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

by Sabaa Tahir

Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day, a single moment comes along to define every second that comes after.

He should have known better.

Bruh you're literally pulling the exact same stunt in 36 hours-

I wish I could have seen Serra before all this, when it was capital of the Scholar Empire. Under the Scholars, the great buildings were libraries and universities instead of barracks and training halls. The Street of Storytellers was filled with stages and theaters instead of an arms market where the only stories told now are of war and death.

LITERALLY HOW I FEEL ABOUT MODERN SOCIETY

“You are an ember in the ashes, Elias Veturius. You will spark and burn, ravage and destroy. You cannot change it. You cannot stop it.”

Boooooomshakalaka

More battles. More violence. All I want is to escape the Empire. Yet here I am. True freedom—of body and soul. That’s what I’m fighting for, I remind myself. Not rulership. Not power. Freedom.

I never feared the night, not even as a child, but Blackcliff’s night is different, heavy with a silence that makes you look over your shoulder, a silence that feels like a living thing.

It’s Helene, Elias. Helene.

SO WHAT?!?! YOU KEEP SAYING THAT BUT FREAKING DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. PLEASE!

“No, I don’t want to know.”

Girl the mood swings...?

But there are two kinds of guilt, girl: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.

Laia is the wild dance of a Tribal campfire, while Helene is the cold blue of an alchemist’s flame.

I will be his Blood Shrike, his second-in-command, the sword that executes his will, until death. I swear it.” Then she bows her head and offers the Snake her sword.

STUPIDDDDDD GIRL!!!!! AND I LIKED YOUUUU

Such foolish hope, to have thought that despite being raised to violence I might one day be free of it.

NOOOOO POOKIE YOU GOT THIS

It was deep night then, the time of night that doesn’t feel quite real. The time of night that’s like a dream.

“Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be.”