Glow (The Plated Prisoner, #4)

by Raven Kennedy

I won’t allow another storm to touch Auren. She has been flooded and wrung out, left to take the barrage without shelter. But so long as I’m here, I will be her shelter.

“We’ve all got a little rotten in us, and I wouldn’t change that for anything. It’s how we’ve survived.”

“You don’t have to be cruel to be strong. You don’t have to be mean to seem brave. You don’t have to look down on others in order to stand tall. Having emotions does not mean you’re weak. It means you’re smart enough to let yourself feel.”

“You’re gorgeous when you’re unhinged,”

I’ve always been treated like treasure, but with Slade, I’m simply treasured.

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. But the point is, we aren’t strong because of our trauma. We were always strong to begin with. We just needed to figure it out for ourselves.

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

Clearing my throat, I try to wave him off, try to lighten the mood again. “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.”

“Goldfinch, you could conquer the entire world with a single look, if only you’d open your eyes.” “That’s dangerous advice, considering what happened in Ranhold.” “That’s all part of the fun, don’t you think?” I level him with a look. “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.”

Lu makes a noise of disgust behind me. “They ought to be ashamed of themselves, drenching everything in syrup. Salt is far better than sugar.” “Ah, so that’s why you’re not sweet. Even your tastebuds reject it,”

“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,” I retort with a smirk. “When you’re ready to admit it.”

If I could, I’d strip down naked, just so every inch of my skin could feel the kiss of the sun. But that would probably be frowned upon.

“No. Fucking no!” Os snarls right in her face, denial and fury battling it out. “You will wake up, you stubborn woman. You can’t be fucking dead. Hear me, Yellow Bell? You can’t be fucking dead because we have mistakes to make.”

“I can do this all day, Lady Cheat.” I snap my eyes up at her, tears of pain bunching up my lashes. “Then do it,” I challenge. “Because I do not relinquish myself to the Conflux. So you can suck my gold and go to hell.”

They’re all gathered together like some morbid choir about to break out into song.