We Set the Dark on Fire (We Set the Dark on Fire, #1)

by Tehlor Kay Mejia

She was only as safe as she was vigilant.

If we’re not all free, none of us are free. You remember that.”

Your face might hide your feelings, but you can’t hide who you are. Not forever.”

Overcoming obstacles was good. Showing off the salt-curse in your blood was not.

growing up in silk and silver doesn’t guarantee class.

And it was time to grow up.

Emotion clouded your judgment, and logic hampered your ability to feel.

You will find a way to make a life you love.

She, of all people, knew that where you were from and where you were going weren’t always enough to tell a person’s whole story.

When was the last time she’d truly felt like she had a purpose beyond reaching this moment?

Our restraint is our strength,

In this moment, she was a girl who deserved deference, not the type of scowl usually reserved for dogs.

“Speaking to a girl like an equal,” Dani said. “Was that really so hard?”

Silence is a weapon; don’t let anyone disarm you before you’re ready.

“Don’t be sorry,” he said, the door closing behind his eyes as quickly as it had opened. “Be useful.”

In a battle between two men trying to control her, she’d chosen herself.

Nice choice

Stay vigilant. Stay alive.

“You should laugh more often,” said Carmen, almost shyly. “Happiness suits you.”

“We are the voice of the voiceless,”

“The government claims the wall exists to keep you safe from the threat beyond it, but ask yourselves: When has there ever been true protest without injustice? Who really cast the first stone? Who is attacking, and who is bleeding?”

“They’re lying to you about who we are,” Sota said, somehow making eye contact with everyone at once. “We only want to live.”

This was politics. This was humanity, and the refusal to recognize it.

That she wanted to make her own choices, and she was ready to start today.

“It’s right for parents to prioritize their children’s lives. Their safety. Their happiness. But I’ve let their dreams for me become me. I’ve done everything they ever wanted, and it didn’t make me safe. It only made me selfish.”

“I’m not one of them,” Dani said. “No matter how high I climb or how much I manage to grasp, I’m never going to be. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with who I am.”

“But I want to live in a world where love doesn’t mean fear. Where we can survive without forgetting who we are.”

“Nothing has changed,” Sota said without hesitation, though his eyes were sad. “That’s what it means to fight. It means believing in the movement, and doing whatever it takes to further it, no matter what the consequences may be.”

“And the more threatened the privileged feel, the more drastic the measures they’ll be able to justify in the name of ‘safety.’”

The Cuatro de Bastos. Strength.

It wasn’t proof of anything—not yet. But for now, it was enough.

So strange, Dani thought. That the world can still be beautiful, even in the midst of all this.

Dani’s father had always told her that secrets made her strong. Her maestras had told her restraint made her strong. But Dani knew now that to crack open what you thought you knew, to allow it to scar with truth, that was what made you truly strong.

She’s radiant, Dani thought, almost deliriously. Much more than beautiful.

“The past may comfort us,” she said to the fire. “But it cannot feed us.”

Their lips met like swords sometimes do, clashing and impatient and bent on destruction, and Dani thought her heart might burst if she didn’t stop, but it would surely burst if she did.

They weren’t as fragile as a fire. They were so much more.

Her feelings for Carmen were so much bigger than one night, but if tonight was all they had, Dani was determined to make it count.

“Why can’t your lips also have nutrients?” Carmen wailed. “I’m starving!” “I mean, they do, but you’d have to eat them,” Dani said logically.

“The bad stuff will be there,” Carmen said, kissing the side of Dani’s neck. “If we want to fight it, we have to find joy where we can. We have to find beauty. We have to take our moments to be happy. Because the joy is what keeps us strong and reminds us we have something to fight for.”

“All the best lies have some truth in them,”

“Change isn’t easy, Dani,” Sota said. “Freedom has a price. People who want easy and pretty stay in their cages.”

“Whatever happens next,” he said, “remember that you changed for you. Not for me. Not for La Voz. Not for anyone but you.”

“You’ve hidden worse for longer than it’ll take to heal,”

Even the smallest secret cannot be kept forever.

Alone, but alive. Broken, but free.