Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3)

by Tahereh Mafi

My eyes are filling fast with tears and I blink and blink but the world is a mess and I want to laugh because all I can think is how horrible and beautiful it is, that our eyes blur the truth when we can’t bear to see it.

There’s a strange kind of freedom in the dark; a terrifying vulnerability we allow ourselves at exactly the wrong moment, tricked by the darkness into thinking it will keep our secrets. We forget that the blackness is not a blanket; we forget that the sun will soon rise. But in the moment, at least, we feel brave enough to say things we’d never say in the light.

I am no longer afraid of fear, and I will not let it rule me. Fear will learn to fear me.

Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures. No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh.

I’d rather be shot dead screaming for justice than die alone in a prison of my own making.”

“Do you never get exhausted being so wholly unbearable? You have as much charisma as the rotting innards of unidentified roadkill.”

“Have you ever been in love?” I ask, turning on my side to look at him. He stares up at the sky. Blinks a few times. “Nope.” I roll back, disappointed. “Oh.” “This is so depressing,” Kenji says. “Yeah.” “We suck.” “Yeah.” “So tell me again why you like Warner so much? Did he, like, take all his clothes off or something?”

“Good for you. I’ll buy you a balloon the minute the world stops shitting on itself.”