Threads That Bind (Threads That Bind, #1)

by Kika Hatzopoulou

For five years, the fate-thread had been her anchor, a constant reminder that no matter how hard life became—her parents’ death, their struggling finances, the sorrow she could see in her sisters’ eyes—there was something waiting for her, a thread blazing silver against the horizon. One day, it would come, and one day, she would be happy. It was fate, impossible and otherworldly and utterly hers. No, she wouldn’t cut it.

“Don’t you want to know who he is, what he does?” “I don’t care,” Io always lied, hoping one day, it would be true.

Was it so wrong to have this one sweet thing to cherish, a fate larger than life, a destiny beyond the laws of nature?

In the last dregs of sunlight shifting through the high windows, he looked like a painting, both faded and vibrant, ancient and timeless.

“Listen,” he said, “if it’s any worth, I understand. There is violence in kindness, and kindness in violence.”

Her heart just craved. The softness, the calm, the intimacy. To know what it’s like to be loved.

It was safe to love people from afar, to dream of kisses but never seek them.

They came together: the fear and the longing. Io dreaded that her love was doomed to be rejected, or tricked, or manipulated. And at the same time, she wanted desperately to be loved.

if I had the choice, I would still choose you. We are a good team, you and I, and we could be so much more.”