A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2)

by Sabaa Tahir

When the fear takes over, use the only thing more powerful, more indestructible, to fight it: your spirit. Your heart.

“There’s hope in life,” he says. “A brave girl once told me that. If something happens to me, don’t fear. You’ll find a way.”

Most successful missions are just a series of barely averted disasters.”

standing by someone during their darkest times creates a bond. A sense of obligation that is less a weight and more a gift.

“Your emotions make you human,” Elias says. “Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don’t lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier.”

Few people want witnesses to their pain, and grief is the worst pain of all.

“You are my temple,” I murmur as I kneel beside her. “You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release.”

“Most people,” Cain says, “are nothing but glimmers in the great darkness of time. But you, Helene Aquilla, are no swift-burning spark. You are a torch against the night—if you dare to let yourself burn.”

True suffering lies in the expectation of pain as much as in the pain itself.”