The Buried and the Bound (The Buried and the Bound Trilogy Book 1)

by Rochelle Hassan

Not knowing what—who—he was grieving only made it harder to let go. He couldn’t even mourn properly. Closure was nowhere near the realm of possibility. “I was cursed to forget my true love,” he said finally, hating how simple it sounded and at the same time grateful it didn’t sound the way it felt, corrosive and violating.

In making her a hedgewitch, Blackthorn had given her purpose. It had given her a way to put down roots. She couldn’t cook the food Jiddo had grown up eating, or speak Arabic, which was his and her parents’ first language. She had never visited the place where they’d been born. Her roots weren’t there; they were here in Blackthorn, not only because she’d been born here, not only because her parents had chosen it, but because it had chosen her. And Aziza chose it back. That was how you made a place your home: You put work into it. You carved out a role for yourself. You made yourself belong even if you weren’t sure you did. She returned the favor Blackthorn had done her, in making her a hedgewitch, by doing everything she could to be worthy of this gift.