Spark of the Everflame (Kindred's Curse, #1)

by Penn Cole

For anyone who has ever been told their spark shouldn’t burn so bright and for all the people who loved them precisely because it did.

At whatever cost, to whatever end. Survive first, mind the consequences later.

But I was made of swinging fists and rash words, my edges too jagged and my temper too hot. Nothing about me was delicate.

My despair over my mother’s loss was a tattoo permanently etched beneath my skin, invisible to the world but never far from the surface.

Fight. It was a creature of its own, this thing inside of me. It was a lit match that eternally wavered above the pile of kindling that was my shredded soul, a drumbeat that called my temper to arms at every provocation.

“What do you call a trout wearing a ball gown?” I asked as I peered beneath a bandage on his knee. The boy beamed a gap-toothed grin at me. “What?” “Very so-fish-ticated.”

“If you cannot be stronger, be smarter. Choose both your battles and your enemies with care. Know when to flee a fight to win a war.”

whatever you do or don’t do, sweetheart, do it for yourself. Don’t choose a mediocre life for a mediocre man. Go be exceptional. If he’s worth it, he won’t judge you. And if he’s really the one, he’ll come along for the ride.”