The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1)

by Tasha Suri

“We should not do what powerful people tell us, simply because they tell us,”

She knew how many faces people possessed, one hidden beneath the other, good and monstrous, brave and cowardly, all of them true.

“Are we fighting a war right now, Malini?” “Yes,” Malini said. “We always are.”

“But we all have more than one face. We have to have many faces in order to survive, don’t we? That’s natural. Normal.” Malini was at her shoulder now, kneeling also. “This face you know didn’t abandon you in the forest when you collapsed. I carried you when I was weak, to people who frankly frightened me, and I stayed with you. That was all me.”

“Morality isn’t weakness.”

“We all ride,” he told her. “Man, woman, or any soul between.”