A Heart of Bitter Poison (The Shadow Realm, #2)

by Brynne Weaver

“I always thought betrayal tasted like copper. Tell me if I’m right when you get back from the other side.”

“I never told you how the lifetimes I have spent taking souls have eroded my own. I did not tell you about everything I have lost over decades of time. I should have told you then, how every moment spent with you brought me out of the shadows. How being with you was like landing on a paradise shore after swimming through a sea of grief. How being apart from you is like being cast into a cold and merciless darkness.”

“The worst thing was that I never told you I love you, Lu. I should have told you when you trusted me with your voice for the first time. Or when we sat in the desert at Saqqara. Or when we stood beneath your name in the library. Even when I held you as we passed into the Shadow Realm. I should have said it over and over until I was sure you would never doubt it. You would have known I was coming for you. That no matter what happened, I would find a way to get you out. That I would give up anything for you.”

And that’s the trouble with love. As strong as it is, love is dangerous, corruptible. Love can be a poison just as lethal as anger or sorrow.

“I will help you find yourself again, Lu. I have enough love for both of us, until you are ready to change your mind.”

“I love you, my vampire. No matter how you change, or what you lose, or what you gain. You are my Lu, always.”

“When you fall in love, vampire, it won’t be because of blood or magic. It will be a choice.” “What if I don’t choose you?” “Maybe you won’t. But I have to believe you will, vampire. Just as I have chosen you,” he says,

“I know I have not given you reason to trust in my promises, my Lu. But I swear to you, I swear, I will do everything in my power to give you your vengeance. If you want to burn every realm, I will hand you the match and stand with you until the last cinders fall. I will pay for this promise with my life if I have to.”

I try to smile but it doesn’t feel quite right in my skin. “That’s kind of a genius plan. If I kill off all the realms, you’ll be the only one left to love.”

“I never said I’d make it easy to choose anything but me.”

“But it can, if you let it. The most monumental changes in life seem to happen in an instant,”

“Nothing is wrong with you, Lu. Your heart is full of courage, and to love is an act of bravery.”