What's This? A Lil Unedited Blurb From Chapter 3? From Xaden's Pov? How Exciting!

what's this? a lil unedited blurb from chapter 3? from Xaden's pov? how exciting!

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My pack is already loaded in my car, but I pop the trunk to let the other three load their gear. I'm about to slam it closed when Imogen comes running up, tossing her bag in on top of the others and squeezing herself into my backseat, much to the vocal displeasure of Garrick.

"Take your own damn car, Im, there's no room back here," he growls as she elbows him out of the way of the seatbelt.

"I'm not the one that takes up the space of two people, Garrick," she hisses. "Stop bitching."

Liam snorts from the passenger seat as they continue to bicker, while Bodhi looks like he'd rather be literally anywhere else.

some fluff for your saturday 🫶🏻

***

Xaden’s favorite time was the middle of the night, when his wife slept peacefully and he got to hold his daughter and watch the snow falling.

Fia, like her mother, liked the library. Xaden was sure it was the floating mage lights that kept her attention—at seven months old, she certainly couldn’t read—but it was the place that calmed her the quickest when she wouldn’t sleep. He liked to think it was something she’d gotten from Violet.

Fia looked like him: his warm brown skin, his dark hair and dark eyes, his mouth. But she had Violet in the shape of her nose, the fullness of her cheeks. She was calm and quiet like Violet, attentive and curious, even just beginning to sit up and grab for anything within reach. She liked Xaden’s wedding ring, liked the texture of Violet’s dragon scale corset. She liked looking at the dragons: she would sit and stare at Andarna for hours if Xaden let her, endlessly fascinated by her shifting scales as Andarna stretched her wings in the sun.

She was an easy baby for the most part, but Violet’s pregnancy had been hard.

They’d assumed it would be, but she’d been in pain almost constantly—aching joints and swollen feet and hands. By the second half, she spent more time in bed than out of it, barely sleeping due to the pain. Thanks to Brennan and the best midwife in Tyrrendor, the birth had been smooth, though long; Violet labored for over a day before Fia joined them. Then she’d spent more weeks recovering, Fia sleeping on her chest as Violet read to her.

It was why Xaden always got up in the night when Fia woke. Violet would have done it gladly, he knew that, but she’d given so much to bring Fia into the world while he’d only been able to watch. Rocking her back to sleep once or twice a week was the least he could do. Violet protested, and he ignored her. Sometimes she’d come find them, but more often than not she slept on comfortably and didn’t wake until Xaden joined her in bed again.

“What do you think?” Xaden murmured to Fia, stopping in front of a window and turning her around so she could look outside. She pressed a chubby little hand to the glass and cooed. “How long are we gonna be awake tonight?”

Fia babbled unintelligibly. Once the window had lost her attention, he shifted her in his arms so her head could rest against his shoulder, and she lay limply against his chest. He rubbed a broad hand up and down her back, marveling, not for the first time, at how tiny she was. How easily she fit into his arms. He never wanted to let her go.

Violet protested that it was bad for Fia to be held constantly. She needed to move and look and engage with the world around her. Xaden argued that she’d have years to do those things, and he only had a few months to hold her like this. That usually made Violet soften, and she got that tender expression on her face that he never tired of because it reminded him that she loved him just as much as he loved her.

He walked half a dozen laps around the library, humming under his breath. Fia settled slowly as he rocked her, bouncing her lightly in the way she liked and stroking along her spine. He felt her little form go entirely limp, finally asleep; her head tipped to press against his neck, her breath against his skin, the beat of her heart against his own. He could go put her back to bed, but he didn’t stop walking.

Just a little longer, he decided. Just a few more minutes holding her.

“I think she’s drooling on you,” a voice whispered, breaking through the still serenity of the library.

Xaden turned and found Violet leaning against a shelf, watching him with a soft look on her face.

“That’s what I’m here for,” Xaden murmured.

She smiled sleepily. She was in a nightgown and thin robe, barefoot with her hair loose and tangled, like she’d woken and hadn’t wanted to be alone. “Come here,” she said quietly.

Xaden went. He held Fia with one arm, and reached out with the other to take Violet’s hand. She fit her fingers into the spaces between his and stepped in close, resting her head against his chest next to their daughter. She stretched on her toes to brush a fleeting kiss against Fia’s soft cheek, and then titled her face up to Xaden expectantly.

He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, and finally pressed his mouth to hers. “I love you,” he murmured.

Violet’s eyes fell shut, contentment written in every line of her expression. “I love you, too.”

I feel like I just completly glossed over the fact that Imogen and Dain were second years in the same squad.

Which means they survived Rider’s Survival Course together.

The absolute insanity I’m descending into picturing Imogen and Dain at the same table sharing a secret, and then having to protect each other’s secrets while they get the shit beat out of them.

Imogen having to listen to Dain bond with the infantry about rules and order and respecting the rank while they wander lost through the woods, trying not to get torched by dragons.

And they had the full second year at Basgiath! Which meant they had the tourture chamber testing twice!

She went through all of that with him, and then was part of the squad that got sent to their deaths because of him. We really do not give her enough credit for not snapping his neck at the first oppurtunity in Iron Flame.

It’s here! This chapter is heavy, and all the applicable warnings are in the chapter itself, so please review those if needed and be safe reading 🫶🏻

“You should be scared of me.”

Violet and Xaden - Fourth Wing

Artist: @kotikomori for @readingportal

chapter 3 of castles crumbling (aka Tales from the Airport Bathroom extended version) now posted!

Chapter 3: Fire and Brimstone is now up on AO3: READ HERE

Remember when I said I didn't know when chapter 3 would come out? lol yeah, here's 8.6k words that I wrote and edited in a day, bc xaden pov. Enjoy!

Summary:

Violet should already be dead. People whispered about her weak body and how she would never live up to her family's martial accomplishments. Violet rose above them all, however, fighting and killing to survive the Navarrian Intelligence Agency's brutal BASGIATH training protocol. Now, people whisper about Violet's swift ascension through the NIA's ranks as one of its most valuable operatives and assassins. The whispers don't matter to Violet: She has her own agenda, and it's a dangerous one - finding out what happened to her father.

But one mission changes everything: Suddenly, Violet finds herself in the crosshairs when she stumbles on information Navarre wants buried, and the country she fought for begins to turn on her. Violet knows too much, but she's determined to do what she does best: Survive. Her only hope is the son of the man who they say killed her brother, but their partnership is far from assured. Some grudges run deep, and trust is a currency too valuable to give freely. Xaden realizes Violet may be the key to everything, but with enemies seen and unseen closing in on all sides, the consequences of failure are deadly.

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If there is one thing I’ve learned about dealing with the Cordella’s, it’s to be on my guard at all fucking times.

That’s not just because Syrena is fully capable of giving me a run for my money through her sheer combat prowess. It’s also because Catriona Cordella is an instigating, power-hungry vulture that seems to specialize in bringing someone from mild annoyance to all-out rage in five seconds flat.

I’ve kept my fingers crossed that Syrena would come on her own today, but when Bodhi and I enter the alleyway just off the main square, I’m resigned to the fact that I have no such luck when she emerges from the shadows with Cat in tow.

Bodhi looks at me with apprehension as I cross my arms across my chest and lock my mask in place. I’m not here to play Catriona’s fucking mind games today, and I know she’ll be in top form given our previous interactions since I broke it off with her.

“Syrena,” I acknowledge, before my eyes slide over to Catriona. “Catriona.”

“Riorson,” Syrena dips her head in greeting. She looks exhausted. She’s the niece of a prominent Poromish politician, but she hasn’t lived her life in luxury.

No, she’s fighting against Navarre’s own mistakes, and she’s paying the price for it.