An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)

by Sabaa Tahir

“Would it have been better if I’d cut your face like Cook’s?” she murmurs. “Beauty’s a curse when one lives among men. You might have thanked me for it.”

But she just holds my hand limply, the way you would if you were at the deathbed of a relative you barely knew and liked even less.

“There are two kinds of guilt,” I say softly. “The kind that’s a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It’s damaged, but it’s there. Don’t let them take it from you, Elias.”