Plated Prisoner Slade Quotes

You're going to find out just how far you can be pushed until you're tipped over. And when that happens, when you find your edge, just promise me one things. Don't fall. Fly." - King Slade Ravinger

Careful," he says, baring his teeth in a wicked smile. "There's a saying about rocks and glass houses." "I don't live in glass, I live in gold. So I can throw whatever damn rocks I want," I snap.

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

Finally, I can’t take it anymore. The silence, the scrutiny, the confessions lying at my feet like plucked fruit left to rot. “Are you going to say anything? I just admitted that I want you, and you’re just standing there.” Slade blinks. “I was processing.

You’re not the villain in my story.” “I am,” he says without remorse, his sharp jaw tight with tension. “But I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.

She shakes her head, gently tipping my chin up. “No, Slade. Not you. You don’t break things. You protect them.

Instead… I break open. Slade’s rot smashes into mine, and I rupture from within. Time tilts. Distance thins. And something…collides.

Love happens in all kinds of ways. Fast. Slow. In bits and pieces, or immediate. Filled with lust, one-sided longing, a snap realization never noticed before. Deeply. Thoroughly. Love is a whisper we didn’t hear or a sound that drums in our ears and drowns out everything else.” Slade edges toward me, though I barely notice

Oh, I’m certain,” he replies. “I chose you the moment you called me a prick, and your ribbons tried to knock me on my ass”.

The moment he laid hands on her, I wanted to lay hands on him. But I didn’t need to. I’m so fucking proud of her.

I knew she could burn brighter than the sun if she only stepped out of his shade. But fuck. Even my faith in her strength didn’t match up to just how magnificent she really is. That’s my girl.

We all have our edge, Auren. One day, you're going to find where yours is." The darkness of his essence brushes against my skin like a whisper's caress. "You're going to find out just how far you can be pushed until you're tipped over. And when that happens, when you find your edge, just promise me one thing." My voice comes out like a croak, a single tear dashing down. "What?" "Don't fall." Time stands still as he leans in and places a kiss on my temple, lips turning to whisper into my ear. "Fly."

You are good, Slade. Every single day, I am proud of you. And it’s not because of these spikes on your arms or the magic in your veins. It’s not for the blood you are born from or the status you will one day have.” She drops a hand and places it on my chest, right over my racing heart. “I am proud of you for this. Not for what you can do, but for who I know you will be.” “Who will I be?” She leans forward and kisses my forehead, combing my damp hair away from my face. “You will be completely yourself. And you will be proud.

All my life, men have had me, but I have never had a man.’ The barest of breaths sucks in through his teeth. A stillness passing between us like a fragile pane of glass. ‘I am no man.’ ‘No. You’re more,’ I agree. ‘Because no matter what I do, you cling to my skin and borrow into my conscience, and as angry as I am at you for that, I don’t want to lie to myself anymore. I am sick to death of repression. Of denial. Of holding back. After twenty damn years, I don’t wanna tell myself no.’ ‘So don’t,’ he says, practically cursing the word. ‘What do you want, Auren? Admit to me what you really want.’ There’s an internal compass inside of me that laid still for so long, stuck behind its arc of glass, listless and without hope. But it’s been spinning since the moment I left Highbell, begging me to follow my instincts. To move toward something better. It’s time I start following that compass. I just didn’t expect for it a point to him. My pulse pounds and my hands tremble, because when denial drains out of you, it leaves you shaken and scared. What are we without our white lies and protective walls? I’m laid bare, heart raw and vulnerabilities wrenched open, thoroughly ruined while somehow feeling inexplicably right. Which is why I let that last wall tumble down when I look Slade in the eye and say, ‘You, Slade. I want you.

Pretty promises in private, and the uncaring king in public.” I shake my head, letting him see the disappointed look on my face. “I’ve been down that road before, Slade. I won’t do it again. I asked you to prove it, and you didn’t.

Because despite my determination to get away, Slade’s right. It would be so easy to end Midas, to turn him into the gold he covets so much. To bring an end to that tyranny. It would be even easier for Slade to rot him inside out. But…I can’t. And great Divine, doesn’t that just leave me conflicted. I hate myself, I’m proud of myself, I’m right, I’m wrong, this is best, this is worst. Around and around and around I go. ‘Judge me for it - for not being able to end him,’ I say softly, almost like I want him to. And maybe I do. Maybe it would be a good punishment, fit for the girl who fell in love with her captor and let herself flounder.

I’m telling you this so that you can understand. When Midas came along, I was broken. I’d never known a kind touch by a man. I’d never known what love was or even real friendship. I didn’t even know myself yet. I may not have been innocent, but I was naive – unsure of who I was, who I could be.’ Vulnerability pierces me right in my chest, but I know I can’t stop now. Even though I’ve run out of breath, I have to keep on exhaling, keep on purging, or else I’m going to suffocate in my own poison. I lift a shoulder. ‘I thought I loved him. I thought he loved me. For a long time, I convinced myself that was what love and friendship was, because I didn’t know any better.’ From across the room, I see Slade’s pale throat bob with a hard swallow, the roots of his power twisting around his neck. ‘And now?’ he rumbles. ‘Now I know that I was a girl clinging to my own stagnancy, because I was terrified of being thrown back into the world that had abused me. I couldn’t face the truth that Midas was abusing me too, just in a different way.

Fae are wilder in our instinctual drives. We can be demanding and ardent, dominant and jealous”. He stands up and faces me again, and even though he’s no closer than he was before, it feels like something between us has compressed. Like the world is shrinking into this moment. “Especially with… someone we want.

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.

The moment my hands are bare, I reach back and touch the wall, and Slade freezes when he sees my bare skin collide with it… and no gold comes. “Thank fuck.” In five long strides, he demolishes the space between us. He’s suddenly there, gripping me by the waist, hard lips fused to mine, and finally, we combust.

You did it, Goldfinch.

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

I let my ribbons dance with me, and even though I can't move them, they move with me. They spin through the air and drag across the ground, and for a moment, I can pretend that they're back to the way they were. I wish for Slade, the Wrath, Digby and Rissa, Nenet and Estelia and Thursil, Sail and my parents...wish that they were all here. With me. But maybe there's a reason I'm alone. And maybe...I'm not really alone after all.

He's not your anything." I snarl. He's my everything. Protective possessiveness flares up within. Slade is mine. Not his. Mine. I claim him—my heart, mind, body, beast, my soul claims him.

Slade. Eyes on me, baby.

Slade… Slade… Slade…” She says it over and over again. Just my name. Repeated a thousand different times, in a thousand different ways.

I love you, Slade.” “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.

And Slade never goes back on a promise.

I smile as I watch Slade struggle to lace up the front of his too-small pants. I have to say though, his ass looks amazing in them.

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.

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

Slade…” “I’m here, Auren.” I’m finally here. Right where I belong. With her.

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.

We… we won’t g-get our one days, Slade.” “Yes we will, baby. Don’t you remember? I will find you in any life. So just wait for me, okay? I will find you wherever you go, and we will have endless one days of happiness. Won’t we? Won’t we, Auren?

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.

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.

Thump. Two thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven Thump. Two thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight Thump. Two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine. I’ve been counting every single one of Slade’s heartbeats since I woke up.

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.

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.

And this,” Slade says quietly, as his hand drifts up to the back of my neck. I feel him rub against the skin there. “I haven’t told you yet how much I fucking love this.” “What is that?” “You didn’t know? You turned my scales golden,” he says, hand moving to tap his own cheek. “And you grew one of your own.” My eyes widen. “This… is a scale?” “Yep.

After a lifetime of trauma and emotional manipulation and abuse, I have finally healed and grown enough to realize that. To say it to myself. I deserve happy, and so does Slade.

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. Because Slade has been doing that since the moment we met.

But as soon as I turn my head, he goes utterly still. It’s an unnatural stillness. The kind that makes my breath shrivel up while confusion and fear slithers through me.  Fury pumps into the air around us, and then, with a voice as dark as the pits of hell, Slade says something that makes my eyes go wide. “Why the fuck is there a bruise on your cheek?

Slade.

No, Slade. Not you. You don’t break things. You protect them.

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. CHAPTER 47 AUREN I have no idea how long Slade stays up on that rooftop with me, but by the time we climb down, I’m buzzing with bolts of energy.

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.

Yet I went to Slade with my eyes wide open. I told him I wanted everything, and when you ask for everything from a person, you don’t get to pick and choose. You take them as they are.

Shit,” Judd says in a groan. “Rip is being fucking cute, and it’s making me want to vomit.” Another sigh passes through Slade’s lips as he drops his hold from my chin. “Hey, Lu?” “Yeah, Commander?” “Smack Judd for me.

Love happens in all kinds of ways. Fast. Slow. In bits and pieces, or immediate. Filled with lust, one-sided longing, a snap realization never noticed before. Deeply. Thoroughly. Love is a whisper we didn’t hear or a sound that drums in our ears and drowns out everything else.” Slade

And the woman that Lord Cull is stalking toward? Slade’s mother.

Lord Cull is Slade’s father.

Fake Rip is Slade’s damned brother.

Slade is mine. Not his.

Slade…

As soon as they see me looking around expectantly, Slade clears his throat pointedly. Everyone picks up their forks very quickly after that. Then, with Slade being the first, they each scoop up some rice and take a bite.

He moves reverently, and it’s these moments of surprising intimacy that burn into my heart. I’ve always been treated like treasure, but with Slade, I’m simply treasured.

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.

Fury pumps into the air around us, and then, with a voice as dark as the pits of hell, Slade says something that makes my eyes go wide. “Why the fuck is there a bruise on your cheek?

Fury pumps into the air around us, and then, with a voice as dark as the pits of hell, Slade says something that makes my eyes go wide. “Why the fuck is there a bruise on your cheek?” 

I admit I feel something for you, but not that, you arrogant ass. Love doesn’t happen this way.” His brows hitch up. “Love happens in all kinds of ways. Fast. Slow. In bits and pieces, or immediate. Filled with lust, one-sided longing, a snap realization never noticed before. Deeply. Thoroughly. Love is a whisper we didn’t hear or a sound that drums in our ears and drowns out everything else.” Slade edges toward me, though I barely notice because I’m so hooked on his words that I’ve forgotten to blink. “You’re incredibly private. Closed-off. Conditioned to shut out your true feelings and deny yourself what you want. So you wouldn’t have said all of those things unless you were in love with me, Auren.

It’s still him. Which is why I murmur, “Goodnight...Slade.

Slade!” My shouted name is louder than

You want to leave? To be the whore of King Rot?” Midas spits. The low growl from Slade behind me sends a shiver down my neck. My teeth grit at that word, but I don’t let it show on my face. “Better the whore to the man at my back than the favored to you.