Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

Because love, at its root, is hope. Hope for tomorrow. Hope for what could be. Hope that the someone you’ve entrusted your everything to will cradle and protect it. And hope? That shit is harder to kill than a dragon.

“Secrets make for poor leverage. They die with the people who keep them.”

And the boy I used to climb trees with along its river will be my demise.

I’m sorry if you expect me to do the noble thing. I warned you. I’m not sweet or soft or kind, and you fell anyway.

I’m grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won’t have to face a day without you in it.

My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I’ll meet Malek at your side.

“Less than a minute,” Xaden whispers as Sgaeyl moves toward him—toward us. “That’s how long it took for you to fall out of love with me.”

“You must save yourself,” Tairn demands. “I chose you not as my next, but as my last, and should you fall, then I will follow.”

She’s the tide, the storms, the very air, a force too big to be extinguished without ripping the world itself apart to the core.

Most generals dream of dying in service to their kingdom. But you know me better than that, my love. When I fall, it will be for one reason only: to protect our children.