The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power, #1)

by V.E. Schwab

“unless you’d rather stay down here and have a tumble.”

Of course Lila is turned on by a fight

And then she looked at him, and smiled, and started to walk on, but Kell caught her bare hand, and pulled her back to him, and kissed her.

He loved her. It scared him, but frankly, so did Lila. She always had. Delilah Bard wasn’t a soft bed on a summer morning. She was a blade in the dark, dazzling, and dangerous, and sharp. Even now, he half expected to feel her teeth against his lip, the bright prick of pain, the taste of his own blood. But all Kell felt was her.

Lila hopped down from the crate and spread her arms. “Come on, then.” “You’re not armed.” “Kell,” she said with a pitying grin. “I think you know me better than that.”

Haha

No wonder she had made it here, he thought. Delilah Bard was a force of nature. The world hadn’t simply opened for her. It had been cleaved, parted like skin beneath her knife. She was incredible. “Has anyone told you,” he said, “that you’re gorgeous when you fight?” The words knocked her off-balance, like a boot catching on uneven ground. She stumbled, for just a second, and in that second, he swung. Her dagger came up at the last moment, but it was close, beautifully close, the two blades shivering against her throat. For once, Lila scowled. For once, Kell smiled. And then she kicked him in the chest.

she wasn’t so much sitting in the chair as sprawling across it, one leg thrown over the side,

If there was any doubt Lila was bi 🤣

“Pain is a quick teacher,”

he couldn’t. Not from her. To Lila, Kell had always been a pane of glass tilted toward her just so, so that where others saw only colors and streaks, she saw the truth of it. Of him.

Caring could drown you, if you let it. But it could also help you float. Not that she’d ever let the bastards know.

But here, at sea, it was something private. The language they slipped into only when they were alone.

he thought she would tell the truth, then, spill the words she hated to say, the ones he needed to hear, that her place was with him as his was with her.

She tugged at the collar of his coat, then reached up and ruffled his copper hair so it fell in messy curls around his face.

Soft Lila

“Brother,” said Rhy, holding him tight. And unlike the coat, and all the other trappings of Kell’s old life, this one, at least, still fit.

Rhy lost the last dregs of his composure, and threw back his head and laughed, and then he was on his back, the night sky sliding in and out of focus. “I’m going to roll off,” he said, gasping for breath. “I’ll catch you,” said Kell without so much as a pause. Rhy’s laughter died away. “I know.”

There were plenty of things that set Delilah Bard apart. But perhaps the most important, at least here, in this London, was this. She didn’t need magic.

Lila just putting the work in, as always.

Or when she climbed onto the bed. Or when she reached out and ran her fingers with all the lightness of a thief over the pale streak that glinted in his hair. Or when she curled in, close enough to hear the soft tide of his breath, and let it pull her down to sleep.

She’s so sharp most of the time, I live to see soft Lila 🤣

“Your rank, as someone promised to the prince.”

*nearly choked* I really enjoy seeing Lila tormented too much.

He didn’t see Lila, and perhaps that was why she lingered, studying the gentle incline of his head, her fingers drifting almost absently to the ring beneath her shirt.

More soft Lila

“Please,” she said, “call me Nadiya. We are family, after all.” Family. The word scratched at Lila’s skin like rough wool. As far as she was concerned, family had nothing to do with proximity or blood. Family was a chosen thing. A label earned. Barron had been family. Kell was family. Alucard, and Stross, and Vasry, and Tav, and Rhy.

“Your Majesty,” said Lila through gritted teeth, “I mean this with the most respect.” She turned to face Nadiya and said, “Go fuck yourself.”

I mean, completely warranted 🤣

And Tes knew then, she’d found her champion.

😬

The stories about Delilah Bard were true. Despite the violence, and the chaos, she was clearly having fun.

She went looking for trouble.

the things Kell could do with his mouth when he put it to good use

Obvious enough even without that scene in Conjuring

“As vera tan.” I need you.

😭

You act as if you’ve never enjoyed a pleasure garden, when I know for a fact Rhy dragged you to more than one. According to him, you are at least capable of having fun.”

Haha!

She sighed in relief. “You came.” Kell stepped into the room, the black ring’s cord swinging from his fingers. “You called.” He smiled a little as he said it. That smile felt nice.

😭 (good to see Kell rescuing Lila for once)

“There is nowhere you go,” said the Antari to her prince, “that I cannot follow.”

Ahhhhhh! Now I'm crying. My God, Lila

You see why I must leave you? There is so much love up there.”

Oh Alucard 😭 Nothing like someone from an abusive home making their own happy, loving family

The night before she’d left, they’d lain in bed, and Lila had run her hand across his brow, and down his cheeks, trying to smooth each and every line the pain had carved in and out of Kell Maresh, until he had taken her wrist, and pinned her to the bed, Kay glinting like mischief in his eyes, as he convinced her not every change needed to be erased.

Finally Kell tying her to the bed :D