All This Twisted Glory (This Woven Kingdom, #3)

by Tahereh Mafi

He couldn’t fathom that she’d thought him worth such an effort, that she’d risk her

own safety to spare his life. It made him want to do unforgivable things.

She studied him like he might’ve been a dream. “Why? Because you’re terribly handsome?” “Don’t be funny,” he said, breathing hard. “This isn’t funny.” She blinked, her head lolling softly to one side.

He only closed his eyes against her hair and fought the desperate crush of his chest, the violence of his affection for her. How she managed to disarm him even now, on the brink of death, he could not understand. She’d wept for his pain, wiped the blood from his eyes, taken an arrow in the back for him. She’d shown him more loyalty and tenderness in two days than he’d ever felt in his life, and he knew then, with a force that drove the air from his lungs, that he would never survive her.

“Oh.” A little line formed between her brows. “You have a dragon?” “I— Yes.” “Just like you did before.” She stifled a yawn, her eyes closing. “Do I get one, too?”

Cyrus frowned. “Would that . . . please you?” “Yes, I think so.” “All right.” He blinked slowly. “You can have a dragon.”

Kaveh’s head gave a sudden jerk, smoke curling from his nostrils. Are you quite out of your mind, sire? You will not give the girl a dragon. Cyrus bristled. You live under my protection, in service of the crow...

“When you suffer,” Rostam went on, “you can choose to endure, or you can choose to overcome.” He gestured around them, to the vast expanse of the meadow. “Here, even in the midst of your discomfort, there existed elements of relief, if only you had bothered to search.”