A Queen This Fierce and Deadly (Kingdom of Lies, #4)

by Stacia Stark

“Listen to me, wildcat. Our story doesn’t end when this life does. You’ll be mine in the next life––and the life after that. If you hadn’t wielded time, I would have waited as long as it took to see you again.”

“You think feelings are a weakness. And sometimes, they are. Sometimes, those feelings eat at everything you thought you were. But a life refusing to feel, to love? That is worse than a weakness. That is a travesty. To refuse to feel the full range of emotions, to deny yourself joy in an effort to protect yourself from the loss? I may not know much—may have no true glimpse of the future the way my mother does—but I know without a doubt that one day, the tiny moments of joy you keep turning your back on? They’re the moments that will keep you alive.”

“I’m not sorry that you care, Madinia. Because when someone like you takes an interest…worlds change.”

I’d seen so many expressions on his face

when he looked at me. Irritation, humor, bemusement, lust, a love so deep it made me question if I could ever be worthy of such adoration. But now, he looked at me as if I was the last star left in a sky filled with darkness. He looked at me as if he was drowning and I was the only one who could give him air. It was a desperate, possessive, love-stricken look.

“I vow to be the roots that ground you, the branches that help you reach for your dreams, and the shelter that forever keeps you safe. I will love you in every life.”

“Bravery is a choice. However, you can’t wait until the moment you need to be brave to reach for that bravery. Because if you haven’t been purposefully tending to it, building it up, you may find that it is not there when you need it. You must stoke the fires of courage little by little, day by day, so they are burning bright long before you ever need them. And you fuel or douse those fires—fanning the flames or snuffing them out—with the words you say to yourself. And with the words you allow others to say about you in your presence.”

“I don’t think it’s the memories of your life that you see when you die. I think it’s the people you’ll miss the most. The people who made your

life worth living. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, you see the one person you would defy the fates and stay for—if you could.”