Finale (Caraval, #3)

by Stephanie Garber

“But I don’t want to feel differently. I want to feel love in its every form. I used to be so scared of it, but now I think love is another type of magic. It makes everything brighter, it makes people who have it stronger, it breaks rules that aren’t supposed to exist, it’s infinitely valuable. I can’t imagine my life without it. And if you felt any love in your heart, you would understand.”

“You’re the same as you’ve always been, we just know more about you now. But it doesn’t change you—not unless you let it. And this news doesn’t change us, either. Even if we didn’t share any blood at all, I would still call you my sister and I would battle anyone who tried to say it wasn’t true. You are my family, Scarlett. Who your birth father is doesn’t change that.”

He didn’t kiss her as if he’d simply just come back to life. He kissed her as if he’d died, been buried, and clawed his way out of the grave and through the dirt just to get to her.

And Scarlett cried. She cried for the horrors he had been, and she cried for the wonders that he could have been instead.

“Good, because I don’t want to fight you. I just want to love you.” He lifted her a little and pressed another kiss to her lips. “This is my choice, and I choose you, Donatella. I don’t need immortality. You’re my forever.”