Plated Prisoner Goldfinch Quotes

I’ve wanted you since the moment I laid eyes on you, Goldfinch. I was just waiting for you to catch up.

No, Goldfinch,” he interrupts. “I’m good to you. But I am every bit the villain that I warned you I was.

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.

I’ll find you, Goldfinch. I swear to you. Now fly.

Remember, you are stronger than the dark, and you have the wings to fly.

There is no growth without rot. There is no sun without the dark sky. And there is no me without her.

I’m glad you’re choosing you,” he says quietly, and my lips part, like I want to swallow the rumble of his cadence. “You are?” I go completely still as he moves his hand and grips my chin, like he wants to make sure I’m paying attention. I am. “Yes, Goldfinch. Because I’m choosing you, too.

There it is, Goldfinch,” he purrs, and that dark caress is back in his voice. “You’ve finally found your fight.

Oh, Goldfinch. I would’ve found you in whatever world you were in. In whatever life.” My lips tip up in a soft smile, because I believe him. “You would’ve found me in them all.

Perhaps it just takes sitting at the edge of your world to find a little bit of hope.

I told her I’d be the villain for her, and I was. Now, I need to also be the hero she would want me to be.

Because hope, however false, does something for a trodden soul. Sometimes false hope is all you have, so you cling to it for as long as you can.

How was your one day today, Goldfinch?” he asks, and I smile, because he asks me this every day. My answer is always the same. “It was the best, because I’m with you.

Then, the bridge is no more. And neither… are we.

My name is Auren Turley. And I am stronger than the dark.

Your anger is misplaced, but I like it,” he says with a feral grin, sharp canines gleaming. “Every time you let it leak out just a little bit more, I can see you better, Goldfinch.

Come back to me, Goldfinch.

Goldfinch. I would’ve found you in whatever world you were in. In whatever life.

Oh, Goldfinch. I would've found you in a whatever world you were in. In whatever life.

I’ll always find you,

Maybe sometimes, time doesn’t help. It just…stretches. Widens the gap between the loss and the after.

Lyäri Nōhcra. No longer the golden one gone, but… The golden one who rules.

Are you going to start listening to me?” “Yes. Sometimes. When it seems like the right thing to do. And if it suits me.

I wish you’d go. I wish you’d live.” “I’m your assassin, remember? I’m in charge of your death. So if it has to be you, then it has to be me too, Queenie.

Every day the sun rises, it rises for you,” he says quietly as he brushes a finger gently down my brow, over my cheek, before settling his hand against my own heart. “Every day I wake, I wake for you. And every time my heart beats, it beats with yours.

I’d know that light anywhere, whether in the depths of darkness or in a sea of stars. Her brightness, her soul, sings a song I’d follow anywhere. I know because she’s my other half, and her aura is leading me back to her.

I’ve always known exactly who she is. Light and life. Love and warmth. A gleaming vibrancy that I never deserved but never would have given up. She is mine and I am hers, for all of eternity. In every life. But in this one, she has been taken from me. And it’s my fault.

Their answering voices are solemn but resolute. “For Fourth.

I think you’ve had enough orders, Goldfinch,

Oh, Goldfinch,” he murmurs. “If ever there was a person for whom love was created, it was for you.

The reality that I exist in a world where she does not.

The king thought he could burn down this city? Burn her? She burns brighter than anything else ever could.

She’s not only survived, but overcome. And now she burns brighter than ever.

He’s going to be insufferable.” “When is he not?

I’m good, Rissa. I have you.

There was a ripple in the ether. It made the stars turn to look.

Sometimes, our mistakes are so big that when they land, the consequences stretch out farther than you ever could’ve imagined.

You perfect creature.

But it’s dangerous.” “It’s okay,” I tell her with a smile. “I’m dangerous too.

I might not know anything else yet, but I do know this truth with innate certainty. My name is Auren Turley. and I am stronger than the dark.

As long as there is breath in my lungs and a heart in my chest, I will fight for her with everything that I am.

Auren…” I choke out. “Your ribbons.

My name is Auren Turley and I am the Lyäri Ulvêre," I call out. "I am not gone, and I do not bow.

My heart didn’t work without you,

You want me to go fuck him up?

She burns brighter than anything else ever could.

Though I know they grieve, it will never be the same for them as it is for me. Carrying her is the last gift I’ll ever get. The last chance I’ll ever have to feel her. I’m not ready to give that up. How can I?

She deserves to breathe in the air of home, to walk amongst fae who are in awe of her. She deserves to have the land sing just from her presence, and the sun stream down upon her gilded skin. Auren was always too bright for Orea.

Can you hear it?” she whispers. I pause, ears straining, but all I hear are faint sounds from the city below and the constant draw of the waterfall at the base of the mountain. “Hear what?” And she smiles, through the tears dried on her cheeks, through the glassiness of her eyes. The sight is so damn beautiful that it’s hard to breathe. “The sun,” Auren answers quietly, tone filled with a tentative, innocent joy. One that you’re afraid of saying too loud in case it breaks. “She’s singing to me.” Emotion clogs in my throat as I watch her tip her head back again. Watch her eyes close. I draw a knuckle down her soft cheek. “And what does she sing, Goldfinch?” I murmur. Her smile breaks through like the sunlight above us. “The song of home,” she says. “The sun is singing the song of home.” My chest swells, and when she reaches a hand up and tugs at my arm, I lie back with her, situating until we’re arm to arm, leg to leg. “Listen,” she whispers. So I do. I thread my fingers through her own, and I listen. But my song of home doesn’t come from the sun. Mine comes from her.

Oh, Goldfinch. My love for you consumes every part of my soul. It’s in every word, every movement. With each morning that dawns and every night that falls. You are completely mine, and I am yours, and that is all I ever need in this life and all the others.

When my heart nearly burst with poison and killed me, I thought that was the end. I thought that was the worst thing that could ever happen. I was wrong. This—this is the worst. For the breeze to still flow and for steps to still tread, and for the world to just keep on going after she’s ended. For me to still live, while she’s dead in my arms. I don’t want it. I don’t want this life if I can’t share it with her.

Oh, Goldfinch. My love for you consumes every part of my soul. It’s in every word, every movement. With each morning that dawns and every night that falls. You are completely mine, and I am yours, and that is all I ever need in this life and all the others.” I kiss her forehead, tears burning in my eyes. “I love you, Auren.

When she comes stomping out, she’s got an armful of clothes that she shoves into my chest. “I need a bag.” I glance down at the huge pile and start counting all the pieces. “This is too much shit, woman.” She gives me a look so chilling it might actually make my balls shrivel. I clear my throat. “I meant, I’ll make this shit fit.

I know what you went through was horrible, but for what it’s worth, I am glad that you’re here in this world with me,” I say quietly. His eyes soften. “Oh, Goldfinch. I would’ve found you in whatever world you were in. In whatever life." My lips tip up in a soft smile, because I believe in him. "You would've found me in them all.

It’s disgusting, what he did to her,” Rissa says, her mouth pinched. “How she was treated…” I don’t think she’s only talking about Midas. “It’s alright. Gildy got the last laugh. Midas is in a nice little golden tomb for all of eternity,” Judd says jovially. “I’m going to make it my holiday trip to go see him every year and laugh my ass off.

Yes, Goldfinch. Because I’m choosing you, too.

Beast, you crazy fucker, I told you to go back to Fourth!

You threatening me, Yellow Bell?” Gods, I fucking hope so.

Souls are eternal. It’s why the finality of death feels so wrong. Why our hearts break and grief strikes. So while death may be common, it isn’t right. It isn’t natural.

They've already tried to break me, but instead, I broke free.

I'm good." "You're not good. You're covered in dirt and sweat and blood." "I'ts really very normal for him, love," Judd says.

What the hell are you doing here?" Judd tsks. "What, you thought you could just go and have a battle without me?" he replies with a scoff. "Fucking rude.

I’ll help your people, Queen Malina. Only because Auren would want me to.

You were always mine, and I was always meant to love you with every single part of my existence.

To be a queen and a mother is an honor.

Päyurs don’t do well apart. We are meant to be together. That’s why we’re a pair. We’re no longer meant to be separated.

We can do better.

We all know that having too much power can turn even those with the best intentions into a glutton for more.

Love. Whole. Unconditional. Healing. Beautiful. Pure. Love.

I look at the king, and he’s waiting for my reaction, hoping I’ll be afraid. I’m not. They’ve already tried to break me, but instead, I broke free.

Because the two of us? We threaten anything that might try to tear us apart—including each other.

When a woman faces an impossible problem, whether she be mother or queen, she must find a solution. She must find a way. So I will.

Because I will always fight for her. For as long as I can.

No. I came back to find you.

It’s strange to think of someone else once living here, of having a full life, while I now stand in their echoes.

He looks at me like he’s reading my thoughts through my eyes. “You don’t have to say anything. I hear you anyway.

Slade takes a step forward. Just one step. A colossal threat.

Yes, but fate shouldn’t be a noose. Bonds shouldn’t be a shackle. You needed your freedom. You needed to have the opportunity to stand on your own two feet and decide.

My fury is my fodder. It feeds me with gluttonous force,

Maybe we never will. Maybe sometimes, time doesn’t help. It just…stretches. Widens the gap between the loss and the after.

my gold trailing behind me like a gleaming beast slithering along the floor. But the true beast about to tear through this place is me.

Don’t fall. Fly. And I do.

I’m hanging on by a fraying thread. I really need you to not say another male’s name right now.” Her eyes widen. “Oh,” she breathes. “Yeah. Oh.

They’re back, and so are you. I’m whole again.

There is nothing I won’t do for her. Auren is life. I am death. That is why the goddesses paired us together.

Love and misery carried in each drop and drowning out my existence. “My foretelling, my life’s prophecy, my purpose, my divined was you,” I choke out. “Always you.

You have your own light, little sun. So, you must carry it with you when it grows dark.

Goldfinch,” I say softly.

We rise with the dawn!

There is no sun without the dark sky. And there is no me without her.

I was always yours

A queen’s entire life has to be for her kingdom,” she goes on. “But I would like to finally have the chance to live my life… for me.

We bow,” he says, face intent on her. “We bow to the new Queen of Annwyn. The last-birthed Turley heir.

I can have them both,” she says with wonder. “Wings and ribbons.” “You’re extraordinary.

So long as I have you, I will always be okay.” So long as I have her, I can bear anything.

The deadlands are no longer dead. The curse has been broken. Annwyn has been restored.

I let it pour out through my gold-touch. To heal. To restore. To bring back life and warmth with this goddess-touched light of a cracked-open sun.

You came back to me.” I nod, lashes wet, chest full. “I’ll always choose you.” “I’ll always choose you too, Auren.

I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry I left you for a little while.

I don’t need the divinity of the goddesses. Because with him, I have what I’ve always wanted. Love. Whole. Unconditional. Healing. Beautiful. Pure. Love.

You flew, Goldfinch.” “I did.

Am I dead?” “No. I came back to find you.

I echo those words Slade first said to me, so long ago. Don’t fall. Fly. And I do.

Because I don’t want to fall anymore. I have been falling my entire life. So this time, I don’t.

What if I do not want to fall? Then, little sun… don’t. Don’t.

I went through the river and I became myself again. Healed from the cruelty of living, restored from the thievery of death. I went through the river in the void, and I was reborn.

And though I couldn’t see, one of those stars smiled back. Then it tossed in a droplet of light to follow after me.

You’re beautiful,” I tell him. “You’re glorious,” he replies instantly.

My beloved paired,” he purrs with a tipping smirk. “I do believe you’re trying to seduce me.” I smile against his skin. “Is it working?” “Flawlessly.

I’m proud of you, Wick.” “Yes, well… I’ve learned some things. From a certain broken-winged bird who learned how to fly.

Are you happy?” he asks, another question I get each night. “Unfathomably,” I whisper. “Are you happy?” “Immeasurably.” I smile. “We’re having all of our one days.” “We are.

Time tells a lot of secrets, passing off the words day by day.

My stoic guard is blushing. I never thought I’d see the day.

But like Lu said, we’re together. And that’s what matters.

I fucking miss him,” Lu confesses, her voice tortured. “Me too.” “He would’ve liked it here, I think.” He would’ve been ecstatic to see this place, no doubt about it.

How the hell did we find ourselves here?” “No clue. But… we’re together. That’s what matters.

Did you find her?” “I found her.

Lyäri,” I say to Slade. “Why do they call her that?” “Because… they love her.” I can see the truth of that in every face.

Maybe sometimes, time doesn’t help. It just… stretches. Widens the gap between the loss and the after.

Hey, Fake Rip.” “Hi, Gildy.

Auren looks as shocked as everyone else, because other than with Osrik, Rissa is pretty standoffish. Not the hugging type. But she’s certainly hugging now.

Put those spikes away before you take out an eye.

Unless we’re about to walk into an ambush or I confirm that you’ve lied. Then gratitude will be last on the list.” “But still on the list. That’s good.

Stop talking.” “Ohh. Silent type, huh? I like them usually. Fewer words from a male, the better. Doesn’t seem to be working for you, though. Maybe try to be more silent?

You need to learn to have a gentler touch, Commander.

You’re going to feel soooo bad once you see I was telling the truth.

You gonna tell me who beat the shit out of you?” “Why? You want to thank them?

I love you,” I murmur. “I love you more than all the stars in the sky, Goldfinch.

We have all the time in the world. Every day is going to be our one day. Spending it however we want. Okay?

Sometimes, that’s just how life is. Sacrifice in grace, loss within the victory, scar after the heal. But we have each other.

You are the most important part of myself. So long as I have you, I’m whole.

Peace can be difficult to enact,” Slade says as he sets down his drink. “But it’s also difficult to keep. Eventually, peace always deteriorates.

You will tell me right now, or I will kill you both,” he says, his tone low and threatening. I still like it though. Great goddess, how hard did my head get kicked?

Why am I always so outnumbered?

He was just about to knock your teeth in, and you’re defending him?

Let’s go home, Goldfinch.” Home.

I don’t know that I actually had anything to do with this,” I tell him. “Maybe you just needed time to heal.” “I do know,” he counters, tapping at his heart. “I can feel it.

Our pair bond fixed me. You fixed me, Auren.

Let your wings out, Goldfinch.

Come for me, you gorgeous goddess.

Come with me, Auren. We go together, don’t we, baby? Me and you.” “Always together.

Come with me, Auren.

There will always be a piece of sadness for all that we’ve lost. For what we’ve endured. But the happy takes up the most space. And that’s a gift I’ll never stop being grateful for.

My ribbons combine in a searing burst of light, and suddenly, they’re not strips anymore. They’re not streaming uselessly. No, they come together. Forming into something else. Forming into wings.

And although pain throbs in my chest and I can feel my veins pulsing with poison, I ignore it. Because I’m going to her, and nothing, not even this rotting fucking heart in my chest, is going to stop me.

You can’t love me,” I tell him, my voice full of denial. “I can.” No argument. No added detail. Just a vow. “You don’t want me really,” I argue. “I do.” “You won’t always.” “I will.” I can, I do, I will.

That’s what I feel the most through our paired connection. A sense of belonging. Cohesion. Devotedness. Love incarnate. A connection that strengthens me from the inside out, but that doesn’t surprise me.

I don’t know if it will ever get bigger or if I can even manifest anything but a splintered form, but it doesn’t matter. That hollow part of me where the dragon was missing? It’s filled again. Thank you.

My chest aches with a longing sort of grief as it recognizes such a dangerous devotion, the likes of which I have never seen. His feelings for Auren permeate the very air, making me quiver beneath its weight.

I knew we were friends.” “Yes, well…” Rissa pulls away with a sniff and tries to wave off her emotion. “I figured you needed me. None of these people know how to wear anything other than armor. It’s barbaric.

Lady Rissa,” Cran says quietly, “Captain Osrik will not like you being in the same room as Manu…” “Then Captain Osrik should’ve put me in a house with a tower so I could adequately see what the hell is going on.

As soon as he says her name, a snarl rips out of me, and my teeth flash at him with unbidden fury. I want to tear him apart. I want to gut him from groin to grin and spill out his lifeblood for daring to speak her name.

You knew,” I say, eyes flicking up to his face. “You knew we were a päyur the moment we met.” His head tips. There is no denial. “Yes.” “Why didn’t you tell me?” “You weren’t ready for that. You didn’t deserve to have such pressure put on you. You deserved a choice.” “But we’re fated.” “Yes, but fate shouldn’t be a noose. Bonds shouldn’t be a shackle. You needed your freedom. You needed to have the opportunity to stand on your own two feet and decide.

Elore suddenly appears, her face wet, expression joyful. “Goldfinch,” she utters as she cries through a smile. “Goldfinch.” “Thank you,” I whisper into her hair. Thank you for leading him to me. Thank you for leading me to myself.

Well, you gave an answer to that for Annwyn. Now, I think it’s time you give an answer for you,” he finally says. “Us,” I correct. “Always us,” he agrees. “But I told you before, Goldfinch. I want you to have whatever life you want.

Our souls are now bound together. Our lives forever connected. Our magic entwined. It means that she and I are a match fated by the goddesses. It means that we have been given the greatest gift ever bestowed on a fae. It means that she’s mine.

She sniffs as they pull away, and then her swollen eyes find me. She perks up with a bit of good old-fashioned smugness. “See?” she says with a smirk. “Told you.” She looks at Auren. “You got the better brother, I think, because this one is rude.

Look, Auren,” Slade says. I glance down to the wings at its back. Wings that are now edged with a ribbon of gold. “I don’t know how,” he says with a shake of his head as he looks back at me. But somehow… I think you brought my dragon back to life.

They can’t touch us,” Dommik murmurs, gaze unwavering, touch calm and still. “Keep looking at me.” I nod, and then I let the terror exhale away. Let my mind go still. Because I am exactly where I need to be. Where I want to be. Willingness. “I’m ready.

This—this is the worst. For the breeze to still flow and for steps to still tread, and for the world to just keep on going after she’s ended. For me to still live, while she’s dead in my arms. I don’t want it. I don’t want this life if I can’t share it with her.

If you want to climb a mountain or build something with your own hands or sit in a pub or play music or spend all day making love…” His low tone drags against my heated skin. “But I am yours and you are mine, and I will always make sure that you get what you need.

A tear slips from the corner of my eye and drips down his leather shirt. “You can’t love me,” I tell him, my voice full of denial. “I can.” No argument. No added detail. Just a vow. “You don’t want me really,” I argue. “I do.” “You won’t always.” “I will.” I can, I do, I will.

One second, I’m staring at Digby as he barely keeps it together, and then Auren has launched herself into his arms. He staggers back from the shock and her hold. But when he realizes who’s hugging him, when he realizes it’s real, he wraps his arms around her, and his face crumples as the old guard cries. Cries.

Slade and I look at each other, and the stars look at us. My wings flutter, my heart soars, and I know. That after everything. After all of it. This was what I was always fighting for. This was why I kept going even in the bleakest of times. Even with every stumbling fall. Because this love? This is what it feels like… to fly.

I knew where to go, even there, in the abyss. Because that root—the one still caught in my core, it reached. Pointing the way toward its other half. Toward my other half. I passed by the other stars, saw the goddesses’ faces, and I smiled. Then I leaped into the river’s current, and I let it sweep me away toward my home. Toward him.

First my gold sprouted roots of rot, and now I have a scale,” I say, my hand dropping. “You’ve staked quite the claim on me, Ravinger.” His grin is sinful and makes my inner beast purr while my pulse heats. Then he leans in and talks close to my ear, his words fanning me with his hot breath. “And I can’t even begin to tell you how absolutely feral it makes me to see it.

There we are. Slade and I standing together in each other’s arms. Me with ribboned wings, him with spikes and scales. Our auras are aglow around us, tendrils of gold and black that wrap around our figures like a halo of light and dark. And behind us, nearly flying right off the page, a goldfinch and a dragon. Below it are three words. Lyäri wyl Betuläria. “The golden one and the deathly flight.

My heart swells as I look through it, and then I notice the strip of gold tucked at the last page. My eyes dart up, recognizing my ribbon that Slade always carries in his pocket. I flip to the page it’s holding and see the two fae embracing. That same illustration I’d been so mesmerized with before, and the single fae word beneath them. Päyur. “It’s Saira Turley, isn’t it?” I say. “Yes. And the prince.

I’ve heard from some of the Vulmin that they were one of the strongest pairs to have ever bonded.” He pauses, finger hooking over the page. “Like us.” He flips it over, and I blink in surprise, because that wasn’t the last page. There’s one more. And this one is newer. The tiny brushstrokes are still visible where someone painted. My breath catches as I stare. “Is this…” “Us,” he finishes, voice caught against my ear.

What’s done is done,” I tell him. “What happened that night was a tragedy for us both. We lost our parents. Our homes. Our safety. Our identities…” Grief threatens to strike my tongue, but I push on. “But the two of us have reunited now. I think we owe it to our parents and ourselves to be each other’s family. Because you are a Turley. The proof is right there in your veins. And I think we’ve lost enough. We don’t need to add each other to the list.

How do you want me? On my back so you can play with my breasts as you fuck me?” I demonstrate just that as I lie down. “Or do you prefer me like this?” I say, twisting over the mattress until my knees are beneath me, arms keeping me upright. “Taking me from behind as deep as you want, gripping my hair and watching my ass bounce with every thrust?” “You don’t have to do that,” he says. I pause. “Do what?” “You don’t have to play a part, or check with me, or gauge my wants like it’s your job to please me. I just want you.

Wait a minute, I’m not marrying you!” “Yes, you are.” “I most certainly am not. Marriage is a cheat.” “How so?” “It legally ties the woman to the man. Gives him all the rights and gives her none. Makes him seem respectable, affording him more freedom in the process, while the freedoms of the wife are limited even more.” “Okay, so we won’t marry.” “Just like that?” “I’ll get you a ring. To us, we’ll be married. Without any of the bullshit. It’s just for us—for me and you. Think you can handle that?” “Well. I suppose that would be fine.” His gaze flashes. “Yeah?” “I do adore jewelry, and rings look quite nice on my fingers.

There was a star above and a root below. And a world somewhere in between. And for a time, that’s all it was. Space, and death, and gleam. But that star began to glow, she began to burn with heat. And that root, it looked above, fought from soil then to seek. The star that burned, it beckoned him. And the root, it knew to lift. For that warmth that bled into the void, it was an ordained gift. So, from the ground unburied, it looked up to see afar. But that was when the root then saw, it wasn’t just a star. This light that burned and gave its warmth, it was a little sun. Gilt tendrils that reached across the dark, with ribbons twist and spun. And that root, it knew right then. Right there, it saw the heart. For that sun that grew so beautifully, it couldn’t be apart. So out they stretched—above, below, and somewhere in between. And through the space, and death, and time, branches tied with beams. There they are, and there they stay, Paired and tied to core. Dark and light, through realms, they hold. And to Time, they whisper, more.

I’m glad you’re choosing you,” he says quietly, and my lips part, like I want to swallow the rumble of his cadence. “You are?” I go completely still as he moves his hand and grips my chin, like he wants to make sure I’m paying attention. I am. “Yes, Goldfinch. Because I’m choosing you, too.” Like a ribbon caught on a wind-bent branch, he lowers, and I lift.

Why are you keeping him alive?” “Because I want to,” he replies, making something scrape down my gut. Slade watches me like he wants me to see every word he’s saying, to envision his every intention. “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 shake my head. “No, you wouldn’t. You’re good. You’re—” “No, Goldfinch,” he interrupts. “I’m good to you. But I am every bit the villain that I warned you I was.

Can you hear it?” she whispers. I pause, ears straining, but all I hear are faint sounds from the city below and the constant draw of the waterfall at the base of the mountain. “Hear what?” And she smiles, through the tears dried on her cheeks, through the glassiness or her eyes. The sight is so damn beautiful that it’s hard to breathe. “The sun,” Auren answers quietly, tone filled with a tentative, innocent joy. One that you’re afraid of saying too loud in case it breaks. “She’s singing to me.” Emotion clogs in my throat as I watch her tip her head back again. Watch her eyes close. I draw a knuckle down her soft cheek. “And what does she sing, Goldfinch?” I murmur. Her smile breaks through like the sunlight above us. “The song of home,” she says. “The sun is singing the song of home.” My chest swells, and when she reaches a hand up and tugs at my arm, I lie back with her, situating until we’re arm to arm, leg to leg. “Listen,” she whispers. So I do. I thread my fingers through her own, and I listen. But my song of home doesn’t come from the sun. Mine comes from her.

A dark reverberation in the air around him coils, making the hairs on the back of my neck rise. “Oh, Goldfinch. You think I’m a monster now, but you haven’t seen anything yet.

You did it, Goldfinch.

His voice is a seductive grit of palpable hunger that has my ribbons twisting on the floor and my own want surging. My eyes flutter closed as his words stroke my ear and slip inside to settle beneath my ribs like they carry their own heart. “It’s fucking torture to have you stand there and tell me you want me, and not be able to do anything about it. But I’m a patient male, and as soon as I’m able, I’m going to touch and taste every inch of you. I’m going to have you writhing and begging, and I’ll give you every bit of pleasure I can wring from your delectable body,” he murmurs in a wicked promise. “The moment that sun dips, Goldfinch, you’re mine.

Oh, Goldfinch, I’d follow you to the end of the world and tip right off the edge,

Yes, Goldfinch, I am. But you can call me Slade.

I’ll do that anytime you need catching, Goldfinch.

Wake up and argue with me, Goldfinch.

You caught me,” I say, though my voice comes out in more of a whisper, the sound of an unsaid question drifting inside of it. He tips his chin down, eyes coating me like shade against a scorched day. “I’ll do that anytime you need catching, Goldfinch.

But Rip has always been unexpected. Like when he replies, “My intention is never to use you, Goldfinch.

His eyes soften. “Oh, Goldfinch. I would’ve found you in whatever world you were in. In whatever life.

He gives me that maddening smirk of his. “Mmm. I like your anger, Goldfinch. If only it weren’t always directed at 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.” My stomach does a flip. “Oh.” “Oh, indeed.

But the true beast about to tear through this place is me.

There wouldn’t be enough forces in the entire realm for him to stop me.” Hare blinks. They all look at me as if the way I speak is rooted in nothing but arrogance. It’s not. It’s fact.

You’re mine now.” My heart squeezes at the fierceness in her words. “I was always yours, Goldfinch.” Even when she didn’t know it.

What are you?” she asks. My gaze stabs into her. “Really fucking pissed.

He looks masculine and broody, as if he’s just finished training some soldiers before riding a horse and then chopping down a tree. Every single one of those images of Osrik flits through my mind, making butterflies skitter through my stomach. I wonder if he does chop wood? Maybe I could be near a window to watch…

I’ve wanted you since the moment I laid eyes on you, Goldfinch.

Rip’s mouth slowly pulls into a grin, and he speaks with the dark, sensual stroke of a villainous purr that matches the glint in his eye. “Yes, Goldfinch, I am. But you can call me Slade.

Te encontraré, Goldfinch. Te lo juro. Ahora vuela. Vuela

And then the dragon opens its mouth and spews out death. Instead of fire like the tales of old, flames of rot pour from its maw, lethal vines of rotted roots expelling from its throat.

You have your own light, little sun. So you must carry it with you when it grows dark.

If ever there was a person for whom love was created, it was for you.

Willingness.