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All she knew was that as long as those manacles remained locked in place, she wasn’t an alchemist at all.
“I will die before I lose her,”
“She’ll never be yours.”
“Oh, Marino.” His thumb trailed along her neck, following the scar below her jaw. “If I’d known what pain you’d cause me, I never would have taken you.”
“Kaine Ferron has offered to spy for the Resistance,” said Crowther.
“Don’t die, Marino. I might miss you.”
“I must admit,” he said in a low voice as though making a confession, “if anyone had told me you’d become so lovely, I would never have come near you. I was rather blindsided when I saw you again.”
“You’re like a rose in a graveyard,” he said, and his lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I wonder what you could have turned into without the war.”
TEARS
“If you don’t want me to kiss you, you should say so now,” he said.
She had not known it was a hunger. Or that she was starving.
Relying on Kaine Ferron was like walking on black ice, knowing that at any moment it might break beneath their feet.
Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding.
“I must say, Marino, you’ve ended up being quite expensive.”
No matter how you’ve romanticised him, Kaine Ferron is not a person. He is a monster.”
“You always have to come back,” she said. “All right? Don’t die. Promise—”
For the first time, Kaine Ferron was fully human to her. She’d slipped through his walls and peeled away the defensive layers of malice and cruelty, and found that there he carried a broken heart.
“You could be a healer,” she finally said as he removed the block on her nerves.
He blocked the door, his eyes gone cold. “Remind Crowther that if the Eternal Flame wants my continued assistance, they will keep you alive.”
“I should have known—the moment I looked into your eyes, I should have known I would never win against you.”
“You’re mine,”
“You’re mine.
She was locked in the dangerous embrace of Kaine Ferron, and it felt like home.
“Call me, and I will come.”
“You’re mine. You’re mine.”
“You’re mine. I’ll always come for you.” He always did.
“Because I have warned you, if something happens to you, I will personally raze the entire Order of the Eternal Flame. That isn’t a threat, it’s a promise. Consider your survival as much a necessity to the Resistance as Holdfast’s. If you die, I will kill every single one of them. Given that the risk to their lives is the only way to make you value your own.”
“What exactly is it that you think I do with all my time? I kill people. I order other people to kill people. I train people to kill people. I sabotage and undermine people so that they will be killed, and I do it all because of you. Every word. Every life. Because of you.”
“Don’t carry it. It’s not yours. Stop trying to carry a whole damned war on your shoulders.”
You’re mine.”
“You are. It doesn’t matter what happens to you, you will still be mine.”
“Mine. You’re mine,” he said as he kissed her. “Always.”
His hands slid up until her face was cradled in them. His forehead pressed to hers, breath mingling a moment before he kissed her again, drawing her farther inside. Their every step hurried. They were always running out of time.
“You’re mine,”
“We had a good run, but we were never going to last.”
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
She paused. “I’m building a bomb. I need to blow up a laboratory.”
He kissed her like he was starving. As though he were trying to pour himself into her or consume her.
He was telling the stories so Helena could tell their daughter about him, about what he’d been like, before the Institute and the war.
Always.
They just needed more time.
“Will you come back, after?” She could see his silver eyes in the darkness. “If you want me to.”
“Helena, I’m tired.”
He rested his head against Amaris, and her wings fluttered. She turned her neck to nip at him. “We’ll go out together, won’t we, old girl? Bennet’s last two monsters.”
“I hate it when you kill people because of me,” she said.
We love a morally grey man
“My eyes are getting better already,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I can see how disapproving you look.”
She looked around again. All this, while he hadn’t even known if she was alive.
It was like watching someone starve to death, him looking for you. I think he went mad for a while. He started threatening me, saying it was all my fault. If it weren’t for me, you’d be safe, and he started telling me that when he found you, it’d be my job to take care of you for a change. Eventually he stopped saying anything about what would happen once he found you.”
“Always.
“Yours, always,” she’d promise.
Kaine talked to Enid more than he talked to anyone, even Helena. He would monologue to her about everything: the trees, the sea, the tide and moons, alchemy techniques and array theories, what the weather might be, and Enid listened to him intently, fretting if he got distracted or fell silent for too long.
