The Dragon Wakes with Thunder (The Dragon Spirit, #2)

by K.X. Song

You may burn bamboo, but it will still stand straight. You may shatter jade, but its color will not fade. —Book of Odes, 856

The taste of life had been sweet, hadn’t it? But it tasted sweetest when it was taken from you.

Emotions, much like the sun and the moon, possess both a bright and a dark side—it all depends on the angle from which they are viewed.

Xiuying, I knew, would be ashamed. She would expect more from me. Compassion, kindness, self-sacrifice. All the qualities she exhibited. And yet I did not wish to become another selfless woman hidden beneath the shadow of men. I wanted to be remembered, and I wanted to carve out a legacy of unquestionable greatness.

“I know you’re strong,” said Lei, his eyes ruminative in the firelight, “but being strong doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to be protected and taken care of.”

“But I believe we’re more than our worst moments,” he told me, his voice quiet yet thrumming with authority. “It’s our best moments that have the power to define us.”

I recalled the young woman who had endeavored to change her fate—who had joined the war simply for a chance at independence. And I knew my answer, always.

And yet, if love meant the act of trying, then I loved. I loved with all my being.

“I am a monster but I love you.”

Balance was integral in everything—in the tides, in the seasons, in the directions of the wind.

Meeting you was like glimpsing the sea for the first time. All rivers and streams faded; only you remained. —The Classic of Poetry, 532

When someone offered their love, I returned it with distance. When someone showed me their vulnerabilities, I repaid them with spikes and sharp edges.