The Lotus Empire (The Burning Kingdoms, #3)

by Tasha Suri

“To destroy us they must burn everything they need to live. They must burn their own kind. The world is almost ours. They simply do not know it yet.”

“I do not want the empress to burn, Rao,” she’d said to him. “I want her to live. I want an answer—a tool or weapon—that will save her. But I want you to live, too. Go to Dwarali, go far from all this, and learn how to live again. Then come back. Whole, or broken, it doesn’t matter. There is nothing worthless about a broken thing—be it a tale, or a man.”

I can’t protect everyone. And serving gods, no matter how long you’ve worshipped them, is—cold, pitiless, ugly work.

The same griefs and joys live everywhere, Malini, he’d told her. But I find peace in seeing that we all rise and fall on the same waves. Maybe you would, too.