The Beauty of Darkness (The Remnant Chronicles, #3)

by Mary E. Pearson

Darkness was a beautiful thing. The kiss of a shadow. A caress as soft as moonlight. It had always been my refuge, my place of escape, whether I was sneaking onto a rooftop lit only by the stars or down a midnight alley to be with my brothers. Darkness was my ally. It made me forget the world I was in and invited me to dream of another.

If we spend too much time reliving the past, it gets us nowhere.”

when we lose a battle, we have to regroup and move forward again. Choose an alternate path if necessary. But if we dwell on every action we’ve taken, it will cripple us, and soon we’ll take no action at all.”

Sometimes all it takes is a single ounce of trust for more to grow.

Trust me. It will be all right. I love you. A hundred things shining in his gaze that he didn’t have time to say.

He pulled me to him, holding me so tight there was no chance of me slipping off. “You’re all right?” he said into my hair. My words choked in the back of my throat. “Rafe,” was all I could say. His hand stroked my head, crushed my hair, his breaths calming as he held me. “You’re all right,” he repeated, this time it seemed, more to himself than to me.

A prince, in the turn of a moment and a few words, was now a king.

The wind picked up, cool and crisp. I missed Rafe’s warmth at my back, the comfort of his arms around me, the nudge of his chin at the side of my head. My hair stank of oil, smoke, and dirt, even the river that had nearly killed us both, and yet he had nuzzled close, as if it smelled of flowers, as if he didn’t care if I was or ever had been a proper princess.

A hundred tomorrows.

It had to be someone. Why not you?”

This world, it breathes you in … it knows you, and then it breathes you out again, shares you.

“Jei zinterr … jei trévitoria.” Be brave. Be victorious.

“It doesn’t matter who or what I am or what the cabinet wants. You are what matters to me, Lia. If you don’t know that already, I’ll find a hundred more ways to show you. I love you more than a port, more than an alliance, more than my own life. Your interests are my interests. Are we going to let the conspiracies and schemes of kingdoms come between us?”

Every kiss, every touch, was a promise that we both knew, I was his and he was mine, and no conspiracy or scheme of kingdoms had a fraction of the power that surged between us.

It didn’t help. It didn’t matter how many agreed with me if Lia didn’t. As sure as I was that I couldn’t let her go, she was certain she had to leave. I thought about when I’d found her on the riverbank, half dead, and all the hours I carried her through the snow, all the times I pressed my lips to hers to make sure she was still breathing, all the steps and miles where I thought, If only I had answered her note, if only I had honored her simple request. But this time it wasn’t a simple request. This time it was different. She wanted to head straight into danger—and she expected to do it with Kaden.

Her expression betrayed no emotion, except for the glisten in her eyes, but that was enough to hollow me out. She turned and walked away, the bones jingling at her hip, the claw and the vine on her shoulder glaring back at me.

May the gods gird her with strength, shield her with courage, and may truth be her crown.

Morrighan, stolen from her tribe and sold as a bride to Aldrid the scavenger for a sack of grain. Somehow they had built a great kingdom together, but it wasn’t built on love.

If only she knew...

“It’s not an easy thing to tell the girl that you love more than life itself that you’re going to marry someone else.” Sven sighed. “Easy things are for men like me. The difficult choices are left to kings.”

Love letters? “I think you’ve made a mistake.

Its not a mistake

“I am yours, Morrighan, forever yours … and when the last star of the universe blinks silent, I will still be yours.”