Extraits

“Because. We will be the villains for each other.”

He grins. Slow, emphatic, licentious. “That’s exactly right.”

“You are the worst bad mistake I’m glad I never made,” she hisses.

“And you’re still the best mistake I can’t wait to make,” I retort with a smirk. “When you’re ready to admit it.”

“My magic...”

“You have control of it,” he says, his tone nothing but pure confidence.

“I could slip—”

“You won’t.”

“Your timberwing is watching us.”

“He’s sleeping.”

“What if I—”

“Auren,” he says, cutting me off. “Stop doubting yourself and fucking kiss me.”

“Hey there, Gildy. Heard you found out why we really call him Rip. Bit of a show-off, making a whole-ass rip into the world, don’t you think? Personally, I preferred all the rumors that we came up with to explain his nickname,” he tells me. “It was fun spreading them.”

Lu smirks. “Like he got the name for ripping people’s heads off in battles.”

Judd nods. “Or having ripped muscles—the women liked that one.”

“Rest In Peace.”

“Ripping people a new one.”

“Being a rip-off.”

“Ripping through lives.”

Judd’s eyes light up. “Or ripping some nasty ass far—”

“Enough,” Slade says with a sigh. Judd snickers.

His eyes soften. “Oh, Goldfinch. I would’ve found you in whatever world you were in. In whatever life.”

My lips tip up in a soft smile, because I believe him. “You would’ve found me in them all.”

“If you’re a villain...then I’ll be a villain with you.”

“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.”

His previous words ring in my ears.

I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.

“Where were you?”

When I was drugged.

When I was shoved into that room with Digby.

When my ribbons were slashed, right along with my soul.

When I was propped up on that mezzanine, confused and lost.

“I thought you were going to come. But you didn’t.” My voice is choked, shaken, and every word I say lands a flinch across his face. “So where were you?”

“Oh, Goldfinch. I’d thought you’d never ask.”

“There was something inside of me that just snapped open.”

“And it was fucking glorious.”

She flinches. “How can you say that?” she asks, her voice cracking. “I became a monster.”

But I shake my head, brush my thumbs over her wet cheeks. “No, baby. Not a monster. A fae.”