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A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.
Don’t borrow tomorrow’s trouble.
The guys are mostly shirtless because they think shirts give their opponent something to grab onto. Personally, I’m not arguing with their logic, just enjoying the view…respectfully,
“What did I say?” their instructor shouts as he charges onto the mat. “You broke his damned neck!” “How was I supposed to know his neck was that weak?”
“In war, people die. It’s not glorious like the bards sing about, either. It’s snapped necks and two-hundred-foot falls. There’s nothing romantic about scorched earth or the scent of sulfur. This”—he gestures back toward the citadel—“isn’t some fable where everyone makes it out alive. It’s hard, cold, uncaring reality. Not everyone here is going to make it home…to
“Fascinating. You look all frail and breakable, but you’re really a violent little thing, aren’t you?”
Beautiful. Fucking. Asshole. My breath catches and my body warms, the traitorous bitch. You are not attracted to toxic men, I remind myself, and yet, here I am, getting all attracted. I have been since the first second I saw him, if I feel like being honest.
Toxic. Dangerous. Wants to kill you. Nope, doesn’t matter. My pulse still skitters like a teenager.
“Look, are you going to kill me or not? The anticipation is starting to annoy the fuck out of me.”
Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities.”
“He’s hot. He has that whole boy-next-door-who-can-still-kick-your-ass vibe going for him.”
“I don’t know if I can watch,” Dain says, drawing my attention back to his strong face. His perfectly trimmed beard brackets full lips drawn tight into a frown. “Then close your eyes.” I have a plan—a shitty one, but it’s worth a try.
It should be against the Codex to look that good and be so ruthless.
“The right way isn’t the only way.”
Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities.
It’s everything I expected and yet still so disappointing.
It was over in an instant. It was everything I’ve ever wanted…except… Shit. I don’t want it anymore.
My gaze snaps to Xaden, and my chest tightens. So. Freaking. Beautiful. Apparently my body doesn’t care that he’s as dangerous as they come in the quadrant, because heat rushes through my veins, flushing my skin. He’s using a dagger to peel an apple, removing the rind in one long curl, and the blade continues its path as his eyes lift, locking with mine. My whole head tingles. Gods, is there any part of my body that doesn’t physically react to the sight of him?
“It’s hard to love a second home as much as the first.” I swallow. “It’s easy when the second home is the right one.”
“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?”
“Let’s get one thing straight, Dain.” I take a step closer, but the distance between us only widens. “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.”
Not that I wouldn’t climb the man like a tree if presented with the right set of circumstances.
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.
lust and logic never seem to go hand in hand.
“Justice is not always merciful.”
“So you’re saying that some people still try to make cute little things like plans.”
“Oh, are we telling dick jokes now?” Ridoc asks from Liam’s side. “Because my entire life has led up to this very moment.”
Shit. I don’t know how to feel about that. It’s more than slightly controlling, and way out of line, but also…sweet.
The inches between us feel like kindling, ready to burn at the first suggestion of heat, and I’m a living, breathing flame. This is everything I should run from, and yet denying the primal attraction I feel is completely, utterly impossible.
“I know you just want to keep me safe, Dain,” I whisper. “But keeping me safe is keeping me from growing, too.”
“Dragon relationships are absolutely incomprehensible,” I murmur. “Yeah? You should try a human one sometime. Just as vicious, but less fire.”
“This isn’t primary school. This is war—and you heard me say it once before, but the ugly truth those not on the front lines choose to forget is there are always body bags in war.”
The caress of his mouth and the strokes of his wicked tongue steal every logical thought, and my world narrows to this kiss, this minute, this man. Mine. In this moment, Xaden Riorson is mine.
He nips at my skin. “I’m not sweet. Please don’t mistake any part of me for soft or kind. That will only get you hurt, and whatever you do…” He buries his face in my neck, inhaling deeply. “Don’t fall for me.”
There’s nowhere in existence you could go that I wouldn’t find you, Violence.”
fucking need you, Violet. Right now. And I don’t need anyone, so I’m not quite sure how to handle this feeling, but I’m giving it my best. And if you don’t want this tonight, that’s fine, but I’m going to need you to walk out that door right now, because if you don’t, I’m going to have you naked on your back in the next two minutes.”
One generation chooses to teach that text. The next grows, and the lie becomes history.”
