An Ember in the Ashes Quotes

“I live with my sins every day.” He throws down the tongs and turns to me. “I live with the guilt. But there are two kinds of guilt, girl: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“This life is not always what we think it will be.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“For now, these steps are enough.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I’m afraid,” I whisper. “Afraid I’ll fail. Afraid he’ll die.” The fear flares through me then, as if by speaking of it I’ve breathed life into it. Shadows gather and pool near the door. Ghuls. Laia, they say. Laia. “Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be.” Teluman hands me Darin’s blade and nods to the ghuls. I turn and, as Teluman speaks, advance upon them. “Too much fear and you’re paralyzed,” he says. The ghuls aren’t cowed yet. I raise the scim. “Too little fear and you’re arrogant.” I strike out at the closest ghul. It hisses and skitters under the door. Some of its fellows back away, but others lunge at me. I force myself to stand fast, to meet them with the edge of the blade. Moments later, the few that were brave enough to remain flee with wrathful hisses. I turn back to Teluman. He finds my eyes. “Fear can be good, Laia. It can keep you alive. But don’t let it control you. Don’t let it sow doubts within you. When the fear takes over, use the only thing more powerful, more indestructible, to fight it: your spirit. Your heart.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“A pair of Masks battles within, each brandishing two slender scims. “It’s Veturius,” Izzi says. “And Aquilla. They’ve been at it for ages.” As I watch them fight, I find that I’m holding my breath. They move like dancers, whirling back and forth across the room, graceful, liquid, deadly. And so swift, like shadows on the surface of a river. If I wasn’t watching it with my own eyes, I would never believe anyone could move that fast. Veturius knocks the scim from Aquilla’s hand, and he is on her, their bodies entangled as they wrestle across the floor with a strange, intimate violence. He is all muscle and force, and yet I can see in the way he fights that he is holding himself back. He is refusing to unleash his whole strength on her. Even still, there is an animal freedom to how he moves, a controlled chaos that makes the air around him blaze.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I trip over a body and crash to the ground. The impact shakes something loose in my mind. Mountains. East. Trial. This is a Trial. Thinking those words is like pulling myself from a pool of quicksand. This is a Trial, and I must survive it. Most of the people on the battlefield aren’t dead yet—I just saw them. This is a test—of my mettle, my strength—which means there must be something specific I’m supposed to do to get out of here. “Until you conquer your fear, the dead will remain with you.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I trip over a body and crash to the ground. The impact shakes something loose in my mind. Mountains. East. Trial. This is a Trial. Thinking those words is like pulling myself from a pool of quicksand. This is a Trial, and I must survive it. Most of the people on the battlefield aren’t dead yet—I just saw them. This is a test—of my mettle, my strength—which means there must be something specific I’m supposed to do to get out of here.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“What are my fears? I rack my brain, but I can’t think of anything. Most of Blackcliff’s students fear something, though never for long. When we were Yearlings, the Commandant ordered Helene to rappel down the cliffs again and again until she could drop with nothing but a clenched jaw to betray her terror. That same year, the Commandant forced Faris to keep a bird-eating desert tarantula as a pet, telling him that if the spider died, he would too. There must be something I fear. Enclosed spaces? The dark? If I don’t know my fears, I won’t be prepared for them. Midnight comes and goes, and still the desert around me is quiet and empty. I’ve traveled nearly twenty miles, and my throat is dry as dirt. I lick at the sweat on my arms, knowing that my need for salt will be as great as my need for water. The moisture helps, but only for a moment. I force myself to focus on the ache in my feet and legs. Pain I can handle. But thirst can drive a man insane.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“But then the creature’s eyes are on me, bright and ravenous. It is one of the things. One of the shadows from the night of the raid. I’m going crazy. Bleeding, bat crazy. I close my eyes, willing the thing to disappear. When it doesn’t, I swat at it with trembling hands. “Laia . . . ” “Go away. You’re not real.” The thing inches close. Don’t scream, Laia, I tell myself, biting down hard on my lip. Don’t scream. “Your brother suffers, Laia.” Each of the creature’s words is deliberate, as if it wants to make sure I don’t miss a single one. “The Martials pull pain from him slowly and with relish.” “No. You’re in my head.” The creature’s laugh is like breaking glass. “I’m real as death, little Laia. Real as shattered bones and traitorous sisters and hateful Masks.” “You’re an illusion. You’re my . . . my guilt.” I grab Mother’s armlet. The shadow flashes its predator’s grin, and now it’s only a foot away. But then the wagon comes to a stop, and the creature gives me a last malevolent look before disappearing with a dissatisfied hiss. Seconds later, the wagon door swings open, and the forbidding walls of Blackcliff are before me, their oppressive weight driving the hallucination from my mind.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I don’t need to believe in the supernatural. Not when there’s worse that roams the night.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“legionnaire”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I wasn’t about to let the son
kill me after the father had failed.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“There are two kinds of guilt,” I say softly. “The kind that’s a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It’s damaged, but it’s there. Don’t let them take it from you,”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You killed my mother, who had a lion’s heart, and my sister, who laughed like the rain, and my father, who captured truth with a few strokes of a pen. You took them from me. You took them from this world.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You are an ember and Ashes, Elias Veturius. You will sark and burn, revenge and destroy. You cannot change. You cannot stop it.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“This life is not always what we think it will be," Cain says. "You are an ember in the ashes, Elias Veturius. You will spark and burn, ravage and destory. You cannot stop it.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Laia es el baile salvaje alrededor de una fogata tribal, mientras que Helene es el frío azul de la llama de un alquimista.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Mi hermano mayor llega a casa en las oscuras horas previas al alba, cuando hasta los fantasmas descansan. Huele a acero, carbón y forja. Huele al enemigo.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I’d helped Pop bring dozens of newborns into the world. What kind of person could leave something so small, so precious, to die of heat and starvation?”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I live with the guilt. But there are two kinds of guilt, girl: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“But I didn’t want to risk the men. Or—or you.” He mutters these words, and I lift my eyebrows in disbelief. “Me?” I say. “You threatened to shove me into a crypt five seconds after meeting me.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I am almost giddy with hope until I see Keenan watching the dancers whirl, his brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?” “Will you, uh . . . ” He runs a hand through his hair, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so agitated. “Will you honor me with a dance?”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You stuffed me in that niche but didn’t have the sense to hold on to it yourself.” Helene glowers at me, but her hands shake as she gives me the water. “Then you dropped like a lead weight. Smacked your head on the way down. You should have died, but that rope between us anchored you. I sang at the top of my lungs until every last efrit bolted. Then I got you to the desert floor and holed up in a little cave behind some tumbleweeds. Good little fort, actually. Easy to defend.” “You had to fight? Again?” “The Augurs tried to kill us four more times. The scorpions were obvious, but the viper almost got you. Then there were wights—evil little bastards, them, nothing like the stories. Pain in the ass to kill, too—you have to squash them like bugs.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I’m shoving my way past the crowds in the couriers’ office, and a hand lands on my waist. I instinctively jab back with my elbow to knock the wind out of the fool who thinks he can take liberties. Another hand catches my arm. “Laia.” A low voice murmurs into my ear. Keenan’s voice. My skin thrills at the familiar scent of him. He lets my arm go, but his hand tightens on my waist.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Which means if the soldiers throw her over and I’m still dangling like a comatose spider, we’ll both fall hard and fast to the hereafter.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You really should run,” Helene says to the creature. “You’re just going to die.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Your kind doesn’t need to read.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“She doesn’t know you can read. She’ll think you’re an idiot Scholar gawping at pretty symbols.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“The Trials, it seems, have begun.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“The slave-girl stands in the shadows near the stairs, and as Marcus passes her, he reaches out and yanks her close. She writhes in his grasp, trying to break his iron grip on her throat. He leans down and murmurs something to her.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes