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

by Sabaa Tahir

“Skies save me from the men in my life and all the things they think they know.

Sometimes I wish the Warden back to life, just so I could kill him myself. Strange how monsters can reach from beyond the grave, as potent in death as they were in life.

The Scholars around us scatter, running every which way, driven by a fear that’s been hammered into our bones. Always us! Our dignity shredded, our families annihilated, our children torn from their parents. Our blood soaking the dirt. What sin was so great that Scholars must pay, with every generation, with the only thing we have left: our lives?

“Fine,” I say. “Who’s the Beekeeper, and how can I find him?” “Ah, Laia of Serra.” His white teeth shine like those of a smug horse. He offers me his arm, and under the brightening sky, I finally get a closer look at his tattoos—dozens of them, big and small, all clustered around a hive. Bees. “It’s me, of course,” Musa says. “Don’t tell me you hadn’t guessed.”

I kick at the door violently—a stupid decision, as now my foot aches. I wonder if my entire life will be a series of moments in which I realize I’m an idiot long after I can actually do anything about it. Will I ever feel like I know what I’m doing? Or will I be an old man, tottering about, flummoxed by whatever recent foolishness I’ve committed?

You humans give your loyalty so willingly for just a little hope.” “And you think we are fools because of it?” I shake my head. “Hope is stronger than fear. It is stronger than hate.”