The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)

by Carissa Broadbent

Taught us to hide love in sharp edges.

Death isn’t frightening when weighed against an insignificant existence.”

“Maybe our skin doesn’t scar the same as yours, but our hearts do. Sometimes they never heal.”

He was on his knees, staring up at me. And that—the way he looked at me—was the first thing that felt real. Real, and raw, and… and confusing. Because he looked at me in sheer awe—like I was the most incredible thing he had ever seen. Like I was a fucking goddess.

“Don’t be so quick to throw away your humanity, Oraya,” he said. “You might find you miss it once it’s gone.”

“I’ve lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries. Seen some fucking travesties. But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.”

My father loved me. I knew this. But he loved me in spite of what I was. Loved the parts of me that he could make like him.

I don’t pity you, Oraya. I just think you deserve better.”

“I would beg,” he murmured. “For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?”

“You are more than what he made you,”