Lia > Recent Status Updates

"I don't understand."
"Not yet, but you will." She pushes against my hand. "For now, you will heal. You will grow. You will learn. And I promise that while you are the last of your line in this moment, you will never be alone again. You will never see a sunrise where I am not waiting for you."

My lips part. She's a Red Daggertail, just like Deigh was, and she looks remarkably similar to Liam's figurine. "You're Deigh's sister?"
"I am, and just as he chose Liam, I choose you, Sloane Mairi."
“I am, and just as he chose Liam, I choose you, Sloane Mairi."

"You lost your brother at Resson." Her voice is sweeter than I
imagined a dragon having.
"I did." I turn to face her fully.
"As did I." She lowers her head, but it doesn't feel threatening. "The
dragons of my line have long chosen the riders of yours."

Thoirt. My heart jolts, and I feel a click deep within my soul, as if something slipped into the broken place and sealed a leaking crack, making life just a fraction more bearable.
Her head swivels toward us, and she growls in Aetos's direction. She's strawberry red, with glistening scales, formidable claws, and might just be the most beautiful dragon I've ever seen.

Dain Atos hovers above me, one hand braced on the ground to
my right, the other splayed across my back, as though he-
My eyes fly wide. He sheltered me from the worst of the impact.
He knocked me out of the way. He's holding me against his torso like I'm something he needs to protect.
But I know better.
"Get off me!"

"Good." He lifts his head to stare down at me. "You enjoy the tree.
Good. I chose it on purpose. I have seen them in your memories of your home. You favor the ones on the southern hillside, do you not? I find them cumbersome to hunting, but humans seem to like them."

I begin carving the figurine's snout. Funny, I've never seen him so obviously obsessed over a woman. He's never been one for attachments, and he barely tolerated Cat during the times I'd seen them together last year. Thank the gods that arrangement fell through, because it looks like my brother might have finally met his match. Good. He needs someone to crack open the impossibly thick walls he's built -

"What's wrong?" I ask as he lets go of me.
"Two words as usual this year. Violet. Fucking. Sorrengail. Five-foot-nothing pain in my ass just got herself involved with Sgaeyl's pet. I'll see you on the flight field, Liam." He strides away, disappearing into the trees to the west.
"That's three words,"

“I underestimate almost nothing when it comes to you. I know what you're capable of." My smile falls. "But you of all people know it's wrong to punish someone for their parent's actions. From what I hear, she's a good person. I don't know her personally, but I bet I'd like her if I did."
"You like everyone, which is probably why everyone likes you."

"You are," he insists.
"Am not." I shake my head.
"Are too." He narrows his eyes.
"See? Look at us. You're mentally five years old." I throw my hands
out at my sides.
"If I'm five, then you're four."

"I would have repeated another year if I knew you would be waiting for me at the end of it."
"Quit waxing poetic before you embarrass us both, and hold on." My hands grasp onto his pommel scales, and I grin as he heaves
us into the sky.

Her scales shine in the sunlight as I find the seat and settle into position. "I should warn you, I have every intention of dying in combat."
"As do I." Glane takes three steps and launches us skyward with
great beats of her translucent wings. "In that, we are matched."

"Say the word and I won't so much as look at another woman." His gave meets mine, and I'm trapped again. "Ever,"He's too close.Smells too good. And I'd rather see him bed a
thousand women than be responsible for burying him.
"Don't swear yourself to celibacy for my sake," I tilt my head and poul."It would be a really lonely life."I let the sweet sarcasm drip from my lone.
Ho scoffs"Gods, you really are pissed at me."

"Why me?" I shout into the wind as I approach the knob of his shoulder, fighting every instinct to stare up at his wings with wonder.
"Because you seek power to end harm, instead of the means for victory." He tucks his forelegs underneath him, and I'm left dangling hundreds of feet above the ground. "And that is a unique quality among riders."

If we stand by while evil consumes the most innocent of us, we will deserve what happens when it reaches our own doors.

"I know all about your interests, Garrick Tavis." The burr in his tone catches on the Rs in my name. "I know the power you'll need to pursue them."
Then you know I'll do whatever it takes. I shield my eyes with my
hand and trudge forward as visibility turns shitty.
"It is why I seek your bloodline."

She blinks. "If your grandmother said so, I suppose."
What the fuck? My mind races. Would that mean... No. Dad is the oldest twin and-
"Don't overthink it." She assesses me.

"Everyone knows who you are, Sgaeyl. Being the most ruthless of
your kind earns you a reputation."
"We have that in common, grandson of Maxim Riorson." She lowers
her head to a combat position.
My brow furrows and pain flares again as my left eye begins to swell shut. "I'm the grandson of Corbin Riorson. Maxim was my great-uncle."

nod. "And do you know what I will do with whatever power you
channel to me?"
"Do you, Xaden Riorson?" She comes close enough that I could reach out and touch her snout if I dared. "You need not question me. I have seen your soul. Every haunted memory, every vile thought, every malevolent desire for revenge. I am cognizant of your downfalls, and yet I see the potential of everything you can become. I see it all."

I twisted in his lap, looping my arms around his neck as I said, "And will you come with me? On this adventure and all the rest?" Rhys leaned forward and kissed me. "Always.”

"When it's time to go there," I said quietly, "we go together."
"It's a bargain," he said, and kissed me gently.
I murmured back onto his lips, "Yes, it is."

But he wrapped his arm around my waist and squeezed, breathing in. "I heard you, even in death. It made me look back. Made me stay a ittle longer.

A world divided was not a world that could thrive.

"I'm going in," Azriel said.
"No." Rhys snapped. But Azriel was spreading his wings, the sunlight so stark on the new, slashing scars down the membrane.
"Chain me to a tree, Rhys." Azriel said softly. "Go ahead." He began checking the buckles on his weapons. "TIl rip it out of the ground and fly with it on my damned back."
Rhys just stared at him—the wings. Then the decimated Illyrian
forces.

And there, sailing at the front... I beheld the names of those ships.
The Feyre.
The Elain.
And leading the charge against Hybern, flying over the waves,
unyielding and without an ounce of fear ...
The Nesta.
With my father... our father at the helm.

"He told me that he's got three daughters who live here. And that he failed them for many years. But he would not fail them this time."
The ships at the front of the human armada became clear, along
with the gold lettering on their sides.
"He named his three personal ships after them," Drakon said with a
smile.

"He calls himself the Prince of Merchants," Drakon said. "Appar-ently, he discovered the human queens were traitors months ago, and has been gathering an independent human army to face Hybern ever since. He managed to find Queen Vassa and together they rallied this army." Drakon shrugged.

Rhys's attention slid to me. And even with the battle around us, hell unleashing everywhere... For a heartbeat, we were the only two people on this plain.

His chin lifted. "The great joy and honor of my lite has been to know you. To call you my family. And I am grateful-more than I can possibly. say-that I was given this time with you all."

Rhys said, "We will walk onto that field and only accept Death when it comes to haul us away to the Otherworld. We will fight for life, for. survival, for our futures. But if it is decided by that tapestry of Fate or the Cauldron or the Mother that we do not walk off that field today..•"