Page 597 - Fourth Wing

undeniable attraction to a uniquely beautiful woman. When I watched her

conquer the Gauntlet, then defend Andarna at Threshing, I stumbled,
stunned by both her cunning and her sense of honor. When I burst into her

room and found Oren’s treacherous hand at her throat, the rage that made it

so easy to kill all six of them without batting an eye should have told me I
was headed for a cliff. And when she smiled at me after mastering her

shield in mere minutes, her face lighting up as the snow fell around us, I

fucking fell.
We hadn’t even kissed, and I fell.

Or maybe it was when she threw her knives at Barlowe or when jealousy

ate me alive seeing Aetos kiss the mouth I’d dreamed about countless times.
Looking back, there were a thousand tiny moments that pulled me over the

edge for the woman asleep in the bed I always pictured her in.
And I never told her. Not until she was delirious with poison. Why?

Because I was scared to give her power over me when she already held it

all? Because she’s Lilith Sorrengail’s daughter? Because she kept giving
Aetos second and third chances?

No. Because I couldn’t give her those words without being totally,
completely honest with her, and after the way she looked at me at the lake,

the utter betrayal—

The rustle of sheets makes my gaze whip to her face, and I take my first
full breath since she fell from Tairn’s back. Her eyes are open.

“You’re awake.” My voice sounds like it’s been dragged across gravel

when I thought it’d only been my heart.
I stagger to my feet and take the two steps that separate me from her

bedside. She’s awake. She’s alive. She’s…smiling? That must be a trick of

the light. This woman likely wants to set me on fire.
“Can I check your side?” The mattress depresses slightly as I sit near her

hip.
She nods and stretches her arms up like a cat who’s been napping in the