A Reaper at the Gates (An Ember in the Ashes, #3)

by Sabaa Tahir

She is a child whose happiness is gauged by the strange weather between her parents, sometimes sunny but more often a gale.

One day, you will have children. And you will learn that you would rather suffer a thousand torments than let one hair on their heads be harmed. Give me this gift. Let me protect you as I should have protected L-L-L-Lis.”

Curse this world for what it does to the mothers, for what it does to the daughters. Curse it for making us strong through loss and pain, our hearts torn from our chests again and again. Curse it for forcing us to endure.