Flames leapt up within the ring of tiles, blazing high. The heat of them beat at Ren’s face. She remembered again the heat of her burning childhood home, and then she couldn’t hold herself together any longer; she broke down crying. The weight around her shoulders was Tess’s arm, trying to comfort without publicly overstepping a servant’s bounds, and Ren held on to that sensation like it was a rope.
every time i tell myself to hold it together , i end up crying even harder
