The Rise of The Darkest Flame (The Dark Flame Series Book 1)

by Katherine Whiteheart

“I never expected for you to be anyone, but yourself. And if you think that I would ever make you change who you are just so that we could be an image of perfection, then you don’t know me as well as I thought you did.”

“Now,” Ren sighed. “In the coming weeks, when Carys is crowned your queen, I hope that you will remember this moment every time that you have to kneel before her. And I want you to remember the consequences of speaking ill of someone you know nothing about. I want you to look in the mirror, at your pretty new smile, and remember how unfunny your little joke was. Because next time, I’ll cut out your fucking tongue.”

“I’m not mad at you.” “But you are. If you weren’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We would be able to actually talk about things. You would be able to look at me without that fire blazing behind your eyes.”

I know that you can’t force someone to love you if they don’t want to. I’m just scared that if I give you a single ounce of the person I was, you will do nothing but break me all over again.”

And the fear of that darkness seeping out and affecting her more than he already had… it made him want to stay as far away from her as possible some days. But most days, every day, he didn’t want to stay away from her at all.

“We are not what people say we are, Carys. You are your own person and you have every bit of freedom to choose who you want to be and what you want to be remembered for. Don’t let someone else’s fear of greatness keep you small.”

“I have so much to prove. My only hope is that I can regain your trust and that, one day, it won’t be so hard for us.”

I lied to myself for this long and told myself that nothing had changed—that I was still filled with rage and that I wanted him to feel every ounce of pain I felt throughout those years. But it was a lie. All of it.

All I knew, all I cared about, was to be kinder and more understanding of anyone I came to know in life. Even her. Even the person that had just tried to rip the life from me… I wondered what kind of hurt they had endured to wish that upon someone else.

“You were right when you said that all of us have our fair share of secrets. But the only secret that I wish I never kept from you was that you weren’t alone. Just as you wished you had someone to help you through those darkest days… I wished that I had someone too.”