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Kindle Notes & Highlights
It was always nothing. But one of these times, it might be something. A grimwolf or a bear or a vampire deer or, worse, a man.
She had forgotten what safe felt like, wondered how she’d ever taken it for granted,
“You’re right to be frightened.” The man’s gaze continued downward.
It is a man’s world in which we live, Skraeda, her queen had told her, in that calming voice of hers. Let them think us lambs, when truly, we are wolves.
“Didn’t I warn you not to play such games with me?” “Maybe I don’t want to win,” she whispered. “Maybe I just want to play.”
In his mind’s eye, Jonas saw her again in the clutches of the Raven scum, felt the rage burn through his veins once more. He’d drawn his axes and buried them in their skulls without thinking.
“Merciful gods, Jonas,” she muttered. “Just when I think you can get no worse, you go and open your mouth.” “And here I thought you enjoyed the look of my mouth.”
“And I wonder if the dowdy dresses and act of innocence are a trick, because good, sweet girls do not have a tongue as sharp and wicked as yours. And merciful gods, Silla. I am no good man, because all I can think of is drawing you into my furs and discovering what else that tongue is capable of.”
“It’s adorable you believed you were in control,” he whispered, his breath tickling her ear.
“It’s abundantly clear that you can do things, Sunshine. You need not do this, though.”
“You’re meant to use the sharp part of the axe, Sunshine,” grumbled Rey, staring at her in distaste.
“Cold,” she said, watching him. “There is something cold about you.”
“A powerful thing, a name can be,” she murmured. Her voice was soft, unthreatening, but in that moment, Rey saw a serpent, poised and ready to strike.
The past few weeks had been both terrifying and exhilarating, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But it was as if she’d woken, as if she was truly living for the first time.
“You’ve broken me…bewitched me…I know nothing except that I am miserable. All I can think of are your lips, the smell of your hair. How you felt in my arms, the way you made me feel so alive.”
“I was wrong to treat you like that. And I’m done fighting it, Silla. You shouldn’t be with other men. You belong with me.”
“I’ll distract you so well, you’ll forget your own name.” A laugh choked out of her. “So arrogant, Wolf.”
She’d thought him handsome, but it was not the right word for him; it was more than his looks, it was the way he carried himself—powerful and self-assured, the kind of man who took what he wanted. And to feel the weight of his attention on her was so overwhelming, it made her dizzy.
“I would take her words to heart, Rey. Don’t be fooled by her sweet smile. I believe this one is secretly vicious.” “I don’t believe there is anything ‘secret’ about it,”
It is normal to feel out of control sometimes. It is human.”
He stretched out on his back, and Silla admired his beautiful shape—broad chest and shoulders, well-muscled thighs, hands that could bring either pleasure or violence.
“Not killing you when I discovered you in our wagon will be a thing I regret until my last breath.”
words. Everything he had done to me—every slap, every punch, every kick—was kindling. It built me up into a raging wildfire, and now it was time for him to burn.
This is kindling, thought Silla. No matter what, they will not see me break. And one day, they will burn.
“Shh. It’s me, Sunshine. Calm down.”
Rey tilted her face up, and Silla was greatly aware of the size difference between them. He could have killed her a thousand times over, and yet here he was—sheltering her from the Klaernar, wiping tears from her cheeks.
“You’re not alone now,” said Rey, his hand smoothing over her hair.
And then Silla thought it—all this time, she’d been searching for a place to feel safe, but what if she’d been looking at it all wrong? What if safety was not a place, but a person? People?
