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March 21 - July 2, 2023
“She’s an ugly little thing. No child should look like that. Pale and sour, like a glass of milk that’s turned.”
Sounds familiar like the little girl from The Secret Garden.
We’d happened on an illustration of a volcra: long, filthy claws; leathery wings; and rows of razor-sharp teeth for feasting on human flesh. They were blind from generations spent living and hunting in the Fold, but legend had it they could smell human blood from miles away.
beleaguered
“I guess it’s easy to have a lot in common when you’re kids.”
“Hold on!” I cried. Then the flame vanished, and in the darkness I felt Alexei’s fingers pulled from mine.
O M G
sporadic,
Pain and fear rushed through me. I cried out. The thing inside me roared to the surface, speeding toward the Darkling’s call. I couldn’t stop myself. I answered. The world exploded into blazing white light.
*slow claps*
“Ivan,” called the Darkling, “mind your tone. She is Grisha now.”
On the windows, the Darkling’s symbol had been cut into the glass: two overlapping circles, the sun in eclipse.
If you’re truly a Sun Summoner, then your power could be the key to opening up the Fold—or maybe even destroying it.
“An amplifier increases a Grisha’s power,” said Fedyor. “But the power must be there to begin with.”
The Darkling hurried up the hill and knelt beside me, blocking my view of the corpse. “Look at me,” he instructed.
*googles Ben Barnes' photos
“Clear the road. I need twenty riders.” “The girl?” Ivan asked. “Rides with me,” said the Darkling.
asdfghjklhqhahqvjsvxmwgzsv BE STILL MY BEATING HEART
“When a fire burns, it uses up the wood. It devours it, leaving only ash. Grisha power doesn’t work that way.” “How does it work?” “Using our power makes us stronger. It feeds us instead of consuming us. Most Grisha live long lives.”
Os Alta was called the dream city. It was the capital of Ravka, home to the Grisha and the King’s Grand Palace.
“She’ll walk with me,” said a low voice, and the room went silent.
y'all move along now ;)
“Genya,” the Darkling called after us, “the kefta will be black.”
I WOULD'VE WANTED BLACK KEFTAAAAAAA
For a girl who hated looking at herself, I was at risk of becoming vain.
“Very nice,” said Genya when I opened the door. “But you would have looked better in black.”
YES!!!!!
The library was two stories high, its walls lined from floor to ceiling with books. A balcony ran around the second story, and its dome was made entirely of glass so that the whole room glowed with morning light. A few reading chairs and small tables were set by the walls. At the room’s center, directly beneath the sparkling glass dome, was a round table ringed by a circular bench.
This is a dream.
“What about their families?” I asked. “They’re compensated handsomely. A Grisha’s family never wants.” “That’s not what I meant. Don’t you ever go home to visit?” Genya shrugged. “I haven’t seen my parents since I was five. This is my home.”
:(
“An Etherealnik rarely works alone. Inferni pair up. Squallers often partner with Tidemakers. But you’re the only one of your kind.”
you guys better pair up
I stared at him. “That’s it?” I blurted. “You just wanted to ask me about my day?” He cocked his head to one side. “What were you expecting?” I was so relieved that a little laugh escaped me. “I have no idea. Torture? Interrogation? A stern talking to?” He frowned slightly. “I’m not a monster, Alina. Despite what you may have heard.”
:))))))))
I thought of the Darkling’s words that night beneath the broken beams of the barn. You’re the first glimmer of hope I’ve had in a long time. He believed I was the Sun Summoner. He believed I could help him destroy the Fold. And if I could, no soldier, no merchant, no tracker would ever have to cross the Unsea again.
The grounding principle of the Small Science was “like calls to like,” but then it got complicated.
One thing did stand out to me: the word the philosophers used to describe people born without Grisha gifts, otkazat’sya, “the abandoned.” It was another word for orphan.
“Peasants love their Saints. They hunger for the miraculous. And yet they do not love the Grisha. Why do you think that is?”
Marie rolled her eyes. “She can’t bear the idea of anyone being the Darkling’s favorite.” I laughed and then winced at the stab of pain in my side. “I’m hardly his favorite.” “Of course you are. Zoya’s powerful, but she’s just another Squaller. You’re the Sun Summoner.”
yeah you are his favorite CLAIM IT
The Darkling sighed and ran his hands through his dark hair in exasperation. When he looked at me, there was a rueful smile on his lips, and his hair was going every which way.
Ben Barnes. Ben Barnes. Ben Barnes.
He laughed then. It was the first time I’d ever heard his laugh, a lovely dark sound that rippled through the air.
Girl how is your heart not fluttering?
“If Morozova’s stag can be taken, its antlers can be made into an amplifier.” He reached out and tapped my collarbone—even that brief contact was enough to send a jolt of surety through me.
He looked at me. His hair was still a mess, and in the bright morning sunlight, he looked more handsome and more human than I’d ever seen him.
:)))))))
“I’ve been waiting for you a long time, Alina,” he said. “You and I are going to change the world.”
“The Grisha claims the amplifier, but the amplifier claims the Grisha, as well. Once it is done, there can be no other. Like calls to like, and the bond is made.” The reason for this wasn’t entirely clear to me, but it seemed to have something to do with a check on Grisha power. “The horse has speed. The bear has strength. The bird has wings. No creature has all of these gifts, and so the world is held in balance. Amplifiers are part of this balance, not a means of subverting it, and each Grisha would do well to remember this or risk the consequences.” Another philosopher wrote, “Why can a
...more
“It isn’t an animal that shies away from you or chooses whether or not to come when you call it. Do you ask your heart to beat or your lungs to breathe? Your power serves you because that is its purpose, because it cannot help but serve you.”
“Do you think the world cares if you do your best? Do it again and do it right.”
This is actually true.
“Steel is earned.”
imbibing.
“Why would you care what I think?” He looked genuinely baffled. “I don’t know,” he said. “But I do.” And then he kissed me.
Sorry, I dropped my kindle
My thoughts kept wandering back to the feel of the Darkling’s lips on mine and the way he’d looked standing in the lamplight, his breath a white cloud in the cold night air, that stunned expression on his face.
Then the memory of the Darkling’s kiss blew through me and rattled my concentration, scattering my thoughts and making my heart swoop and dive like a bird borne aloft by uncertain currents. The light shattered, leaving me in darkness.
As long as I kept my mouth shut, the kiss was a secret that the Darkling and I shared, and I wanted it to stay that way. All the same, some days it took everything in me not to stand up in the middle of breakfast and shout, “The Darkling kissed me!”
Hahahhahaa Alinaaaaa
“The problem with wanting,” he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, “is that it makes us weak.”
i know i shouldn’t but I’m down on my knees TT
The Darkling slipped through the doorway, but then he turned back to me. “Alina,” he said, and I could see that he was fighting with himself, “can I come to you tonight?”
ASHJDHSKSHAKDJKZGSJDDHOS
I threw up my hands in exasperation. “Stop him from doing what?” “Using the Fold as a weapon.”
omg omg omg
“The Fold was created hundreds of years ago by the Black Heretic. The Darkling—” “He is the Black Heretic,” she said furiously, her face mere inches from mine.
*SCREAMINGGGGG
My stomach turned. “The volcra were men?”
OMG BAHSHAHZJVAMXBSMS
The Darkling wanted to use me. He wanted to take away the one thing that had ever really belonged to me, the only power I’d ever had.
My fingers froze on the buttons of my kefta. “You want me to go to West Ravka? To cross the Fold alone?” “I want you to disappear, girl. You’re strong enough to travel the Fold on your own now. It should be easy work. Why do you think I’ve spent so much time training you?”
GOOO ALINAAAAAAA
“You think I don’t love my son,” she said. “But I do. It is because I love him that I will not let him put himself beyond redemption.”
