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For every spark that has lost its light and needs a little help remembering how to glow.
If you are outnumbered or overwhelmed, or if all seems lost, just keep moving. Onward, until the very last breath.
His arms tightened around me anyway, and I barely managed to hold back a groan at how nice the searing heat of him felt as it seeped through my soggy clothes.
Occasionally, he stepped away to give orders to various servants or guards, and I was annoyed at myself for how anxious I grew in his absence.
“But rest assured, my Queen, when I do kiss you, there will be no confusion. You will know that I have claimed you—and I won’t have any desire to deny it.” All of me flushed.
In this room, my dress seemed almost plain. But instead of letting it feed my insecurity, I made it into my own quiet strength. I didn’t need baubles or tricks to steal attention. I was the Queen, and I wore the Crown of Lumnos on my head. There was no spotlight I couldn’t steal, no room in the realm I didn’t command.
My pulse spiked—at his touch, at the compliment, at the memory of all those times he’d seen me at my most pitiful, and how little it had done to turn his eye.
My patience for secret-keeping had come to an end.
I will keep you safe, and I will not apologize for it. Not now, not ever.”
Sometimes, the line between who I hated and who I had become was paper thin.
“The most precious rewards come from the battles most fiercely fought.”
“You chose the harder path. If we ever wish to see peace in this land, we need a leader like that—a leader like you.”
It’s a reminder that no challenge can destroy the parts of us that truly matter. We’re not reborn in the flames. We’re revealed.”
“Does your anger actually help those people, or does it make you feel righteous while the situation gets worse?”
Hateful, intrusive thoughts poked and prodded at the edge of my mind.
I no longer gave a damn about anyone else’s rules but my own.
I wondered if I might look the same to him—dying, drop by drop, as my crimson grief stained all my flimsy attempts to pretend that I was healing.
My tears had dried up. These days, my grief was numb or it was angry—any other emotion had been stomped on and flattened.
“Even good men can lose their way.”
But no matter how hard I fled from my problems, there were truths chasing me I couldn’t outrun much longer.
I should have been grateful. I should have been happy. And yet I’d never felt worse.
I leaned forward and dug my fingers into the damp earth, wishing I could bury myself deep and sleep for a thousand years.
“Then keep trying. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, pick yourself back up, and try again. And don’t stop until you figure it out.
“You’ve certainly been swinging your fists around everywhere you go, but you haven’t been fighting. You’re going through the motions and biding your time until someone takes pity on you and strikes a killing blow. You’ve lost that spirit that makes you... you.”
doing something and failing was better than doing nothing at all.
These are my people.” I came to a stop, giving myself a moment to let my eyes sweep over the familiar streets and buildings. “This is what I’m fighting for. And I’ll risk everything to protect it.”
“Perhaps, for the right person, we endure the pain, because the torture of never having them at all is the more unbearable fate.”
“If anyone you loved was going through this, you would be there for every step of it, no matter how dangerous it was. You deserve someone who’s willing to do the same for you.”
“You are fearless. You are strong. You do not cower in the faces of gods nor kings. You are fated for greater battles than this, so you do whatever it takes, and you fight like hell.”
“Burn, my Queen. Glow so bright, the darkness trembles.”
“I can do this,” I said quietly. “I am Diem Bellator. Daughter of my mother Auralie. Chosen of my father Andrei. Protector of my brother Teller. Healer, warrior, and Queen.” My chin rose, my voice growing louder. “I can do this.”
If I wanted to be truly worthy of my Crown, I had to stop denying that truth. I was mortal. And I was Descended. And I would fight with everything I had to protect them both.
“I do not rule for you,” I shouted. “I rule for them.”
All this time, I had been waiting for the godhood to embrace me, when what I really needed to do was embrace myself.
Reminds me of Penelope
Both halves were necessary to make me whole, and I would not succeed in this war without accepting them both.
“The true measure of strength is not in the lives we take, but in the lives we save.
