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

by Sabaa Tahir

The boy tosses his head back and laughs, a laugh that falls gentle and wild like desert rain.

I know the smell of her fear and the rawness of blood against her skin. I know that she flares her nostrils very slightly when she lies and that she puts her hands between her knees when she sleeps. I know the beautiful parts. The ugly parts.

Then something changes, and the hum rises into a song that wraps around me with the sweetness of a mother’s arms.