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“To answer your question, I will not pursue Bree, because even if she is with an enemy, I know that she will survive—which is a far better fate than what awaits her here.” A long silence fills the rotunda. Aldrich’s mouth is a pursed line. His next words break the silence like stones thrown in a still pond. “You dance with treason today, Scion Davis.” “If treason is truth, then perhaps I do. Or perhaps I merely tire of your version of loyalty.”
You have made me parentless twice over, Regents. I am an orphan of your Court. I have lived beneath your violence; I have seen what you seek to hide, not just here but everywhere. And in my time away from this court, I have seen and felt your truths more clearly than ever.” “What truths?” “Your supremacy,” Nick says, brows tight. “Your misogyny. Your racism. Your cowardice.” Aldrich snarls. “Scion Davis—” “I only state out loud that which you enact in plain sight. That which we can all see, if we can stand to bear witness.” Nick seethes. “Will you punish me for doing so? Your chosen son?”
“Briana Matthews cannot be the only voice that speaks against you.” Nick’s face turns derisive. A bright fury, rising beneath his skin. “Not when she bears our burdens for us and goes so unprotected. Not when you erase her humanity to guard your own power and protect your own whiteness.”
A FULL-CHESTED WAVE of immobilizing shame swamps me. Did I ever name the forces that Bree faced? Did I ever call them what they were, full voiced in front of her? Or did I hope that she would understand that I knew them? Did I hope she would know my heart without seeing me declare it before others? I drop my head. If I cannot recall the facts of my own words, then I cannot expect her to.
“Something you know we can’t continue, so why even ask?”
finish what we started or not continue?! which one lover boy
Nick speaks the complexity of my life into simplicity so easily, so frequently. The conclusions I fumble around to find he just… states out loud. And he speaks those truths half to himself and half to me, as if this perspective on my bloodmark is obvious and easy, and not an elusive clarity that I keep chasing and chasing.
oh to be understood T_T
