Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes, #1)

by Sara Raasch

So from then on, I called him Sir. Yes, Sir. No, Sir. You are not my father and I will never be your daughter and I hate that you’re all I have, Sir.

sometimes placing our belief in something bigger than ourselves helps us get to a point where we can be enough on our own,

My entire life, I had been surrounded only by the other Winterian escapees. It had never occurred to me that anyone might look different, but as I gazed at black eyes set in lush brown skin, I wished for my skin to be that pretty shade, and for my blue eyes to be a dark mystery too.

Don’t let fear take hold of you—fear is a seed that, once planted, never stops growing.

That’s how we all are, too hard for what we should be. We should be a family, not soldiers. But all that really connects us is stories, and memories, of what should be.

I’m strong enough on my own—me, Meira, no magic or conduit or anything.

Just someone who gets bounced around in whatever position needs to be filled, used and used like a candle on a moonless night until I burn away into a puddle of compliance and obedience.

Holding on to some part of your past even if it means also holding on to the pain of never again having it. That pain is less horrible than the pain of forgetting.

There will always be a they in your new life, Meira. They make decisions; they mold your future. The trick is to find a way to still be you through it all.”

I can weave threads of myself into a tapestry already designed by others.

It makes me feel both strong and weak at the same time, like I could lean too much on him, on the support he’s offering, and lose myself behind him.

he is too strong for this expression, his face too hard, too wise, to support the sheer nothingness cascading over him.

Everything must be dead to make way for Spring.

Someday we will be more than words in the dark.

Like her words are this room, a hollow and forgotten thing.

That, I think, is a truer mark of belonging somewhere—being willing to do anything, everything, that needs to be done, regardless of what I want.

“Even the strongest blizzard starts with a single snowflake.”