Page 1 of The Court of Thorns and Wings

1

TAVISH

In a matter of seconds, my entire world had shattered. My heart had been obliterated with no hope of salvaging it because of one simple fact.

Everything had vanished in the blink of an eye.

Tears streamed down my face, and I hunched over, agony piercing my chest and running throughout my body.

I’d made a horrible mistake. One I couldn’t fix or take back, even as the king.

Death… that was permanent, even for me.

The only thing that could perhaps get me through the rest of eternity was having someone force Lira into my dreams.

My chest heaved, and I curled my fingers into my hair and tugged. If living every day without her in this world was going to feel like this, I wanted to die.

“Tavish,” Caelan said softly, his voice thick with worry.

He’d used that tone only one other time in my entire life, twelve years ago when Eldrin saved me after the Seelie had killed my parents and imprisoned me. I’d been severely injured during the castle attack and woke up to find both my parents dead at thefeet of Seelie warriors. Eldrin had rescued me and saved my life and my father’s sword for me.

While healing after my rescue, Caelan had become like a big brother to me, tending to me and caring for me when my people rebelled against my reign.

His tone now made my misery worse, reminding me of that time so long ago.

I lowered my hands and rolled up my sleeves slightly to see that the incomplete, magical fated-mate tattoo of delicate vines and leaves interconnected with thorns had spread across Lira’s body and mine when we’d come close to cementing our bond. The tattoo cut off abruptly at my wrists, waiting for the consummation of our bond.

Something I’d stopped because I’d believed Lira had to die for me to save my people. I couldn’t risk completing the bond. Now I wanted to go back in time and change that moment.

I’d lost so much time with her, pushed her away too often, and exhausted myself with the constant battle of not intervening whenever she was in danger.

And look where it had gotten me.

Would my tattoo fade over time? Because that was the last thing I wanted. Her soul had branded mine, and though it had been for only a short while, I never wanted to forget.

I shouldn’t have declared the gauntlet, and I should’ve saved her instead of watching as she fought for her life. It had taken her getting stabbed in the final battle of the gauntlet to make my sorry wildling self realize how wrong I’d been.

Can someone die of heartbreak?This was a question I would’ve laughed at had anyone else asked it a mere month ago, but today, this was the question I posed to myself.

“Sunscorched,” Finnian hissed as my mattress dipped in front of my head. “You can’t die. You’re fearless.”

My breath caught, and I stood, prepared to drag him away from Lira’s body. He had to be careful. She was injured! He didn’t need to hurt her more.

He straddled her half-naked body where they’d ripped off part of her shirt so they could tie the towels around her waist to stop the bleeding.

His navy wings were closed tightly behind him, and his light ice-blue eyes glistened. “Lira, wake up. You can’t leave us like this. Notnow. Not when Tavish needs you more than ever.” The ash-blond tips of his hair hit midforehead as he bent over her, begging her to come back to life.

But she didn’t.

She couldn’t hear his plea.

My stomach churned, and something weird and painful inched up my throat like it was trying to come out.

My eyes stayed locked on her, and I could’ve sworn the shimmer of her sun-kissed complexion had returned. Illusions that I wanted to see, like she was waking and returning to me.

My tattoo pulsed faintly, but I ignored the sensation. It had to be a figment of my imagination. I should probably make arrangements to take her back to the Seelie territory. Her body needed to be buried there so her magic could return to her lands… the way it should be. She deserved that.

I sniffled. “We need to settle things with our people so I can take Lira home.”

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