The Rose and the Dagger (The Wrath & the Dawn, #2)

by Renée Ahdieh

“Because when we help one another, we are able to accomplish things faster.”

Because nothing hurt like missing her. He suspected nothing ever would.

“Cut the strings, Shazi. Fly.”

It was because they were two parts of a whole. He did not belong to her. And she did not belong to him. It was never about belonging to someone. It was about belonging together.

“To fall asleep each night with you by my side.”

“At Ava’s grave, I swore I would spend my life showing those I loved how I felt, and never resorting to words. I promised I would do for others what I’d failed to do for her. Not to profess love. But instead to act upon it.”

The boy who always asked the right questions. The boy who made her feel better than beautiful. The boy who gave her the strength to be a lion.

With everyone else, he was chipped ice on a mountain. With her sister, he was a summer breeze across the sea.

Irsa finally understood. Understood what it meant to feel at home wherever you were. To feel as though you belonged in any moment, at any place, in any time.

For it was easy to be good and kind in times of plenty. The trying times were the moments that defined a man.

And love? Love was something that did much to change a person. It brought joy as it brought suffering,