Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2)

by Laini Taylor

Of all possible souls to survive the slaughter: her own murderer.

There is intimacy in pain.

“Good girl.” She bristled at the words and the caressing tone in which he spoke them. Am I? she wondered as she sank to her knees to raise the dead.

He reached for her arm; she jerked it away, and he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

wish this bitch would stop trying to touch her after the like 800000th time being rejected Men are trash

“I love you, crossbar,” whispered Karou, and petted it.

At the execution. He had tried to save her.

Thiago had been clear: The rebels needed her but couldn’t make the mistake of trusting her. She was treacherous and must be managed carefully—by him.

BITCH

Did they all think she still loved Akiva?

Um bc you do ???

Karou, behind them, felt a sudden prickling at the back of her neck and turned.

AKIVA!!!!!!!

Akiva started at the sound of his name, the sound of Karou’s voice, the sight of her upright, awake, and so near.

I need my children to make up

“I don’t know why, Karou,” he said. “But I think the angel saved my life.”

“It would have been too easy,” he said. “I don’t deserve peace.” “And I don’t, either? Don’t I deserve to finally be free of you?”

KAROU CHILL GIRL

“I’ll tell you why,” said Karou. Her words were precise, a knife sliding between his ribs. “I never trusted you.”

I lost my soul. “I lost our dream. Vengeance eclipsed everything. I barely remember the weeks and months after…” After I watched you die, and part of me died, too.

She felt his absence, the way she always had—as cold rushing in to fill the void he left behind.

“Daughter of my heart,” was the message Brimstone had sent just for Karou. She wanted to cry again right here in the court, thinking of it. “Twice-daughter, my joy. Your dream is my dream, and your name is true. You are all of our hope.”

Akiva knew his brother was dead even before his head hit tile,

NOOOOOO

“Please.” Liraz’s voice was strangled. Her eyes shifted from Issa to Karou and they were wild. “Save him.”

😭😭😭

The way he was looking at her… it was like touch.

“Who did that to you?” he asked. Weak as his voice was, it burned with anger. “It was him, wasn’t it? It was the Wolf.”

“We didn’t… we didn’t have one.” Liraz. Whispering. “We brought him here. To you.” Akiva was hoarse. “It’s only been a day. Karou. Please.” As if it were a matter of persuading her.

and now there was nothing in the air or aura of this dead angel—soldier, killer, beloved brother—no impression of light or laughter to go along with those blue eyes and laugh lines, no stir of any kind to brush against her senses and tell her who he was because… he wasn’t. She looked up. She forced herself to meet Akiva’s red eyes and Liraz’s so they would see and understand her sorrow. And know that Hazael’s soul was lost.

I’ve never been so upset

Tomorrow they will start the apocalypse. Tonight, they let themselves look at each other, for just a little while.