Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)

by Rebecca Yarros

“The closest translation for humans is probably ‘for

fuck’s sake.’ Now. Are you going to stay in your seat this time?”

He touches my shoulder

Again

he palms my face gently,

Again

There is nothing more sacred than the Archives. Even temples can be rebuilt, but books cannot be rewritten.

“Tell him if he harms you, I’ll scorch the ground where he stands.”

grabbing my elbow.

Again

“This place cuts away the bullshit and the niceties, revealing whoever you are at your core.” I repeat his words from this summer. “Isn’t that what you said to me? Is this who you really are at your core? Someone so enamored with rules that he doesn’t know when to bend or break them for someone he cares about? Someone so focused on the least I’m capable of doing, he can’t believe I can do so much more?”

“The reason we’ll never be anything more than friends isn’t because of your rules. It’s because you have no faith in me.

Even now, when I’ve survived against all odds and bonded not just one dragon but two, you still think I won’t make it. So forgive me, but you’re about to be some of the bullshit that this place cuts away from me.”

“You always have to check your sources,” Dad tells me, ruffling my hair as he stands beside me at the table in the Archives. “Remember that firsthand accounts are always more accurate, but you have to look deeper, Violet. You have to see who is telling the story.”

“Mine!” Andarna screams. Skin-prickling energy zings down my spine, then rushes to my fingertips and toes, and the next breath I take is in total, complete silence. “Go!” Andarna demands.

Xaden fills the doorway like some kind of dark, avenging angel, the messenger of the queen of the gods. He’s fully dressed, his face a mask of veritable rage as shadows curl from the walls on either side of him, hanging in midair.

“You’re all fucking dead.” His voice is eerily calm and all the scarier for it.

“I’ve heard everything I need to hear.” Xaden’s fingers curl around the hilt. “She should have killed you in the field, but she’s merciful. That’s not a flaw I possess.”

He glances between our bodies, his mouth tensing before he nods once. “Ingenious, though I’d say there are multiple reasons for why you’ve made it this far.” Before I can argue that point, his gaze shifts to my throat and narrows at what I imagine has to be the purple imprint of a hand. “I should have killed him slower.”

“I’m fine.” I’m not. His focus snaps back to my eyes. “Never lie to

me.” He says it with such ferocity, bit out through gritted teeth, that I can’t help but nod in promise. “It hurts,” I admit. “Let me see.” I open and shut my mouth twice. “Is that a request or a demand?” “Your pick as long as I get to ...

“I know how to handle a corset.” His jaw flexes once, and something that reminds me of raw hunger flitters across his expression before he locks it down, drawing my hair over my shoulder with surprising gentleness.

“Nature likes all things in balance,” Andarna says

like she’s reciting facts, just like I do when I’m nervous. “That’s the first thing we’re taught.”

“I’ll do my best to be worthy.” The ramifications of this gift, this exceptional power, hit me like a death blow, and my stomach bottoms out.

“Promise me you won’t tell anyone about the time-stopping,” Xaden asks as we head back into the tunnel, but it feels an awful lot like a command. “It’s not just for your safety. Rare abilities, when kept secret, are the most valuable form of currency we possess.”

“At some point, you and I are going to have to start trusting each other, Sorrengail. The rest of our lives depend on it.”

Oh shit. This feeling right here—the way my breath catches and my entire body draws tight when he’s near—is why I haven’t taken anyone to bed or celebrated like the rest of my perfectly normal friends. This feeling is why I haven’t wanted anyone…else. Because I want him.

“You haven’t begun to see overstepping,” he warns, his voice dropping low, sending a shiver down my spine. “Any threat against you is a threat against me, and as we’ve already established, I have more important things to do than sleep on your floor.”

How have I forgotten that his signet allows him to see others’ memories?

“Touch me without permission, and you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it.”

“I let someone live once, and he almost killed you last night, Silver One,” Tairn says. Then, as if this is all that really matters in the end, “Justice is not always merciful.”

fucking hell? “And it’s all right that you ask. Someone should know. Someone should remember.”

“They show the appropriate level of deference,” Tairn grumbles. “To what they think I’ll be, not who I am.” We find our row and walk to our seats, sitting as a squad among the first-years. “That shows excellent forethought.”

“Right. You see, I’m still adjusting to that little change of heart.” I fumble my quill and it falls to the ground, but before I can lean over, the shadows beneath the arm of my desk lift the instrument like an offering.

It makes me wonder what else doesn’t make it to Battle Brief,

“You choose the oddest times to defend her, Aetos.” Xaden all but rolls his eyes as he looks at Dain. “And the most convenient times not to.”

“It requires touching me?” My eyes flutter shut at the sensation of his skin against mine.

“Not at all. Just one of the perks of not thinking too clearly. You have incredibly touchable skin.”

“You are astonishing.”

His thumbs stroke over the soft skin under my ears, and his gaze drops to my mouth and heats. Hands flexing, he draws me forward a few inches before he suddenly lets go and retreats a full step. “Damn it. Touching you was a bad idea.” “The worst,” I agree, but my tongue skims my lower lip. He groans and my core melts at the sound. “Kissing you would be a cataclysmic mistake.” “Calamitous.” What would it take to hear that groan again?

I want him. Only him. Here. Now. Anywhere. Whenever.

A flash of light burns behind my closed eyes, followed by the boom of thunder.

First sign of her signet!

“I know you just want to keep me safe, Dain,” I whisper. “But keeping me safe is keeping me from growing, too.”

But the Riders

Quadrant stripped away the fear and even the anger about being thrown into this quadrant, and it revealed who I really am. At my core, Dain, I’m a rider. Tairn knew it. Andarna knew it. It’s why they chose me.

He reaches up to cup my cheek,

Again

He drops his hand to my shoulder.

Again

“You’re all worried about the integrity of the wing because Riorson might have to visit to keep his dragon happy but, Violet, he’s not the most powerful rider of our generation. You are.” She holds my gaze just long enough to let me know she means it.

“I had it made for you.” His lips curve slightly.

“It was.” He smirks. “I’m just teaching you that blades aren’t the only way to disarm an opponent. Tell me, Violence, are you disarmed?”

“Now, earn your nickname and try your best to kill me.”

“I needed to change in order to survive. He wouldn’t let me.”