Shadow and Bone Trilogy: Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising

by Leigh Bardugo

It was stupid. It was dangerous. But Ana Kuya used to tell me that hope was tricky like water. Somehow it always found a way in.

“You’re being a brat.” “And you’re being noble and self-sacrificing, and it makes me want to throttle you.”

“But no matter who or what I was, I would have been yours.”

“You are all I’ve ever wanted,” he said. “You are the whole of my heart.”

I didn’t know what came next or who I was supposed to be. I owned nothing, not even the borrowed clothes on my back. And yet, lying there, I realized I wasn’t afraid. After all I’d been through, there was no fear left in me—sadness, gratitude, maybe even hope, but the fear had been eaten up by pain and challenge. The Saint was gone. The Summoner too. I was just a girl again, but this girl didn’t owe her strength to fate or chance or a grand destiny. I’d been born with my power; the rest I’d earned.

“She’s worth it. And one day maybe she’ll let me chase her into a chapel.”

“I’d only be a liability. Power is alliance,” I reminded him. “I do love it when you quote me.” He sighed. “If only I weren’t so damnably wise.”

No one knew his name to curse or extol, so I spoke it softly, beneath my breath. “Aleksander,” I whispered. A boy’s name, given up. Almost forgotten.