20 hours ago20 min read

Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy

Goldfinch

by Raven Kennedy

Published by Bloom Books

Book 6 in the Plated Prisoner Series

One king caged my body.

Another has caged my mind.

War has broken out between Annwyn and Orea, though that’s not the only battle being waged.

There’s a fight inside me, and it’s one I’m determined to win, no matter how much they try to strip me down and hollow me out.

Yet they’ve forgotten one thing. The ancient magic of the pair bond. One can never truly be lost when two souls are already bound.

Because Slade and I? We are connected by more than just fated magic, and we will always find each other.

In any life.

The fae king is trying to destroy me. My heritage. My memory. But what he hasn’t realized is this: gold bends, but stone breaks.

And a Goldfinch does not fall.

It flies.

Genre

#FantasyRomance

#MythRetelling

Triggers

Violence, Captivity, Torture, Death, War Scenes

Goldfinch was the perfect ending to this series.

Well ... almost perfect.

While Raven Kennedy wrote the perfect ending for Auren and Slade's overall arcs in this series, she left an opening to write a spin-off one day for Ryatt, but she isn't sure she will.

I don't love that. Ryatt is a good guy, and the way the book ends, has him ... depressed. I don't want it to end that way for him.

Besides that ... Goldfinch was amazing.

After the long separation between Auren and Slade, we didn't have to wait too long to get them back together on page. The last book was definitely missing their undeniable chemistry, and having them together again added so much more to this book.

It wasn't only Auren and Slade's romance that made this book so good.

It was also Malina and Dommik.

I fell in love with this unlikely pair in the last book, and was blown away with Raven's ability to make me start loving a character that started out as a villain in this series. Malina and Dommik's parts in Goldfinch were some of my favorite chapters in the book.

No lie.

They were intense, and added to the feeling of dread and desperation that made the war in Orea feel as brutal as it was meant to feel. Malina and Dommik added more than I ever thought they would to this series, and I ended the book thinking to myself that they were a couple of my favorite characters in this series.

Then there was Osrik and Rissa, which was just ... chef's kiss. Their banter was superb, and the sex .... whew.

Raven Kennedy doesn't just write romance well, though. She also writes action beautifully. The war in Orea felt like you were right there, and those pages left you feeling tense and anxious for what was coming next. I will admit that I felt a bit disconnected to the war in Annwyn. It wasn't for the lack of action. The action - especially when Auren and Slade are in the mix - was superb. I think it's because we've only been there since Gold, so I wasn't as invested in it.

While Plated Prisoner is fantasy, and is beloved because of the romance, this series is ultimately about women. How strong women are. What we can become.

It was the women who won this war.

Auren, who went from a saddle literally living in a gilded cage, to become the face of a revolution.

Malina, who went from an emotionally abused and neglected Queen with no power, to the Queen who sacrifices all for her world and people.

Rissa, who became a saddle way too young, but found her power and independence through it. Who found someone to love who loved all of her, sharp bits and all.

Emonie, who let guilt over something not in her control eat her alive, but sacrifices her body and her way home to save everyone.

This series, while romantic and sexy, is about women.

I loved it.

Despite Rhett's story feeling unfinished, Goldfinch was the perfect conclusion to Plated Prisoner. The overall story was intense and interesting, and every character's arc in the series was perfectly balanced throughout the series. Everyone had their own parts to play, and the way it came together was beautiful.

If you have been putting off reading Plated Prisoner until all the books were released, your wait it over. The series is done, and it's so worth the read.

Judd: “Hey! I wasn’t the one to call you by your whole name! Why’d you hit me?”

Lu: “Because of that dumb smile on your face.”

Judd: “My smile’s not dumb,”

he defends as he rubs his stomach.

Judd: “See you in the shitty snow kingdom. Next time, let’s try to have a war on one of the warmer continents, yeah?”

Slade: “Sure,”

I say dryly.

As long as there is breath in my lungs and a heart in my chest, I will fight for her with everything that I am.

You have your own light, little sun. So you must carry it with you when it grows dark. I want to cry, because it’s grown so very, very dark.

When tears are like starfall, when bleak is like night,

We remember the dawn that will bring back the light.

I might not know anything else yet, but I do know this truth with innate certainty.

My name is Auren Turley.

And I am stronger than the dark.

There’s been an intensity to him since the moment I woke. It’s obvious something has changed. It’s like we were both reading the same book, but he went ahead and finished it before me. It feels like he’s just waiting for me to catch up, watching me flip every page, staring at me as I go word by word.

Osrik: “I know things are a lot right now,”

he says, surprising me again.

Osrik: “Because we were fighting this thing between us, and then before we could set it straight, you were attacked and nearly died.”

He chews out that last word like he wants to grind it to dust.

Osrik: “But while you were fighting for your life, unconscious, I was very fucking conscious. I watched every minute of your suffering. But I wasn’t sitting there just for fucking guilt. You want to know what I felt?”

Rissa: “What?”

I ask breathlessly, unable to even attempt to be snippy.

Osrik: “So fucking devastated that I was going to lose you,”

he replies, stark honesty rumbling out of his gravelly voice.

Osrik: “That I was going to lose you before I could tell you that I love you.”

Breath sucks in between my lips, my eyes widening as I stare at him.

Rissa: “Love?”

He pauses and studies my face like his dark brown eyes are soaking up every inch of me.

Osrik: “Yes, Rissa Bell. I fucking love you.”

Osrik: “You almost died. And I’ll never fucking forget how close it was. Just like I won’t waste any more time now that we’ve gotten a second chance. We can’t fight this anymore, Rissa. I’m claiming you as mine.”

I stare at him. Mouth opening and closing like a struggling fish.

Rissa: “Are you out of your mind? You can’t just…claim me!”

I say shrilly.

Osrik: “I just did.”

My back stiffens.

Rissa: “I am an independent woman. I decide who to be with.”

Osrik: “You’ll decide to be with me.”

My teeth grind.

Rissa: “You cocky son of a bitch.”

Osrik: “And yours.”

Rissa: “You can’t love me,”

I tell him, my voice full of denial.

Osrik: “I can.”

No argument. No added detail. Just a vow.

Rissa: “You don’t want me really,”

I argue.

Osrik: “I do.”

Rissa: “You won’t always.”

Osrik: “I will.”

My throat closes, jaw aching with emotion I keep trying to bite down on.

Rissa: “Don’t make me say it.”

I’m not a woman comfortable with emotions. I have no experience with having real, honest conversations with a man. If he makes me try to explain now, it will come out a jumbled mess, and I don’t want this—us—to be a mess. He looks at me like he’s reading my thoughts through my eyes.

Osrik: “You don’t have to say anything. I hear you anyway.”

Osrik: “It’ll fit,”

he says, as if he thinks I’m intimidated and that’s why I’m staring. And I am staring. Am I slack-jawed? Utterly preposterous. I was a professional for goodness’ sake. My eyes yank up to his still smirking face.

Rissa: “Oh, I know it’ll fit. It’s just that you’re a man who’s actually big everywhere,”

I say with open appreciation. He shrugs.

Osrik: “I’m a big man, so I have a big dick.”

Rissa: “That’s not always the case, and yours is quite impressive.”

Laughter blows out of him.

Osrik: “Yeah?”

Rissa: “Honest to Divine, the biggest one I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen many naked people.”

Osrik: “You don’t have to do that,”

I pause.

Rissa: “Do what?”

Osrik: “You don’t have to play a part, or check with me, or gauge my wants like it’s your job to please me. I just want you.”

Instant defensiveness rolls down my stiffening spine, but he grips my hand before I can pull away.

Osrik: “Hear me, woman. With me, you aren’t a saddle. You’re just you. That means you do whatever the fuck feels good for you. In whatever position you want. I’ll take you from behind, from front, backwards, forwards, upside fucking down. I’ll slam you against the wall or be fucking sweet in a tub. Don’t worry about pleasing me, because I promise, I’ll enjoy every second of whatever we’re doing, however we’re doing it, because I fucking love you. You get me?”

My lips part and I cry out, a throaty moan filling the room as I pretend to orgasm. It sounds scandalously sensual. It sounds perfect. It’s the same lusty cry I’ve made thousands of times before. And Osrik…stops. My eyes flare open and I look down at him.

Rissa: “What’s wrong?”

His lips are pressed together in a hard line, his tongue messing with the wooden piercing on his bottom lip with visible aggravation. Before I can ask again, he swings me up and around like a rag doll, until I find myself lying over his seated position, ass up, head down over the side of his legs as he sits at the foot of the bed.

Rissa: “What are—”

WHACK! His palm comes down on my bare ass with a startling crack. I try to push on his leg to sit up, but his other hand clamps down on my back, pinning me in place.

Rissa: “What are you doing?”

I screech indignantly.

Osrik: “You faked your pleasure,”

he grumbles, and then he spanks my ass again. I cry out, and while it’s not overly painful, his hand is large enough that the strike stings the entire cheek.

Osrik: “Vow to me now, you will never fake it again.”

I jerk my head around to glare at him.

Rissa: “You pompous, brutish, son of a—”

WHACK!

Osrik: “You don’t fake with me. You not ready to come? Then that’s fucking heaven for me because it means I get to keep touching you.”

His mouth comes down, beard scraping against my neck.

Osrik: “Get to keep tasting you.”

Those lips press against mine, making me taste my own arousal with decadent wickedness.

Osrik: “Get to keep fucking you…”

Pulling back, he looks into my eyes.

Osrik: “Now take your pleasure, Rissa.”

Looking over, I take advantage of his closed eyes and watch him as he holds me with possessive adoration.

Osrik: “Well?”

he asks, cracking one eye open as if he could sense my gaze.

Osrik: “Are we a mistake, Rissa?”

The answer is easy, and I smile at him.

Rissa: “The best mistake I ever made.”

When she comes stomping out, she’s got an armful of clothes that she shoves into my chest.

Rissa: “I need a bag.”

I glance down at the huge pile and start counting all the pieces.

Osrik: “This is too much shit, woman.”

She gives me a look so chilling it might actually make my balls shrivel. I clear my throat.

Osrik: “I meant, I’ll make this shit fit.”

I told her I’d be the villain for her, and I was. Now, I need to also be the hero she would want me to be.

Leader: “Auren Turley is paired with you?”

Slade: “Yes,”

I reply, knowing exactly what they’re all thinking. How can the fates have bonded her to someone like me?

But there’s something they don’t understand yet, though I have a feeling they will soon.

There is nothing I won’t do for her.

Auren is life. I am death. That is why the goddesses paired us together.

She is the gleaming power of light, and she needed her antithesis to stand at her side. Because she’s the golden sun of warmth and growth, while I am decay and darkness, with a magic that comes from the deepest core of the earth.

There is no growth without rot. There is no sun without the dark sky. And there is no me without her.

But even if we were never paired, it wouldn’t matter. Because I would have made her mine, whether the goddesses deemed it or not.

And I’m going to find her.

Auren: “You all stay hidden here. I’m going to check the city.”

Her eyes widen.

Woman: “But it’s dangerous.”

Auren: “It’s okay,”

I tell her with a smile.

Auren: “I’m dangerous too.”

Judd tsks.

Judd: “What, you thought you could just go and have a battle without me?”

he replies with a scoff.

Judd: “Fucking rude. You know how much I like battles. They’re my favorite hobby, Commander.”

Glancing down, I only see a few minor scrapes and slices on my bare arms.

Osrik: “I’m good.”

Rissa: “You’re not good. You’re covered in dirt and sweat and blood.”

Judd: “It’s really very normal for him, love,”

Judd says, sidling up beside us.

Osrik: “Don’t call her love,”

I growl.

Rissa: “Yeah, don’t call me love,”

she snips, giving him a look of disgust that instantly makes me feel even better than good. Judd grins.

Osrik: “Wow. You two are made for each other.”

Rissa and Osrik: “Of course we are,”

we both say in our own irritated tones.

Auren: “My name is Auren Turley, and I am the true Lyäri Ulvêre,”

I call out, my voice lashing against the steps, echoing through the entire arena and snatching every single person’s attention. But my eyes find the king’s.

Auren: “I am not gone, and I do not bow.”

I look down at the gold holding me in place and then back at her with a smirk.

Slade: “If you wanted to tie me up, then may I suggest we do so in private?”

Auren: “Slade,”

she murmurs again, and one ribbon comes up, tapping against my cheek like a finger.

Slade: “Eyes on me, baby.”

It feels like every muscle in my body fucking bulges.

Slade: “Goldfinch?”

I grit out. She tips her head up at me, her eyes lidded, my blood surging.

Slade: “I’m hanging on by a fraying thread. I really need you to not say another male’s name right now.”

Her eyes widen.

Auren: “Oh,”

she breathes.

Slade: “Yeah. Oh.”

Slade: “You don’t need to beg, but the words sound so fucking sweet.”

I set Auren on the bed gently, but as soon as I do, she starts tearing at my clothes.

Auren: “Off. I want everything off.”

My mouth hitches up at the corner.

Slade: “Demanding thing, aren’t you?”

I kick off my boots and let my trousers drop. Auren reaches up and rips my shirt right down the middle, shocking us both.

Slade: “Hmm,”

I say, glancing down.

Slade: “Very demanding.”

She looks at me with defiance.

Auren: “I’m not sorry.”

Her ribbons curl toward me, stroking against my chest, dipping to my groin, and then sliding even further down… I smirk.

Slade: “Little flirts.”

Slade: “Naughty thing,”

I grind out with a tsk. Her nipples pebble with an excited shudder.

Slade: “There’s no escape,”

I promise her, my heated gaze dragging down her glistening body.

Slade: “I’m going to do filthy things to you.”

When her lips pull away, her hands come up to clamp around my face, holding me between her palms.

Auren: “You’re mine now.”

My heart squeezes at the fierceness in her words.

Slade: “I was always yours, Goldfinch.”

Even when she didn’t know it.

Slade: “Oh, Goldfinch. My love for you consumes every part of my soul. It’s in every word, every movement. With each morning that dawns and every night that falls. You are completely mine, and I am yours, and that is all I ever need in this life and all the others.”

I kiss her forehead, tears burning in my eyes.

Slade: “I love you, Auren.”

Slade: “You’re awake.”

His voice is low and sexy, weighed down from sleep.

Auren: “I didn’t want to wake you,”

I murmur.

Auren: “You needed your rest.”

His hands come down to grip both of my arms, and then he drags me right up so we’re face to face, my entire length on top of him like the icing on a layered cake.

Slade: “You did have me quite exhausted,”

he says with a playful smirk.

Slade: “You were insatiable.”

Auren: “You knew,”

I say, eyes flicking up to his face.

Auren: “You knew we were a päyur the moment we met.”

His head tips. There is no denial.

Slade: “Yes.”

Auren: “Why didn’t you tell me?”

His hands stroke gently up my arms.

Slade: “You weren’t ready for that. You didn’t deserve to have such pressure put on you. You deserved a choice.”

I take in his words, my brow furrowing.

Auren: “But we’re fated.”

Slade: “Yes, but fate shouldn’t be a noose. Bonds shouldn’t be a shackle. You needed your freedom. You needed to have the opportunity to stand on your own two feet and decide.”

Brennur: “What is the meaning of this?”

he asks, trying and failing again to move his feet.

Auren: “Oh, that? That gold melted down right around the time you told us how you’d decided to help flesh traders sell children.”

He looks around the room with confusion, like he’s trying to figure out what’s going on. His demeanor grows more agitated, and he starts to cough again, but this time he can’t quite get it cleared.

Slade: “That’ll be the rot soaking into your throat,”

I tell him calmly, and he blanches at me.

Brennur: “What?”

he shouts, eyes bugging out, the blood draining from his face.

Brennur: “You can’t!”

His voice has gone raspy and jagged, barely able to chafe out.

Slade: “Hmm, seems I can.”

Forgetting he can’t move, he tries to lunge for me, but Slade is a step ahead of him. All it takes is one hand slamming down onto his shoulder, and he holds Brennur in place in his chair. Slade’s eyes don’t even drop down to him. They stay on me. Ready to support me in whatever way I choose for this to play out.

Auren: “Unfortunately for you, Brennur, you’ve made a very large error.”

He glares at me as I sense the rot settling into his lungs, tainting his labored breaths. It becomes harder for him to draw his inhales. His heart slugs out poison through the rest of his veins, making him shake violently as he has another coughing fit.

Auren: “You thought you were worth more to me alive than you are dead,”

I say as the rot in his throat thickens, decaying the windpipe with his next scraping inhale.

Auren: “You’re not.”

His body jerks and he collapses against the table, wheezing with a failing ability to breathe as the rot attacks his every organ, focusing on his heart. He doesn’t need it. He certainly never showed he had one. I pass him on my way to the door and tip my hand, letting a gold coin land right in front of his mottled face.

Auren: “Your payment.”

Then I walk away, leaving him to rot. Because that is exactly what he did to me.

Dommik: “I’ve learned a lot of things. But I believe it just taught me one of the most valuable lessons of all.”

Malina: “Which is?”

Dommik: “That one kill can actually lead to life,”

he answers, looking down at me with a weightiness to his words and a significance to his gaze. When he lifts his hand to grip my neck and drag a thumb along my jaw, I can’t quite breathe, because I’m hanging on each low word he speaks and every inch of his touch.

Dommik: “And that something that seems so cold can actually be the warmest thing you’ll ever feel.”

I swallow hard and lean in closer, as if seeking more of him.

Dommik: “What has life taught you, Malina?”

he asks, and my chest constricts at the sound of him rumbling my name.

Malina: “Painful things and hard lessons,”

I answer honestly.

Malina: “Everything I didn’t want but desperately needed.”

Rissa: “Where’s Manu?”

Soldier: “Up in the tower room, Lady Rissa,”

the Third Kingdom soldier answers.

Soldier: “This way.”

Rissa: “Of course he is,”

I mutter. I follow him up a set of spiral stairs, my own guard hot on my heels.

Cran: “Lady Rissa, Captain Osrik will not like you being in the same room as Manu…”

Rissa: “Then Captain Osrik should’ve put me in a house with a tower so I could adequately see what the hell is going on.”

Cran shoots out a breath and stands, gaze scanning the battleground where so many more bodies lie.

Cran: “We fight, Lady Rissa. But even if we win, we still lose.”

Osrik catches me beneath my arms. He lets me hang there in front of him awkwardly while he looks me over, his expression intense, brown eyes wild with worry.

Rissa: “You okay?”

Osrik: “I’m fine,”

I say with exasperation.

Rissa: “I was trying to leap into your arms!”

Osrik: “You are in my arms,”

he says, giving me a little shake.

Rissa: “Stop holding me out like this! This is the way you hold a stray cat you’re worried is going to claw you!”

Osrik: “I’m filthy,”

he warns.

Rissa: “I don’t care.”

The next instant, I’m finally crushed against his chest, and he holds me the way I want, with his big hands firmly at my ass and his beard against my cheek.

Rissa: “Are you okay?”

I ask shakily, leaning back to get another look at his face that’s streaked with blood.

Rissa: “Is any of this yours?”

Osrik: “I’m good, Rissa. I have you.”

Judd: “It’s alright. Gildy got the last laugh. Midas is in a nice little golden tomb for all of eternity,”

Judd says jovially.

Judd: “I’m going to make it my holiday trip to go see him every year and laugh my ass off.”

I’m out of breath by the time I crawl down to his feet and yank off his boots. I immediately get hit in the face with his stench.

Emonie: “Oh, great purple skies, your feet are disgusting!”

I hiss at him. This smell can’t be normal. Surely, he has something growing there. I hesitate, wondering if I could forgo his shoes and try to filch someone else’s, but I know I can’t risk it. Cursing him under my breath the whole time, I pull on his boots and lace them up.

Emonie: “If I get a foot rash after this, I am going to be very annoyed,”

Friano: “You think I wouldn’t know my own brother? I could sense him even if I were deaf, blind, and magic-less. We are connected by more than power or blood. Twins have a sixth sense with one another.”

Emonie: “Seems tedious,”

I mutter, dropping my hand from my ear.

Emonie: “You’re Oreans,”

I slur, body braced against the wall behind me.

Dommik: “Shouldn’t be that surprising, since we’re in Orea,”

Malina: “Why were you beaten?”

Emonie: “I was beaten?”

I rasp before spitting out a glob of blood.

Emonie: “Huh. That explains the agonizing pain.”

Dommik: “Stay away from her, fae filth!”

Emonie: “This one doesn’t like me,”

I mumble before glancing at the woman.

Emonie: “Don’t worry, I’m a Vulmi.”

Malina: “What in the world does that mean?”

Emonie: “It means we protect Oreans.”

My whole body quakes. When I glance down at the dagger with terror, Dommik takes my chin and makes me look back up at him. His dark eyes make everything else disappear.

Dommik: “It’s only us. Just a Cold Queen and an assassin,”

he says quietly, and my throat squeezes.

Malina: “I wish we could’ve had longer together,”

I whisper brokenly. He brushes the hair away from my face tenderly and stares into my fracturing eyes.

Dommik: “But we will have death together, and that is endless.”

Heartache drowns me. Makes my words a hitching rasp.

Malina: “I love you, Dommik.”

His gaze bores in.

Dommik: “You own my heart, Malina.”

We shiver beneath our shaken confessions.

I squeeze my father’s throat, trying to squeeze out every fucking inch of fear and pain that he’s capable of. I want him to feel it. To suffer. To die in agony and terror.

Slade: “Culling the weak,”

I snarl as his tongue dries out, the blackened husk breaking off.

Slade: “You spineless, heartless, evil piece of shit. May you rot for fucking eternity and know that you are nothing.”

Slade:“While I was broken and ripped and utterly lost, my mother gifted me with the promise of you, Auren. The promise of my päyur.”

A tear stabs through the corner of my eye and slices down my cheek, while Auren’s eyes overflow. Love and misery carried in each drop and drowning out my existence.

Slade: “My foretelling, my life’s prophecy, my purpose, my divined was you,”

I choke out.

Slade: “Always you.”

A sob bubbles up with blood that gilds her paling lips.

Slade: “Goldfinch,”

I murmur miserably before I gently place my lips at her cheek, fingers still cradling her face. Trying to cradle her fading soul.

Slade: “You were always mine, and I was always meant to love you with every single part of my existence.”

Always.

His eyes grow wet, his expression fracturing. And then he speaks with the most devoted, heartbreaking tone.

Slade: “You flew, Goldfinch.”

My own heart seems to fill up, every inch that’s ever been pinched or prodded or drained.

Auren: “I did.”

Slade: “Gorgeous,”

I purr. The wing brushes over me again, but this time…lower. Auren’s head snaps over with a blush branding her cheek.

Auren: “Stop that,”

she hisses beneath her breath as it caresses my ass. I chuckle as the wing snaps back into place against her.

Slade: “They’re quite handsy,”

I say through a smile.

Auren: “They’re new,”

she says with teasing flippancy.

Auren: “They just don’t know how to move yet.”

Her wings fluff up, making my grin widen.

Slade: “I don’t think they agree with that statement.”

Auren: “A queen’s entire life has to be for her kingdom. But I would like to finally have the chance to live my life…for me.”

And that guess is confirmed when he presses the edge of his blade to my neck. My heart skips a beat, but my mouth takes two more and runs away with it.

Emorie: “That’s a very forward introduction. Usually I take a male on a few special outings before I let him jab his pointy thing at me.”

I quite like the sound of his voice. And he’s handsome too. Sure, he’s threatening me at sword point, but we all have our faults.

Slade: “Always us,”

he agrees.

Slade: “But I told you before, Goldfinch. I want you to have whatever life you want,”

he tells me, his voice dropping lower.

Slade: “Whether that’s to travel the world or hide away in a cabin in the woods…”

My breath catches in my chest as I recognize the words we spoke before, inside the walls of a carriage. Right before we did very inappropriate things right there along the street in Fourth Kingdom.

Slade: “If you want to climb a mountain or build something with your own hands or sit in a pub or play music or spend all day making love…”

His low tone drags against my heated skin.

Slade: “But I am yours and you are mine, and I will always make sure that you get what you need.”

Rhett: “You gonna tell me who beat the shit out of you?”

Emonie: “Why? You want to thank them?”

she retorts, derision dripping off her words. My jaw tightens. I try my best to ignore her as my attention sharpens on the city.

Emonie: “You’re going to feel soooo bad once you see I was telling the truth,”

she singsongs before she sways again, nearly tipping right off the road. My hand lashes out to grab her arm to steady her, fingers instantly gentling when she sucks in a pained gasp.

Emonie: “You need to learn to have a gentler touch, Commander,”

she says with a choppy giggle.

Rhett: “Stop talking.”

Emonie: “Ohh. Silent type, huh? I like them usually. Fewer words from a male, the better. Doesn’t seem to be working for you, though. Maybe try to be more silent?”

Irritation jumps in my jaw.

Rhett: “You are aggravating.”

She tugs her arm out of my grip as she limps forward.

Emonie: “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be here. So maybe have a little gratitude.”

Rhett: “Sure,”

I reply smoothly.

Rhett: “Unless we’re about to walk into an ambush or I confirm that you’ve lied. Then gratitude will be last on the list.”

Emonie: “But still on the list. That’s good.”

Rhett: “What is that?”

Emonie: “Don’t worry. It’s just their monster bird thing. It’s harmless.”

Emonie shuffles forward.

Emonie: “Actually…I’m not really sure that it is harmless, but it’s probably fine.”