The Witch Collector (Witch Walker #1)

by Charissa Weaks

I will always save you, even if it means saving you from yourself.”

I don’t know how to live life without him, but I fear I’ll have to.

Something must always be lost if you’re ever to gain. Don’t fear this. You will never move forward if you never leave things behind.”

There is no victory without sacrifice.

There’s no one left. Just me. This was probably the Prince of the East’s plan when he didn’t kill me, to punish me with the fate of emptiness and utter aloneness. To take everything from me but my breath.

At least the last thing I will ever lay my eyes upon in this long life is a powerful woman of both beauty and fury. A soul delicate yet wild and so deeply moving—even if she does wish me dead.

In another life, I would’ve tried to know her. I would’ve admired her and read her poems written by my own hand. I would’ve walked with her through fields of stardrops, danced with her in the stream.

If I could speak, I’d tell her I came here to help her. To help us all. I’d tell her that I’m not evil. That I’m not entirely good, but I never meant to bring her sorrow. I’d tell her I’m terrified of what my death means, and that I’m worried about leaving her alone, because she doesn’t realize how alone she might truly be or what evil is yet to come.

I am salvation and damnation. There cannot be one without the other.

Mother used to say that grief always strikes when we least expect it, and that we rarely realize how those we love inhabit even the most seemingly inconsequential parts of our lives. It’s in those moments that the pain of their absence strikes so much deeper, because the time we took for granted suddenly shines in sharp relief.

She called me impulsive, impatient, and imaginative, a restless being who needs freedom to flourish and love to thrive.

I ache for the mundane,

I just want simple and easy. Long walks and stargazing in a world that doesn’t feel like it might

There is no love without fear, but no one told me that fear feasts on those with something to lose.

Most battles are hard-fought. Something must always be lost if you’re ever to gain. Don’t fear this. You will never move forward if you never leave things behind.