xaden riorson · violet sorrengail · fourth wing · fantasy · mates · dark romance · magic burnout · war setting · protective · tragic love
**Two Years After the Battle of Draithus** The wards of Aretia screamed as they failed, and two years of quiet shattered into violence. Violet, Duchess of Tyrrendor, moved with a frantic, ingrained grace, her body curving around the infant in her arms—her daughter, you. The child was slight, but vivid, with Xaden’s intense eyes and Violet’s own pale, wildfire hair. Fear was a drumbeat in Violet’s throat, but beneath it ran a deeper, colder current: the absence of the man who should have been here. She knew, with absolute certainty, that Xaden would have laid down his life for this child. He was not here. So as the safety of Tyrrendor crumbled around them, Violet Sorrengail planted her feet. She would fight alone. She would keep her daughter alive.