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September 13 - September 24, 2025
“She doesn’t need to get better,” he snarled softly. “If she decides to break apart this whole ship to deal with what happened, I’ll help her. If she wants to kick your lying ass into the depths of the sea, I’ll take your legs. If she decides to rip the world to shreds for what it’s done to her, I’ll cheer her on. And if you were a true friend… you would as well.”
“We should all be sorry that we were born into the cruel world. But we have to make the best out of it.”
“The Rantzier rule will end, its people disband, by the hands of the reluctant ally—the ally that should have stood by their side, that should have fought with them, that should have protected them. It’s the one loved by Fae and human, the one you may not slay for the war that fragile death would bring, who will finally bring the Rantziers to their knees.”
it’s easy to turn to rage when love stabs a dagger right through your heart.”
“The world is painful.” Merrick’s gaze drilled into hers. “Yours perhaps more than most. But it’s time for you to stop cowering before it. Make mistakes, and forgive yourself for them. Get hurt, and fight back. You’re a good person. A fucking great person. Stop letting guilt dim your light. I told you once, it’s time to shine…”
Good people also do bad things, but it’s how you handle yourself after that matters.
“Is it better to live in an illusion of happiness with artificial emotions keeping you going?” “Happiness,” Raine scoffed. “I don’t live in happiness. The liquor doesn’t create emotions that don’t already reside within us. It can dim the negative ones but can’t create happy ones. And I don’t keep any.”
“You are brave and clever and wildly loyal. You have such fight in you—even after everything. And you love so fiercely… so boundlessly. Don’t let your past convince you that you aren’t worthy of it in return.”
“Fuck fate. Fuck these leaders who think they can control us by threatening us. Fuck the gods who started this endless fight for power. I will not let them tell me how my life will end up. We are in charge now, and we will make the decisions we damned well please.”
“You wouldn’t have to fight for me. I… I can’t say it would be easy, given what we’re facing, but I’d make sure this—us—would be the one place you can rest, where you’re always safe, where you never have to put on a mask to conceal your true feelings.”
“It’s like lightning strikes me when they meet mine, and I think… I think my body remembers, even if my mind doesn’t.”
“Merrick tried to hide it, but once that scent reaches your nose… it’s pure instinct… primal. We have no control over it, and he fought for his life to get to you in those cellars… but he was bound by the oath, and Rioner threatened to make him kill you if he didn’t back down.”
“You’re not mated yet, but you started to accept him once you tasted his blood.”
if you reject him now, you will weaken him significantly, and for a long, long time. It’ll be too dangerous for him to fight in a war.”
“Oh, you know… They casually informed me that you’re my mate.” Merrick’s jaw clenched. “And that you’ve known the entire time. As in the entire time.” Her nostrils flared. “That you’ve been hurting for years because you thought you’d be some kind of unsung hero and let me choose.”
“I don’t want you because of the stupid bond!” she screamed. “I want you because you make me feel alive! Because you believe in me when I don’t believe in myself. Because you try to make dumb jokes to make me happy. Because you make me fires to keep the darkness at bay. Because you hide your smile when I’ve made you proud in training. Because when I fucking stab you, you lecture me about missing your heart!”
“Do you want me to tell you no one—mate or not—has loved anyone the way I love you? That I would laugh as the world fell apart as long as you stood by my side? That even if I could only have one fucking night—one night pretending you’re mine—I’d take it?”
“I am taking my fucking time with you.” He lowered to nip at her lip, still holding on to her hands. “I’ve waited a damned eternity for this. Please don’t deny me.”
It was so simple. But so true. So clear that it was him and her. Merrick and Elessia. Two broken souls healing into one.
and again. He said it almost as if in prayer. As if she was his goddess and he was entirely, utterly devoted to her.
“You’re too damn good for me. You’re all fucking light and goodness and life. While I’m all darkness and evil and death. I don’t understand how you were chosen for me.”
“I do not decide what she does or doesn’t do. She is her own person, and she makes her own decisions. While I am hers and she is most definitely mine…” He emphasized the last word by sending a death glare Loche’s way. “I do not own her. No one owns her.”
They clung to each other as the words they hadn’t had time to speak, that might never leave their lips but were thought all the same—the sorrow, the guilt, the grief, the friendship, the understanding—the bond they’d always share softening until the sharp edges that had jabbed at them rounded.
