These Twisted Bonds (These Hollow Vows, #2)

by Lexi Ryan

Abriella, every star in that sky shines for you.

I didn’t have many people who cared about me, but at least no one was pretending to care. At least I got to believe that the little I had was real.

The shadows bring balance to the sun, the dark balances the light.”

“The loneliness isn’t unfamiliar to you, but someday . . . I promise someday it will be.”

“I know what it’s like, Sebastian. I’ve lived to serve the whims of a greedy debtor. I’ve been trapped and worked until I collapsed and still found myself further from freedom each day.”

They’re innocents, and they deserve someone to fight for them.”

what did love ever do for us but mess with our plans?”

She’s bonded to him, yet you look at her like she is the stars and the moon. Like she’s rain at the end of a long summer drought.

“The Seelie said that the proof of our evil hearts lay in that we draw our power from the darkness,” Finn says, “but they don’t understand that those of us who love the night revel in it because of how clearly it allows us to find even the smallest points of light. Whereas they deny that darkness exists, even while the sun they worship throws shadows in every corner.”

“But I think I had your trust once, back when I didn’t deserve it. I grieve that loss.”

When you came into my life, you were a bright star in an endlessly dark night. I needed to see there was still something worth hoping for. And maybe that proves I’m still a spoiled, selfish child, but I won’t be sorry for any choice that brought you here or kept you here.

I don’t want pieces of you. I want all of you, and I won’t share.”

“I will be by your side,” he says, cupping my face in one big hand, “as long as you’ll let me. Wherever you are.”

“I don’t think love is about what we deserve. It’s an opening of our hearts, not a judgment we make. But Finnian, if I were judging you, I would find you completely deserving of this . . . and more.

“I have always drawn strength from you.” “That’s the tether.” I shake my head. “Not just magically. I find strength in the way you believe in me. In our friendship. It’s a strength that has nothing to do with my power.”

toward me and smiles, even as tears run down his cheeks. “Loving you, feeling the gift of your love—it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Regretting that just because you won’t be mine anymore would be . . . That would be like regretting a glimpse of the stars before being plunged into eternal darkness.”

“After days in that tomb, it was easier to face the darkest corners of myself. I’ve been hurt and betrayed. I’ve been angry for so many years. And I’ve hated those parts of me—the bitter, hardened, brittle pieces. But that is who I am. I’ll never be sunshine and smiles like Jas. Once I accepted that, accepted that there is this darker, crueler part of me, only then could I control her.”

“I’m right here. Don’t give up on me.” “Never.”

you have to make room for hope.