Page 400 - Fourth Wing

The look on Aurelie’s face when she fell from the Gauntlet.

Pryor and Luca and Trina and…Tynan. Oren and Amber Mavis.
Tairn and Andarna choosing me.

Xaden kissing me.

Our mother ignoring me.
Mira pulls me back just long enough to look me over, as if she’s checking

for damage. “You’re all right.” She nods, her teeth digging into her bottom

lip. “You’re all right, aren’t you?”
I nod, but she blurs in my vision because I might be alive, thriving even,

but I’m not the same person she left at the base of that turret, and from the

heaviness in her eyes, she knows it, too.
“Yeah,” she whispers, tucking me in tight again. “You’re all right, Violet.

You’re all right.”
If she says it enough times, I might start to believe her.

“Are you?” I jerk back to study her. There’s a new scar that stretches from

her earlobe to her collarbone. “Gods, Mira.”
“I’m fine,” she promises, then grins. “And look at you! You didn’t die!”

Irrational, giddy laughter bubbles up. “I didn’t die! You’re not an only
child!”

We both burst into laughter, and tears track down my cheeks.

“Sorrengails are weird,” I hear Imogen state.
“You have no idea,” Dain answers, but when I turn to look, his lips are

curved into the first genuine smile I’ve seen from him in months.

“Shut up, Aetos,” Mira barks, throwing her arm over my shoulder. “Catch
me up on everything, Violet.”

We might be hundreds of miles from Basgiath, but I’ve never felt more at

home.

…

It’s early evening two days later, just after dinner, when Rhiannon and I