Onyx Storm

“I like our odds. The last time a shadow and lightning welder fought side by side, they managed to drive the venin back to the Barrens for a few hundred years. We’ll figure out how to do it again.”

“I’ll use Tyrrendor to protect you, not you to protect Tyrrendor.”

“Well-the-fuck-aware.”

“You might be angry when you realize I didn’t wake you to say goodbye. But it’s only because I no longer fully trust my ability to walk away.”

“Xaden is mine. My heart, my soul, my everything. He channeled from the earth to save me, and I’ll scour the world until I find a way to save him right back.”

“Good thing I fuck like a third.”

“Lifetime. Anything less is unacceptable. And her full name for the papers is Violet Sorrengail. Two Rs.”

“I’ve never seen him like that. Ever. I don’t even want to think about what he would have done if he’d been out here beyond the wards, because I thought he was going to rip the stones from the wall. He’s always prided himself on control—he has to when he wields that much power–and I’m telling you, he lost it when he heard you were crossing the border, Violet. He’s…not himself.

“Maybe this is who he could have been if his dad hadn’t led a whole rebellion and fucked him over by getting executed and having him thrown into the quadrant and making him responsible for all the marked ones at the age of what? Seventeen?”

“Tell me something, Violence. Why is it always you?”

“Yes, love. I’m jealous. I’m jealous of the armor that holds you when I can’t, the sheets on your bed that caress your skin every night, and the blades that feel your hands. So when the prince of our realm walks into my classroom and starts talking to the woman I love with what can only be considered intense familiarity, and then has the audacity to ask her out right in front of me, naturally, I’m going to get jealous.”

“Telling me you’re capable of horrible things while still loving me is pretty much your idea of foreplay.”

“Because you’re the only one capable of killing me.”

“I heard you saying you’d kill my grandson if he took another step towards your beloved, young man. How illogically, toxically romantic of you. Have to admit, that kind of confident violence isn’t what I pictured when Asher talked about you, but the brown hair, those…I guess they’re brown eyes, and how utterly smitten he predicted you two would eventually be for each other? Well, he described you almost perfectly, dain Aetos.

“You get one chance to form your own squad, and you choose your ex, your current lover, the quadrant’s resident smart-ass, two people who have tried to kill you in the past year–one over your current lover–and whatever Dain is? These are your choices for the most important mission any rider could possibly undertake?”

“How do you want me to take you Violet? Here on your back with me above you? Before me on your hands and knees with your ass in the air? Against the wall so I can drive harder? Astride so you can control the pace? Tell me.

“I’m completely in love with your boyfriend or utterly terrified of him. Not sure at the moment.”

“But ‘girlfriend’ is missing the permanent tone.”

“I am in love with him. I haven’t so much as thought about you in years. Don’t chase just because you like a challenge. You’ll lose.”

“I could reach the rank of Maven, lead armies of dark wielders against everyone we care for, and watch every vein in my body turn red as I channeled all power in the Continent, and I would still love you. What I did doesn’t change that. I’m not sure anything can.”

“I live by you. When have I ever given a fuck about the Codex or the Code of Conduct? I am yours and you are mine, and there’s no law or rule in this world or the next that will change that.”

“Swear you’ll keep it safe, even if it’s from me.”

“Let’s get three things straight, Your Highness. First, I have remarkable hearing thanks to the shadows at your very feet. Second, I don’t control Violet. Never have. Never will. But third, and most importantly–She really, honestly hasn’t thought about you. At least not since the second she set eyes on me.”

“The best leaders are the ones who never want the job. This is your mission because Andarna chose you. Tairn chose you. What they never tell us in the quadrant is that the rank is well and good, but you and I both know that the moment we fly into the battlefield, it isn’t the humans giving commands. I hate to break it to you, but you were selected by a general among dragons. You can choose to step into leadership, or he can drag you. Either way, you’re going to end up in the front.”

“Seriously, figure your shit out kids. We’re in the middle of a war.”

“I can fuck you as many times as we want, as many times as you can take, and I can’t lose control.”

“Just like it’s gone for the last eighteen months. Everyone assumes she’ll wind up with you, but it’s my last name she ends up wearing on her flight jacket in formation.”

“With that speech? At least a duchess.”

“There’s no magic here. No power. No lure. No taunting reminder that I can everyone if I just reach for it and take what’s offered. It’s only…peace.”

“Just you and me today, honeybear. Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of you.”

“My friends will continue to fight long after I meet Malek, and I’ll meet him with my soul intact. Do your worst.”

“You have to accept what I already have. The man you love no longer fully belongs to himself.”

“My loyalty is to Violet first above everything, everyone else. Then Tyrrendor. Then Navarre in the moments when it’s worthy–usually when Violet is in residence.”

“You’re Xaden Riorson. Shadow wielder. Duke of Tyrrendor. Love of my life. You have nothing to be jealous of.”

“Shh, it’s more fun when she blows shit up.”

“Magic feels different when I change color. Maybe my use of power in that moment altered the venin, weakened her enough to blister.”

“And it’s always the same fight. I’ll trust you if you stop keeping secrets! It’s my secretive nature that attracted you, and why can’t you just stay out of harm’s way for five fucking minutes.”