of the Orean rumors have claimed.” His devilish smirk only grows. “Oh, love, I’m worse.”

“Do it.” His instruction tightens my stomach with arousal, and I swallow hard. “Bossy.” “King,” he drawls.

“What are you doing?” He pauses, black brow crooking up. “Did I tell you that you could let go of that handle?”

You are mine, and I am yours, and whatever pleasure you seek, I will be there to watch you get it, and I will feed it to you tenfold afterward because you are mine, and I will see that you get what you need.”

I’m never going to clip your wings, Goldfinch.”

When he’s like this, when he shows me this dominant lust, it spreads through me like a wildfire, and all I want to do is burn. And I want him to burn with me.

“I want you to tap my thigh if it’s too much, okay?” “It won’t be too much,” I quickly say. He smirks. “Don’t tempt me. It’s best not to push your limits while we’re in a moving carriage.” I swallow hard as I wonder what exactly these limits are that he’s referring to.

“The brewery is my favorite.” Leaning in closer to me, he says, “It’s very lucrative.” “Wark,” his wife cuts in. “It’s not polite to talk about money.” My lips tip up. “I’m gold. It’s really fine.”

“The world can judge us all it wants, doesn’t mean we have to give a shit.”

“You think you know what you want, but you don’t. Not yet. So come and find me when you figure that out.” Red blotches dot her cheeks, and a bitter laugh escapes her. “You know what? Fine. I just thought we could do it to pass the time, get whatever this is between us out of our systems. But you’re out of your mind if you think I’d ever come back to you now. I know my worth.” I level her with a look. “So do I.”

“You are the worst bad mistake I’m glad I never made,” she hisses. “And you’re still the best mistake I can’t wait to make,”

Lu grins at him. “Aww, Os. You’re such a soft-heart.” “Fuck off,” he grumbles. “My heart’s rock-hard.”

“Your priorities have already changed. Your loyalties are in the wrong place. Be a fucking king and take care of your damned people like you promised you would!”

Instead of being afraid of the whole damn world, I could make the whole damn world afraid of me.

“I was going to tease you some more. Keep playing with that pussy until you scream. But now you’ve pushed me too far. You’re about to be fucked hard right against this wall, Lady Auren.”

He does the smirk and the chuckle and the lines of power with his scruffy jaw and his dirty words, and I just melt. Every time. It’s also his cock. He has a really good one.

Saddles fill the wants of men and women, work to satisfy sensual cravings. They perform and please, actualizing desires, earning both a sense of power and their own wealth by doing so. And what happens? People hate it. They call it a sin, a vice. They beat it down. Claim that saddles are deplorable and dirty, the bottom dregs of society, unimportant and low-ranking. Except, behind closed doors, those very same people expect to have their urges satisfied. Expect to be pleased and pleasured, brought bliss and assuaged of their basest of needs. And yet, a saddle isn’t even worth a life.

So long as we’re together, everything is okay. Because I will fight for him, and he will kill for me, and if we need to be the villains, then so be it.