Flamefall (The Aurelian Cycle, #2)

by Rosaria Munda

We’re monsters. Even if they call us something different.

Dreams are deadliest for the dreamers.

All of this, in a few words, like a delicate flower plucked from the earth and offered. For me to cradle in my hands or crush under my heel, as I choose.

Annie kisses me on the cheek with such tenderness that I think there, right there, I will melt to the ground from dizzy relief.

Learned that sometimes it was more important to watch someone else eat.

Revenge doesn’t need to begin with a knife. It can begin with a well-delivered speech.

I’ve never in my life felt such a clench of love for a stranger as I feel in this moment for this miracle of a girl.

The only atonement I can offer for my crimes, the only thanks I can give for her mercy. Let me answer her honor with honor, where they think we have none. The true gift of freedom is to act with this civility.

Let a single urn contain our ashes, My comrade-in-arms, my friend, my beloved So that not even our bones lie apart from one another When you follow me from this world to the next.

The metals test wasn’t an answer to the dragonlord’s dehumanization of us. It’s just another form of it. And I’ve been in denial because it was a system that benefited me.

I don’t need Power’s encouragement to be strong. I don’t need anyone’s encouragement to be strong. Strength isn’t the problem. It’s what you do with it.

We’ll set our sights on the stars together. But they’re different stars, and we’ll stand back to back.