Page 467 - Fourth Wing

I brush a kiss over his mouth, silencing him. “I know what you’re saying.

It’s…sweet.”
He nips at my skin. “I’m not sweet. Please don’t mistake any part of me

for soft or kind. That will only get you hurt, and whatever you do…” He

buries his face in my neck, inhaling deeply. “Don’t fall for me.”
I stroke my hand over his marked arm and pray that’s not exactly what

I’m doing. This overwhelming juxtaposition of longing and satisfaction in

my chest has to be the aftereffects of coming not once but three times,
right? It can’t be more.

“Violence?”

I look out my window at the infinite black sky and change the topic, my
eyelids growing heavier by the second. “Why did you guess I could wield

lightning?”
He stretches just enough to tuck my head under his chin. “I thought you

did it the first night Tairn channeled power to you, but I wasn’t sure, so I

didn’t say anything.”
“Really?” I blink, thinking back, but my brain is full of a pleasant, dull

hum as sleep fights to pull me under. “When?” My eyes drift shut.
His arms tighten around me as he tucks me closer, the backs of my thighs

pressed tight against his pants as I start to drift off.

“The first time you kissed me.”

…

When I wake, Xaden is gone, but that’s not exactly a surprise. Him staying

the night to begin with? Now that was the shocker.

Finding a jar on my nightstand with a handful of spring violets? My heart
swells. I’m in so much fucking trouble.

He even moved all the debris to a pile in the corner, which means he must
have used his shadows while I was sleeping because I didn’t hear a thing.

I’m still exhausted, but I dress and pin my hair up quickly, noting the sun