More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“When you set your mind on something, there’s no power in this or any world that can sway you, is there? For better or for worse, you are a force to be reckoned with.”
“Sometimes, Darling, your courage looks rather too much like lunacy to the rest of us.”
He’s here. Just at my back. His hand clasped warmly in mine. Though deep down I know it’s foolish, I’m suddenly convinced that we will solve whatever problems lie before us.
I meet his gaze hard. “I’m not abandoning you.” At this, his mouth breaks in a devastating smile. “That might be the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“You must know why I wished to speak to you.” His lips quirk slightly. “I have any number of suspicions.” To my utmost horror his gaze drops pointedly to my mouth. “And hopes.”
“The knowledge that you were there in Aurelis—breathing the air of Eledria—was torture. During those five years you spent in Estrilde’s thrall, not a day went by that I did not think of you.”
from the first moment I set eyes on her pale, terrified face, my soul was set ablaze. Not with hatred. No, this is a greater, far more terrible and destructive flame. A flame that would burn down worlds for her sake.
What am I compared to any of these? Less than nothing in her estimation. While she? She is everything.
“No, stay with me! Don’t go away. I need you with me. I need you here. I need you. I need you, do you hear me?”
He looks like something out of a romantic ballad, a wild-hearted lover with untamed passions, the kind who strides across moors in billowing capes and tall boots. The kind I’ve read about in far too many romances secreted up to my room and pored over by candlelight. Only he’s not some fantasy, some indulgence. He’s real. Beautiful and terrible and real.
“You are so much more than I ever suspected.” He breathes the words like a prayer. “You magnificent thing!”
I stare into his eyes. For a moment, I forget the magic I’ve just worked. I forget my mad plan, the many layers of bargains I’ve ensnared myself in. Forget Danny and Oscar and everything. There’s just him. Here with me. Looking at me like that. Like I am the very miracle he’s been searching for all his life.
“To really love someone is to be willing to give them up. To know they are free to make their own choices, for better or for worse. To allow them that freedom. To let go . . . even if it means watching them fall.”
But if she knew who I really am—if she knew what I’ve done and what I’ve kept from her all this time—her hatred would be unending.
“No, no, Darling. You may look, but no touching.” He catches my eye and winks. “Now what is that quaint little human saying of yours? Oh, yes! Bottoms up.”
“I will come to you.” His mouth rests just against my ear, his voice low and deep: “Should you need me. For any reason. Not for Obligation, only for need.”
“Call my name,” he whispers. “I will come to you. From anywhere in all the worlds, I will come. Just call my name.” “Castien.” My throat vibrates against his fingertips. “No.” He leans in closer, his nose against my temple. His lips just brush my skin. Not a kiss, a mere stroke of contact. “Not that.” Then he speaks a single word, softly. Breathes it into my ear. The next moment he is gone.
“You spoke my true name. Only one woman in all the worlds may do that. For her I would give my life. I would give a thousand lives—to see you safe and whole and happy.” One day, I’ll offer that name as a gift to she who will be my wife. If she accepts me, she will speak it back.
