Page 544 - Fourth Wing

He flinches. “Yes. I should have told you months ago, but I couldn’t. I’m

risking everything by telling you now—”
“Because you have to, not because you want—”

“Because if your best friend sees this memory, everything is lost,” he

interrupts, and I gasp.
“You don’t know that—”

“Dain wouldn’t break a rule to save your life, Violet. What do you think

he’d do if he had this knowledge?”
What would Dain do? “I have to believe he would not put the Codex

above people suffering beyond our borders. Or maybe I could have built

shields that would have kept Dain from prying. Or maybe he would
continue to respect my boundaries and never look in the first place.” I

narrow my eyes. “But we’ll never know, will we? Because you didn’t trust
me to know the right thing to do, Xaden, did you?”

He throws his hands wide. “This is bigger than you and me, Violence.

And leadership will stop at nothing to sit behind their wards and keep the
venin secret.” His voice is raw as he pleads, “I watched my own father

executed trying to help these people. I couldn’t risk you, too.” He leans into
my space a little more with every word, launching my pulse, but I’m done

letting my heart make my head’s choices. “You love me, and—”

“Loved,” I correct him, sidestepping so I can get some fucking space and
then taking it.

“Love!” he shouts, stopping me in my tracks and earning us a glance

from every rider within hearing distance. “You love me.”
One of those little embers in my chest tries to come back to life, and I

squash it before it has the chance to burn.

Slowly, I turn to face him. “Everything I feel—” I swallow, fighting to
hold on to the anger so I don’t fall apart. “Felt for you was based on secrets

and deception.” Shame burns in my cheeks that I was naive enough to fall
for him in the first place.