Powerful (The Powerless Trilogy, #1.5)

by Lauren Roberts

If there is a God, this man is certainly proof that He has His favorites.

She is an intoxicating sort of exhausting, like running until you’ve lost your breath but enjoying the feeling all the while. And I feel as though I’ve been sprinting for days.

I had never known happiness before her. But if there is to be an after in which she doesn’t exist, I know I never will again.

“But you… you’re the embodiment of everything I am not. And yet, here I am, crawling back to you as though I’ve left a piece of myself behind.”

“I regret not buying that blue shirt from you, if only so I had your attention long enough to convince you that red suits you better. I regret not telling you how much I like it when you blow those bangs out of your eyes, or the way you clap after finishing a row of stitches. I regret smothering every smile you made me want to give you. And I regret not telling you the truth. But most of all, not saying goodbye.”

“You’re here.” Her voice is muffled. “Only because you are.”

I was an expense. A nuisance. A disappointment.” “You’re not,” Adena breathes, shaking her head firmly. “Oh, I was.” I nod, my eyes drifting up to the sky above us. “I just wasn’t fortunate enough to be loved despite it.”

If darkness is the absence of light, then that is what I am when she is not around.

“I always wondered how something could shine so bright, even while being swallowed in darkness.”

“I think you’re my little piece of perfection.”