The Serpent and the Wings of Night

I didn’t realize my lips had curled until his thumb moved, tracing the curve of that smile as if it was something worthy of reverence.
“Are you going to kill me, Oraya?” he murmured.
I didn’t run. Didn’t move. Instead, I lay my palm flat against his chest.
I surprised even myself when I replied, “Not tonight.”

⬥ I couldn’t be stronger than them, so I had to be more precise. No time for mistakes.

⬥ “Do you feel unsafe here, little serpent?” … “Good. You are not safe. Not in this castle. Not in this room. You are prey in a world of predators.”

⬥ “Do you want to change this world, little serpent? Then climb your cage until you are so high no one can catch you. Break its bars and make them your weapons. Nothing is sharper.”

⬥ “I hope you can find it in your heart to call me a friend,” he said, as he slipped the box into his pocket. “You may find we have more in common than you think. We’re the only ones here who know what it’s like to fight against time. Counts for a lot in this world, doesn’t it?”

𝓢𝔀𝓸𝓸𝓷𝔂 𝓠𝓾𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓼
“Give me one honest thing, Raihn Ashraj.”

“I’ve lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries. Seen some fucking travesties. But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.”

He smelled like the sky—he tasted like falling. His lips met mine like he’d been waiting his entire life for this kiss and had known exactly what he would do when he got it.

“You are the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen, Oraya.”

“You don’t even know, Oraya.” … “The things I’ve thought about. ‘Want’ doesn’t even fucking cover it. I have a list.”

“Give me one honest thing,” he murmured.
One honest thing. The most terrible honest thing of all was that with Raihn, it was all honest—it always had been.

I didn’t know it was possible to feel this much. Want this much.

The hint of a smile creased the corners of his eyes. “There she is.”

“So don’t you fucking dare stop fighting, princess. It would break my damned heart.”

His hands gripped my hips, his eyes never leaving mine. “I would beg,” he murmured. “For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?”

The Crowns of Nyaxia series will now be narrated by Amanda Leigh Cobb - who many of you might know from A Court of Wings and Ruin!
Because of this change, there will be a temporary lapse in availability of the audiobook of The Serpent and the Wings of Night. The current version of the audiobook will be coming down shortly, and a preorder for the new version will be going up next week.

”he was a terrible person in so many ways. and yet I loved him.”

The king did not know then that his greatest love would also be his ruination— nor that either would come in the form of a tiny, helpless human child.

But maybe this place made all of us that way. Taught us to hide love in sharp edges.


Vincent had carved these lessons into me. Never trust. Never yield. Always guard your heart.

He was not the physically strongest vampire. He was not the fiercest warrior nor the wisest sage. But they said he was blessed by the goddess Nyaxia herself, and anyone who had ever met him would swear it to be true. Power seeped from his every pore, and death stained his every breath.


“You cannot accomplish anything in this world without power,” he said. “And power requires sacrifice, focus, and ruthlessness.”

This struck me, strange and confusing. My humanness had been the reason why I’d spent a lifetime dimming myself. For these people, it was the reason they burned brighter

Death isn’t frightening when weighed against an insignificant existence.”
An insignificant existence. Those words hit me unexpectedly hard. Because what existence was more insignificant than this? Living in constant fear, hobbled by my own blood and my own human weakness? I could never be anything this way, fighting so hard to survive that I could never do anything.

You ready? I asked him.
He was already lifting his sword. Always.


“Give me one honest thing, Raihn Ashraj.”
After a long moment of silence, he finally spoke. “I’ve lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries. Seen some fucking travesties. But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.”

And then I realized. I realized that fear, when embraced, hardens and sharpens.
That it becomes rage.
That it becomes power.
I would not die here.
I let my fury explode.
I let it spill out through my mouth and my eyes and my fingers and the tips of my hair. I let it erupt all the way to the sky— past the stars, the moon, reaching for Nyaxia herself.

After all, vampires know better than anyone how important it is to protect their hearts.
And love, understand, is sharper than any stake.

"we'll rip apart the worlds that subjugated both of us, and from the ashes we'll rebuild something new. and there is no one i would rather have beside me to do that with than you, oraya. no one."

'the line between anger and sadness is so thin. i had learned that fear can become rage, but rage can so easily shatter into devastation. the fractures spiderwebbed across my heart.'

"I would beg," he murmured. "For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?"

'I would beg for him, too. Break for him. Cut myself open like an animal for dissection. He held me open that way, not just my body but my soul, too.'

“I give you my body. I give you my blood. I give you my soul. I give you my heart. From this night until the end of nights. From daybreak until our days are broken. Your soul is my soul. Your heart is my heart. Your pain is my pain. I bind myself to you.”

i had human blood and a vampire heart. he’d had a human heart and vampire blood.

'i really did try not to notice, or care, that they drank me in the same way he drank in sunshine.'

➺ 'There are moments in one’s life that remain permanently distilled in memory. Some wither within minutes, and others are carved forever into our souls.'

➺ 'One honest thing. The most terrible honest thing of all was that with Raihn, it was all honest- it always had been. He saw too much of me. Understood every complexity and senseless duality. I was honest even when I didn’t mean to be. He did not fear my darkness, nor pity my compassion.'

➺ 'I came to the horrifying realization that I would never be able to carve Raihn from my heart. He had embedded too deep. Roots through stone.'

➺ "A world without you would be a dark, depressing place. And I’ve already inflicted enough pain without committing that fucking injustice, too. So let me save you.”

➺ "I was ready to let it all go for you,” he murmured. “Do you know that, Oraya? I was ready to let my kingdom fall for you.”

➺ 'And perhaps the only other person who had ever really understood what it was like to have a heart that bled both red and black. I hated him. And I loved him.

➺ 'We kissed like we fought together, responding to each touch, each movement. We understood each other by now.'

➺ 'I wanted to put my hand over that wound in his heart, even when my own threatened to tear me apart.'

➺ 'A part of me longed for that touch. Longed to let myself fall apart and let him keep me together.'

➺ 'It startled me, that touch. It startled me because it comforted me. I didn’t think it was possible to find a touch comforting ever again.'

"There she is," he murmured.