Gold (The Plated Prisoner, #5)

by Raven Kennedy

Now, when the story is told, people think I kept going because I was brave. But really, it was because I was scared of falling.

In turn, the fae never forgot the way I burst through the sky like a broken-winged bird, and that is what they always called me. So, yes, I was scared to fall. But without falling, I never would have landed. And what a beautiful thing it was to land.

Silent as I grip the reins of the timberwing. Silent as the roots of rot pulse beneath my skin, trying to split through me in angry tremors. Silent, even, as right there at the center of my heart, something beats with agony. With wrongness. Like an artery was ripped right out of my chest, leaving poison free to leak through my body. Because she was ripped away from me. Silence is the only way to contain it.

“We loyalists call you the Lyäri Ulvêre—the golden one gone. The gilded girl who was lost in the night.”

That’s what happens to some questions—to those unattainable truths. Sometimes, we ask and we ask, but there is no answer, no satisfaction. It leaves gaping holes that will forever drain us with its unsolvable query, and that’s all we’ll ever have. The ask.

I love him with a fierceness that goes beyond the heart, and so I will ache and leak and grieve until he finds me. And he will find me. For now, I shut my eyes and think of him, letting my subconscious reach out with gentle fingers. Maybe somewhere in Orea, his eyes will close too. Maybe he’ll feel my pull, and we can meet in our dreams while we sleep. And maybe there, we can be home, for just a little while. Because my new home, I’ve realized…is him.

“People have a way of ruining things,” she replies, gray eyes far too pointed. “But other people have a way of setting things right again.”

She snorts. “Coincidence is just the excuse people use when they don’t want to acknowledge fate.” “Or maybe fate simply steals the credit from coincidence.”

Algae—still without a lick of rain on him—sneers at me. “You will pay for that.” I shrug. “I’m made of gold. I can afford it.”

I love Auren omg

Monsters never need anybody to believe in them. They come out to get you regardless.

Then, it’s done. Nothing left but ash and regret. No one to remember them but us. And I will always remember.

The dead spur us on. To live. To avenge. To honor. To grieve. It’s because of the dead that we live.

Because failing is better than giving up. Failing means I’m still trying.

Grief isn’t based on someone’s length of presence. It’s based on the impact of their absence.

“Some people are in your life for only a moment, like a shooting star. Quick and short, but they light up a part of you for a second, and their brightness lingers even after they’re gone.”

I’m just a lot more fun, because life’s too short to not have a good time when you can,”

Love happens in all kinds of ways. He was right when he said that. Love does happen in all kinds of ways. But our kind happened like the dawn. The dawn doesn’t question when to appear. It simply does.

“Everything worthy of risk is worthy of doing.”

A captain goes down with his ship, and a queen goes down with her kingdom.

“How can we deserve to see the delights if we always close our eyes against the horrors?”