The Serpent and the Wings of Night

I would beg,” he murmured. “For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?

So many mistakes in the end,” he choked out. “Never you.

I’ve lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries. Seen some fucking travesties. But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.

A dead lover can never break your heart.

Oraya of the Nightborn,” he murmured. “I give you my body. I give you my blood. I give you my soul. I give you my heart. From this night until the end of nights. From daybreak until our days are broken. Your soul is my soul. Your heart is my heart. Your pain is my pain. I bind myself to you.” I wanted it to all be a lie. But it was not a lie.

Do you want to change this world, little serpent? Then climb your cage until you are so high no one can catch you. Break its bars and make them your weapons. Nothing is sharper. I know because I did it

Raihn. He was on his knees, staring up at me. And that—the way he looked at me—was the first thing that felt real. Real, and raw, and… and confusing. Because he looked at me in sheer awe—like I was the most incredible thing he had ever seen. Like I was a fucking goddess.

vampires know better than anyone how important it is to protect their hearts. And love, understand, is sharper than any stake.

And love, understand, is sharper than any stake.

And then I realized. I realized that fear, when embraced, hardens and sharpens. That it becomes rage. That it becomes power. I would not die here.

He did not fear my darkness, nor pity my compassion. And the truth was, the idea of dying without knowing him completely was torturous.

Perhaps I didn’t share his blood, but I was his child in every other sense of the word, and he loved me the only way he knew how. At the edge of a blade.

And he whispered, “There she is.” All at once, I realized what he had been doing.

There are moments in one’s life that remain permanently distilled in memory. Some wither within minutes, and others are carved forever into our souls.

You are the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen, Oraya.

So don’t you fucking dare stop fighting, princess. It would break my damned heart.

Love was a sacrifice at the altar of power.

Maybe our skin doesn’t scar the same as yours, but our hearts do. Sometimes they never heal.

This, I knew, was Vincent telling me that he loved me. No one had ever said those words to me—at least, not that I could ever remember. But he communicated it a thousand ways over the years, most of them coated in death. I love you. Here’s how you stay alive. Here’s how you make sure that no one can hurt you. For vampires, that was the ultimate gift.

Fear is a collection of physical responses, I told myself. Fear is accelerated heartbeats and rapid breaths and sweaty palms. Fear is a doorway to anger, and anger is a doorway to power.

I didn’t notice my lips had curled until his thumb moved, tracing the shape of that smile as if it was something worthy of reverence. “Are you going to kill me, Oraya?” I didn’t run. Didn’t move. Instead, I lay my palm flat against his chest. I surprised even myself when I replied, “Not tonight.” His hand slid from my face and swept a stray strand of black hair from my cheek, smoothing it to the side. But instead of withdrawing, his fingers tightened around my hair—clutching it, but not pulling, as if he was trying to convince himself to let me go and failing. “You might destroy me anyway.

Don’t be so quick to throw away your humanity, Oraya,” he said. “You might find you miss it once it’s gone.

I would beg for him, too. Break for him. Cut myself open like an animal for dissection. He held me open that way, not just my body but my soul, too.

I loved it—really, truly loved it—when they underestimated me.

You don’t give an inch, do you?” My eyes flicked coldly up his body. “Do you? Or is an inch all you have to offer?

Hundreds of years later, historians and scholars would look back upon this moment. This decision that, one day, would topple an empire. What a strange choice, they would whisper. Why would he do this? Why, indeed. After all, vampires know better than anyone how important it is to protect their hearts. And love, understand, is sharper than any stake.

I may be the serpent, but even snakes run for cover when hawks soared overhead.