Iron Flame

You’re going to love Violet. She’s smart and stubborn.
Reminds me a lot of you, actually.
You just have to remember when you meet her:
she’s not her mother.
—RECOVERED CORRESPONDENCE OF CADET LIAM MAIRI TO SLOANE MAIRI

“If Solas comes near you again, he knows I will devour his human whole and let him rot within me while his heart still beats, and then I’ll take the eye I so graciously left him.”

We’re finally together again.

“Brennan?” Mira croaks, and I move back a couple of steps to give them room. “How?”

“Hey, Mira.” He’s less than a dozen feet away, his grin widening.

“You’re alive?” She stumbles forward, shaking her head. “After…I mean… It’s been six years, and you’re… alive?”

“In the flesh.” He opens his arms. “Gods, it’s good to see you.”

She draws back her fist and punches him straight in the face.

I scramble backward through the cumbersome grass, rushing to keep from being sliced by Andarna’s claws as she finds her balance.

“Could you not crush our human?” Tairn barks.

“I wasn’t even close,” Andarna snaps in return with a quick glare his direction as she flares her wings with the same result.

“I told you to be patient,” Tairn chides.

She’s so fucking beautiful I can barely breathe. And I almost lost her.

Most generals dream of dying in service to their kingdom.
But you know me better than that, my love.
When I fall, it will be for one reason only: to protect our children.

—RECOVERED, UNSENT CORRESPONDENCE OF GENERAL LILITH SORRENGAIL

It’s where I fell in love with Xaden and learned just how much had been omitted from those very Archives.

I love you,” I whisper. “You could throw my entire world into upheaval, and I would still love you. You could keep secrets, run a revolution, frustrate the shit out of me, probably ruin me, and I would still love you.

Regrets are truly a bitch, aren’t they?” Xaden cocks his head.

“I love you,” Xaden says