Aleia Mills ’s Reviews > Feathers So Vicious > Status Update

“It’s silly, I know. But then again, we already established that I’m a foolish girl. Today made that quite clear. It was stupid to expect that Father would bother to get me back. It was even more stupid to hope that you would… somehow protect me.”

“Maybe you are already a little bit cracked, a little bit broken. Look at me.” His words fractured something inside me, splintering away on my dignity, my sanity, my sense of value as I looked at him. He must have seen the damage somewhere in my eyes, that cracking of my soul, because a guttural groan ripped from the chest that held his black heart.

Malyr’s gaze slipped to my lips, head tipping sideways in that strange way of his. “You… long to be kissed.” He wasn’t wrong. “Not by you.” “No?” One silent second passed. Two. Three. “On your knees, then.”

“I will come for you. May it take a year or a lifetime, I will come for you. Then I will shatter you into a million pretty pieces.” His lips brushed over my templ “But instead of leaving you wrecked and ruined, I’ve decided that I will put you back together in my grotesque image. Will take your pain and pleasure, your tears and blood, your moans and screams, so I may put you back together… all… wrong.”

The strongest weaver since before the first word was written, they’d called me. I’d been so happy. Until my shadows choked me. Had escaped me that first night, ripping me from sleep with a death-strangle around my neck. They hadn’t killed me; they’d killed my hound instead. One moment, Asadur had barked, then the next, he’d whimpered, collapsed, and soiled himself. So I’d kept them inside me.

“To a point I hear the rush of blood in your veins. How your heart beats stronger when I’m close to you. How your breath quickens when I touch you…” another tug on my lip. “…right here.”

“Life marks us all in one way or another.” Sebian dunked the cloth into the water. “The only scars truly ugly are usually the ones on the inside, anyway.”

Malyr pulled back to stare at me, studying my face with great focus as if he expected to find answers along my eyebrows, down the length of my nose… on my lips. “Tell me who she is.” Sebian folded his arms in front of his chest, frowning at the way Malyr pinched a strand of my hair between his fingers, inspecting it closely. “Someone who needs to remain—and I cannot stress this enough, Malyr—unharmed.”

He walked off, shouting to his guards, “If anybody asks why Tidestone rang the bells this day, let it be known it was because my strong, dutiful daughter, the Lady Galantia, killed a filthy Raven.” A single tear rolled down my cheek, then another, turning my chest heavy as if they all collected inside my heart. For the first time, it felt full. For the first time, I felt loved.

My heart expanded at those thoughts. Still, it never felt quite full. Always felt a bit… empty.