A ​Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes, #4)

by Sabaa Tahir

I want sand and stories and a clear night sky. I want to stare up into pale gray eyes filled with love and that edge of wickedness I ache for. I want to know what he said to me in Sadhese, a year and a half ago, when we danced at the Moon Festival in Serra. I want Elias Veturius back.

“Elias Veturius yet lives. And it is imperative that he live, for the Great War approaches, and it is not the Soul Catcher who will win it, it is Elias Veturius. It is not the Soul Catcher who is an ember in the ashes, it is Elias Veturius. It is not the Soul Catcher who will spark and burn, ravage and destroy. It is Elias Veturius.”

“It was never one. It was always three. The Blood Shrike is the first. Laia of Serra, the second. And the Soul Catcher is the last. The Mother watches over them all. If one fails, they all fail. If one dies, they all die. Go back to the beginning and there, find the truth. Strive even unto your own end, else all is lost.”

I will not accept death. Why should I, when there is life yet burning in my veins?

Harper has lain down on his roll too, his eyes shut. But if he’s asleep, then I am a walrus.

This was so unexpected and made me laugh out loud.

“But I think that if you were the one who got chained up in the forest, Elias would never give up. If you had forgotten how much you loved him, he’d find a way to make you remember. He’d keep fighting until he brought you back.”

Or perhaps she’s simply beautiful, and looking at her feels like sunlight flowing into a room lost to the darkness for too long.

Would that we all knew the cracked terrain of each other’s broken hearts. Perhaps then, we would not be so cruel to those who walk this lonely world with us.

“Meherya means Beloved.” She ignores my barb. “Not just because we loved him, but because of the love he offered. To his kin. To the ghosts. To the humans he encountered. For thousands of years.”

“I am sorry. But—” “No.” She puts a finger to my lips. “I am sorry was the perfect place to stop.”

“To light the way for the weak, the weary, the fallen, and the forgotten in the darkness that follows death.”

“You are broken. But it is the broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest. It is the broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.”

Love can be more powerful in a battle than planning or strategy.

If I seem different, remember that I love you. No matter what happens to me. Say you’ll remember, please.

“I do not think the answer is in words, love,” she says. “I think it is in living. In finding joy, however small, in every day.

“Where there is life, there is hope.”

“I wish I could live a thousand lives so I could fall in love with you a thousand times,” he says. “But if all we get is this one, and I share it with you, then I will never want for anything,