Sarah Parker

For those who feel small and quiet.

Spread those wings and roar

broken things make the sharpest weapons … so long as you fetter them to yourself so they don’t fly away

“And because I’ve fallen in love with him.”

“You’re the family I never had,” I whisper, and her lungs empty with a shuddered exhale …

She doesn’t fill them again.

They thought the darkness was their ally, but it was their ruin. As it so often is for many who underestimate the shroud of a sunless sky.

“The little redhead?” Rekk drawls, pulling the weapon from the bars and dumping it on the ground. Snagging the smoking stick between his lips, he draws a deep breath, his next words a thick pour of white. “She screeched like a strangled bird when I slid that blade into her gut.”

Sire.

Fucking Sire.

Realization washes over me like a dunk of icy water, whipping all the warmth from my body. “You’re a … king.”

“This better be a threesome,” I grind out.

“I’m not one to share,” the King says, his voice low and steady. “But if that’s what you really want, it can be arranged once your back is healed.”

Fire Lark.

Fire Lark.

Fire Lark.

“Try being open to accepting aid, Raeve. You’d be amazed at how the grain no longer chafes. A simple request for my help doesn’t make you weak. It makes you real.”