The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)

by Andrea Stewart

One more life saved. It was a pittance, unutterably small against the scale of the lives lost. But it was there. And one life certainly made a difference to the one living it.

And that was the worst thing about this grief – not just knowing that she was gone, but knowing that eventually new memories and experiences would layer on top of them, making the distance between us ever wider. The days we’d spent swimming and fishing at the beach, the first time I’d kissed her, the dreams we’d shared – I was now the only keeper of these memories, and that was the truest sort of loneliness.

“I don’t care what my place is. I’m supposed to be your friend. Friends know these things about each other. I just didn’t care enough to find out. I mean, I cared. I just didn’t care enough.”

He hadn’t discussed the making of me with his wife; he was trying to make me into his wife.

“You’re no different from the Empire or the Ioph Carn. You all use people to get what you want. You might even think you have noble motives. But what I want, what I’ve always wanted, was just to find Emahla and bring her home. What care have you for that when you have your ideals?”

Mephi pushed his head beneath my hand. “Calm, Jovis. I am here.”

“You took her from the only life she ever wanted. She had plans. She had things she wanted to do. You took that all away from her. You took it all away from me.”