Page 272 - Fourth Wing

necessary.

The professor grips Jeremiah’s head with both hands, and a crack echoes
off the walls of the silent courtyard. Xaden’s shadows melt away and

Jeremiah falls to the ground, his head at an unnatural, macabre angle. His

neck is broken.
The professor bends down and lifts Jeremiah’s body with surprising

strength, carrying him into the rotunda.

Xaden inhales sharply beside me, then walks away with Garrick, headed
toward the academic wing. Nice to see you, too.

“Maybe I don’t want a signet power after all,” Ridoc murmurs.

“That death is merciful compared to what will happen if you don’t
manifest one,” Dain says, and I swear I start to feel my relics burn across

my back even though my dragons haven’t started channeling.
“And that,” Sawyer says from Rhiannon’s side, “was Professor Carr.”

…

“You always have to check your sources,” Dad tells me, ruffling my hair as

he stands beside me at the table in the Archives. “Remember that firsthand
accounts are always more accurate, but you have to look deeper, Violet.

You have to see who is telling the story.”

“But what if I want to be a rider?” I ask with the voice of a much-younger
version of me. “Like Brennan and Mom?”

“WAKE.” A familiar, consuming voice rumbles through the Archives. A
voice that doesn’t belong here.

“You’re not like them, Violet. That’s not your path.” Dad offers me an

apologetic smile, the usual kind that says he sympathizes but there’s
nothing he can do, the kind he gives me when Mom makes a choice he

doesn’t agree with. “And it’s for the best. Your mother has never
understood that while riders may be the weapons of our kingdom, it’s the

scribes who have all the real power in this world.”