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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Rebecca Ross
Read between
November 10 - November 12, 2025
All of them lifting their eyes to the same moon, the same stars. How close to them she was, and yet how far away.
“On this full moon, I bring you one you’ve seen fight before. You know him well, although both his name and honor have been stripped from him. I bring you Oathbreaker!”
Jacks father?
“And so you decided to hold no trial for him?”
In the east, the Tamerlaines conducted spars to mimic true combat, but hearings were held when crimes were committed. Those who were guilty were allowed to argue in defense of themselves, and only then did the laird pass a fair judgment.
Oathbreaker stood above the boy, but something about his posture and stance looked weary. As if he had lived a hundred years and had seen far too much. As if he didn’t want to bring this spar to an end.
“You asked David what happened to him,” Innes said, watching Adaira’s reaction. “The man who carried you east.”
“They called him ‘Oathbreaker’ and stripped him of his title and name,”
“I have this feeling, Jack. That once you cross over to the west, you’ll never come back here. You’ll never return to the east.”
“Where’s my dinner?”
How dare he
This was a spirit portal.
The doors presented themselves only to those the spirits highly regarded.
She watched as a spirit with indigo hair and tattered wings fell to the earth.
Kae
The aroma of the food hit her like a fist, instantly making her gag.
she’s pregnant
“Especially knowing of your condition.”
“When she was carrying Torin. Once, blood pudding had been her favorite. And then she suddenly couldn’t stand to have anything to do with it. I couldn’t eat pudding for years, even after Torin was born. Because Emma couldn’t bear the smell of it.”
One day in their world might be one hundred in ours.”
And with Torin now incapable of being present, the east falls to you, Sidra.”
“The other day,” Graeme said, “I was thinking about all the different paths our lives take, how little choices here and there suddenly guide us to places we never expected. How sometimes even the worst of experiences turn us into what we need to be, even though we would rather avoid the pain. 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.”
“My name is John, but I’ve always gone by Jack.”
“John was my husband’s name.”
“I’m Elspeth,”
The person Frae was talking about!!!
“Some legends claim that the mob cut off Iagan’s hands and sliced out his tongue, leaving him to die a slow, soundless death. Other legends say that Iagan surrendered to his fellow clansmen, swearing to never play another note again if they would let him live. Some legends boast that a body was never found, that Iagan must have been drowned with his harp in the loch that surrounded his home.
No, not a man. One of the spirits.
“You didn’t notice because your eyes were closed to us. You walk in our realm now. Come, just ahead.”
“The king left a riddle, and should you solve it, the blight will end.”
You said that I could see Sidra after the assembly.”
See her… that’s it
He didn’t know if he was shocked that the blight was also present in the west, or if he should have expected it.
“I’m Rab Pierce, and these are my men.”
Shit
“Bind his wrists and ankles,”
“Aye. Looks like one of Iagan’s harps.”
In one swift movement, the necklace broke with a metallic snap.
“You were protecting him,”
Because I’m their heir, my parents had been dosing me with poison
“She refused to obey an order of the king, an order that would have plunged your realm into famine.”
Ice and fire, brought together as one. Sisters divided, united once more. Washed with salt and laden with blood—all united will satisfy the debt you owe.”
He failed to see the trail of wildflowers blooming in the grass.
“You’re in the dungeons of Castle Kirstron, Mad Thief,”
tonight is not my appointed time to die. There are forces at play that you cannot even imagine with your small mind, and one might even say that I was always destined to stand in this moment. You were merely a pawn of the spirits to get me here.”
“Yes. When I lie beside my wife tonight, when she learns of all you did to bring us back together, I’m sure she will personally want to thank you.”
She would know his hands, his posture, his body, anywhere.
“Don’t look at my mother,” Adaira said. “Look at me. I am the one speaking to you.”
“Take my plaid and drape it around my husband.”
“I claim you, Jack Tamerlaine. From this day forth, you will be sheltered in my house, and will drink from my cup, and will find rest beneath my watch. If anyone lifts a sword against you, they raise one against me. Such a challenge will not go unanswered. You are mine to defend until the isle takes your bones or you desire it otherwise. Rise, and renew your heart.”
“No one hurts those who I love. No one.”
“Please refrain from making music while you are on my lands.”
Blue jewels tumbled from her hand, gleaming in the light as they spilled across the floor.
“The fire,” Adaira whispered, looking at the hearth. “The flames extinguished. The fire led me to you.”
“That this year and a day still belongs to us,”
I am first yours, as you are first mine. Before all others.
Orenna, who had once dared to grow her blood-red flowers in unusual places, angering the other spirits with her eavesdropping. Lady Whin of the Wildflowers had no choice but to urge her sister to grow only where she was invited. Orenna, of course, had bristled at the correction and ignored it, continuing to grow her blossoms where she willed, collecting the secrets of fire, water, and wind. Eventually, the Earie Stone punished her by banishing her to heartsick soil, the only place she was allowed to grow. Orenna would have to prick her finger and let her golden blood fall to the ground to
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