The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds, #1)

by Alexandra Bracken

“Nothing like it exists in the English language. It’s Portuguese. Saudade. Do you know that one?”

I had no recollection of this moment even though I read this book before

It’s the feeling you get when you realize something you once lost is lost forever, and you can never get it back again.”

He had caught me again with his eyes, and I hadn’t even realized it.

darlin’.

I waved him off, trying to quiet the small, ridiculous buzz of happiness in my chest that came with his words. He was just trying to be nice.

Trying not to be delulu that’s so real

“What I wasn’t okay with was the thought of dropping you off at some back-of-beyond Greyhound station with no money, no papers, and no way of knowing for sure you got where you’re going safe and sound.” There it was again—that smile.

To keep my hand from reaching out to brush the one he had put on the armrest of my seat.

But I hadn’t been, and somehow Liam had known.

I liked it even better when Liam started singing along.

We could have stayed together in that comfortable silence for hours, and it still wouldn’t have been enough for me.

That girl was gone forever, and all that was left was a product of the place that had taught her to fear the bright things inside of her heart.

It had felt natural to do it—I hadn’t been thinking at all, only feeling a very sharp, real need to be close to him.

I had the uneasy sensation of not knowing where one of us began and the other ended. He

He stretched his fingers out, brushing them against mine on the floor. I jolted at the touch but couldn’t bring myself to pull away.

What was so valuable that they wouldn’t trade it for the one thing that would reunite them with their families? Black Betty?

with mine, so close that our foreheads were nearly touching. “We want you,” he said, his hand slipping through my hair to cup the back of my neck. “We wanted you yesterday, we want you today, and we’ll want you tomorrow. There’s nothing you could do to change that. If you’re scared and you don’t understand your crazy abilities, then we’ll help you understand—but don’t think, not for one second, that we would ever just leave you.”

Aaaaaaa this man

“Try to imagine where we’d be without you, darlin’,” he said, quietly, “and then maybe you’ll see just how lucky we got.”

😭😭love them

“And I want to talk about everything with you. Everything.

“You okay now, darlin’?” he whispered in my ear.

“Did you know . . . you make me so happy that sometimes I actually forget to breathe? I’ll be looking at you, and my chest will get so tight . . . and it’s like, the only thought in my head is how much I want to reach over and kiss you.”

“Ruby, give me one reason why we can’t be together, and I’ll give you a hundred why we can. We can go anywhere you want. I’m not your parents. I’m not going to abandon you or send you away, not ever.”

“Never, never, never. I am never going to forget you.” “You won’t have a choice,” I said.

“Thank you,” he was whispering, “thank you, thank you. . . .” And then he was kissing my face, every inch of it he could find, wiping away the tears and soot, chanting my name.

“Tell Lee to read my letter. I wrote it . . . it was for him.”

He believed he was going to get home.

sometimes we do that stupid thing where we run out of things to say and just stop talking and listen to one another breathing until one of us falls asleep—”

“You too, darlin’.”