Broken by Daylight (Beasts of the Briar, #4)

by Elizabeth Helen

“You’re in my light.” With a certainty he had never felt in his twenty-five years, the man replied, “You are my light.”

Your love is my guiding light through the darkness.

If I have to tear the mountains from the earth, the clouds from the sky, the water from the sea, I will do it. Nothing will stop me from finding Rosalina.

If I am not worthy of basking in her radiance, then I will walk behind her as a shadow. As her shadow, I will engulf any who would dim her light. If darkness is all I have, then I will use it to serve her.

“It’s like being stuck in the eye of a storm you can’t escape. It’s suffocating, consuming. It’s waking up every day with a weight on your chest, wondering if today will be the day it crushes you entirely. Love is continuing to drink poison because it’s also the only antidote. For me, it is a battle that if he wins, I lose, and if I win, somehow, I still lose. Love is the only reason I still choose to draw breath.”

“I promise. Use me however you want,” he pleads. “Just please, don’t ask me to leave.”

“You can’t keep dwindling your own flame just because you’re afraid of what it might mean if you burn brighter than both of them.”

“Love is an endless sea, and in its depths, I find your strength.”

“Something to learn about me, Father, is I love a little chaos. If I have to disrupt fate’s plan, I’ll do so gladly. After all,” I purr, “what else are villains for?”

“Are we fighting or kissing? You know I love the latter, but really, choose your moments, people!”

Curse the O’Connell women! And curse the men who love them!

I loved him like the night sky must love the moon, to have been denied forever the promise of sunlight, yet still get to gaze on something so bright.

“Rosalina, I would betray every god in every universe just to feel like this with you.”