A Fire Endless (Elements of Cadence, #2)

by Rebecca Ross

But the truth was that it had always been difficult for him to let go of things.

He was her other half, and he was bound to her as she was to him. But perhaps Jack had sung too many ballads of everlasting love and fated partners.

“If I am weak for wanting you, then let me embrace that weakness and make it my strength,” he said, his gaze fixed on the west. “And if you must haunt me, then let me haunt you in return.”

To be loved by Innes was to dwell behind her shield in a land where thanes poisoned daughters.

“Because you’re lonely,” he said softly, holding her gaze. “I can see it in your eyes. I can see it in the way you walk. You need a friend.”

She couldn’t explain the disquiet she felt or what had sparked it.

Even all the cats had been rounded up, which had been no simple feat.

The fire spirits were considered the least of the folk, and Jack didn’t know why something so vital had so lowly a standing.

And to lose her now would be worse than drowning, worse than burning.

Spirits below, she was so tired.

that she hadn’t kept proper track of her moon flow. Now, she realized, she was late.

Her what

“Then tell us how to help you. Give your burdens to us, the tasks that weigh you down. You shouldn’t be carrying it all alone to begin with.”

But we grow stronger—we grow sharper—and before we truly even know it, we are looking back on it all. We see who we were and we see who we have become, and it is why the spirits watch us and marvel.”

Godfrey sighed, greatly inconvenienced, but he did as she wanted.

He knew in that moment she had been holding this in for days, for weeks. This emotion that she had quietly buried in a castle surrounded by strangers.

But I am with you now. I am yours, and I want you to lay your burdens down on me, Adaira.”

“May you be strong and courageous,” he said. “May your enemies kneel before you. May you find the answers you seek. May you be victorious and spirits-blessed, and may peace follow as your shadow.”

You were always meant to be here, a voice whispered in her mind.

You chart your present by what has been done and what has happened, as if you can never rise and break away from it.”

But there is nothing weak in being soft, in being gentle.”

You have been so strong without me, holding the clan and the east together. Let me help you now, love. Let me carry it with you again.”

“But I cannot let you go without telling you that I was proud to call you mine then,” Niall whispered, “even if only your mother and the spirits could stand witness. And I am proud to call you mine now.”

“What I fear is living for an eternity with a wound that will never heal.”