The Mime Order (The Bone Season, #2)

by Samantha Shannon

‘You are not the only choice. But if I could choose anyone on earth, it would still be you, Paige Mahoney.’

‘You call a past lover an “old flame”.’ His apple-gold eyes were more chilling than beautiful, his face carved out of nothing earthly. ‘For Rephaim, it takes a long time for a flame to catch. But once it burns, it cannot go out.’

Paige.’ His voice was a grey shadow of itself. ‘It is not that I do not want you. Only that I might want you too much. And for too long.’

‘You can never want too much. That’s how they silence us,’ I said. ‘They told us we were lucky to be in the penal colony instead of the æther. Lucky to be murdered with NiteKind, not the noose. Lucky to be alive, even if we weren’t free. They told us to stop wanting more than what they gave us, because what they gave us was more than we deserved.’ I picked up my jacket. ‘You’re not a prisoner any more, Arcturus.’

But Warden cared if I laughed. He cared if I lived or died. He had seen me as I was, not as the world saw me.

With Warden, it was like having two heartbeats rather than half of one.

But he’s so cold, Paige. Does he make you happy?’ ‘I don’t know yet.’ I took a deep sip of coffee, and it warmed me. ‘I just know that he sees me.’

And I had a strange sense that I belonged. Not in the material sense, as I belonged to Jaxon, as I’d once belonged to the Rephaim. This was belonging of a different sort, as things that are alike belong with one another.

‘Madness is a matter of perspective, little dreamer.’

He made to stand, but I touched his arm, keeping him there. Wordlessly, I leant into him, so my brow rested against his. Gentle blue fire started in my dreamscape, illuminating it. We stayed like that for a long time, silent and still, Rephaite and human. I could have stayed like that for hours, just breathing him in.

But I sensed that whatever I decided, he would still be with me.