A Fire Endless Quotes

“If I am weak for wanting you, then let me embrace that weakness and make it my strength," he said, his gaze fixed on the west. "And if you must haunt me, then let me haunt you in return.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“He marveled at how his own heart could exist outside his body.
“You don’t know what you do to me,” he whispered. “By you alone I could be undone.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“You and I have faced many things alone. Between the mainland and the isle, the east and the west, we've carried our troubles in solitude. As if it were weakness to share one's burden with another. But I am with you now. I am yours, and I want you to lay your burdens down on me.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“Give your fear a name,” Jack said, remembering that Adaira had once said this very thing to Torin. “Once it is named, it is understood, and it loses its power over you.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“I may not be able to play a harp again, or sing for the clan,” he said. “But I have found that this is my song. This is my music.” And he framed her face in his hands. “Months ago, I told you that I was a verse inspired by your chorus. I thought I knew what those words meant then, but now I fully understand the depth and the breadth of them. I want to write a ballad with you, not in notes but in our choices, in the simplicity and the routine of our life together. In waking up at your side every sunrise and falling asleep entwined with you every sunset. In kneeling beside you in the kail yard and leading a clan and overseeing trade and eating at our parents’ tables. In making mistakes, because I know that I’ll make them, and then restitution, because I’m better than I once ever hoped to be when I’m with you.”
Adaira turned her face to kiss his palm, where his scar from their blood vow still shone. When she looked at him again, there were tears in her eyes.
“What do you think, Heiress?” Jack whispered, because he was suddenly desperate to know her thoughts. To know what she was feeling.
Adaira leaned forward, brushing his lips with hers. “I think that I want to make such music with you until my last day when the isle takes my bones. I think you are the song I was longing for, waiting for. And I will always be thankful that you returned to me.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“The other day,” Graeme said, “I was thinking about all the different paths our lives take, how little choices here and there suddenly guide us to places we never expected. How sometimes even the worst experiences turn us into what we need to be, even though we would rather avoid the pain. But we grow stronger—we grow sharper—and before we truly even know it, we are looking back on it all. We see who we were and who we have become, and it is why the spirits watch us and marvel.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“He knew that she was the only one he wanted to find in the darkness. The only one he wanted to hold the shape of his soul, even with his thorns and dreams and wounds.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“To live your life you have forged yourself to be as strong as possible. You have made yourself like a blade that is hammered over fire and quenched in water. Day after day. But there is nothing weak in being soft, in being gentle.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“Perhaps he knew I needed you, more than I need air and warmth and light. That if I were to go on living as I had been in the east without you, I would soon be worn down to nothing but dust.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“I wasn’t living; I was merely taking up air and space.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“May you be strong and courageous,” he said. “May your enemies kneel before you. May you find the answers you seek. May you be victorious and spirits-blessed, and may peace follow as your shadow.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“She let him see the same in her. The hunger, the longing, the scars. The words she wrote but never sent. The shape of her soul that didn’t seem to fit anywhere. For once, she wasn’t afraid to surrender those pieces of herself, to let them twine with Jack.
She let them all go because he was her home, her shelter. Her endless fire, burning through the dark.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“What if my da is Breccan?” Frae kicked a pebble on the road, keeping her eyes on the ground. “Would you still want to walk me home?”
Ella was quiet for a moment, but maybe only because the question had taken her by surprise.
Frae snuck a glance at her. For the past several days, Ella had walked her home from school and the boys had not bothered her again. But there were still whispers and pointed glances. A few times during class, no one had wanted to partner up with Frae.
“If your da is a Breccan,” Ella began to say, “then yes, I’d still walk you home, and I’d still be your friend, Frae. Do you want to know why?”
Frae nodded, but she could feel her face flush, her relief knotted with shame that she even had to ask this question when no other children she knew did.
“Because your heart is good and brave and kind,” Ella said. “You are thoughtful and smart. And those are the kind of people who I want to be friends with. Not the ones who think they are above everyone else. Who scowl and judge things they don’t understand and throw mud and have cowardly hearts.”
Frae soaked in Ella’s words, which were warm and soft as a plaid, and she suddenly could walk faster, her chin held higher.
“And,” Ella added with a mischievous smile, “you make the best berry pies.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“The fear of irrevocable change and the unknown began to beat against her ribs again.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“You are as gentle-hearted as you are fierce.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“And so you turned your fear into something else,” he said. “You reached the place you thought you would never find, and you claimed it as your own. Well done, my love.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“She let them all go because he was her home, her shelter. Her endless fire, burning through the dark.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“I want to write a ballad with you, not in notes but in our choices, in the simplicity and routine of our life together.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“I thought about my fears,” she said. “How every day I woke up in the west I was afraid. I think because I often felt like a stranger. Like I was losing myself or forgetting who I was. And so I come here to swim in the warm darkness, even though it terrified me, and I tell myself, If I go deep enough, far enough, I will eventually find the edge of it. I will find the end.”
Adaira paused, rolling her lips together. Water beaded on her face, gleaming like small gemstones. “I would find the end of my fear or finally claim it and turn it into something else. But I discovered that I could swim to the edge of the mortal realm and still be afraid.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“I’m sorry, Jack. But as you’ll soon learn, I am not a good man.”
“You don’t have to be a ‘good’ man,” Jack said. “You simply need to be an honest one.”
His father looked at him again. His eyes were a bloodshot blue, like the summer sky at sunset, and filled with remorse.
“Very well,” Niall said. “Then let me speak honestly to you. I’ve stolen. I’ve lied. I’ve killed. I’m a coward. I left your mother to raise you and your sister alone. I let her go. I let you go. I let Frae go. I am unworthy of what you hope for me, because I never fought for your mother and you and your sister when I should have.”
“Then fight for us now!” Jack replied sharply. He pounded his chest with his fist, felt the best move through him. “Let our names be the sword in your hand. Let us be your shield and your armor. Fight for us tonight. Because over the clan line, I’m the shadows of the Aithwood, my mother still waits for you, weaving your story on her loom. My sister longs for you as I once did, wondering where you are and hoping you will one day knock on the door and proudly claim her. And I would love nothing more than to bore you with mainland stories day after day and sing to you until your guilt she’d like old skin and you choose the life you want, not the one you think you deserve.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“The other day,” Graeme said, “I was thinking about all the different paths our lives take, how little choices here and there suddenly guide us to places we never expected. How sometimes even the worst experiences turn us into what we need to be, even though we would rather avoid the pain. But we grow stronger—we grow sharper—and before we truly even know it, we are looking back on it all. We see who we were and who we have become, and it is why the spirits watch us and marvel.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“Music had granted once his power. Music now stripped it from him”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“You and I have faced many things alone. Between the mainland and the isle, the east and the west, we've carried our troubles in solitude. As if it were weakness to share one's burden with another. But I am with you now. I am yours, and I want you to lay your burdens down on me.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“Being furious at their deceit did nothing to them but everything to her, and anger would wear her down into dust.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“The other day,” Graeme said, “I was thinking about all the different paths our lives take, how little choices here and there suddenly guide us to places we never expected. How sometimes even the worst of experiences turn us into what we need to be, even though we would rather avoid the pain. But we grow stronger—we grow sharper—and before we truly even know it, we are looking back on it all. We see who we were and we see who we have become, and it is why the spirits watch us and marvel.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“want to write a ballad with you, not in notes but in our choices, in the simplicity and routine of our life together. In waking up at your side every sunrise and falling asleep entwined with you every sunset. In kneeling beside you in the kail yard and leading a clan and overseeing trade and eating at our parents’ tables. In making mistakes, because I know that I’ll make them, and then restitution, because I’m better than I once ever hoped to be when I’m with you.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“wasn’t sure when you’d return,” she confessed. “I know, and I’m sorry,” he said. “You have been so brave, Sidra. You have been so strong without me, holding the clan and the east together. Let me help you now, love. Let me carry it with you again.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“His arm came around her, solid and possessive, and his hand delved into her hair, drawing her mouth to his. He had never kissed her like this before, like he needed something that dwelled deep within her. His kiss was hungry and desperate and fierce, and Sidra felt it curl all the way down to her toes. She could taste the loam in him—a wild, green sweetness—and she wondered where he had been. She wondered about the things he had seen, and how he had found his way home to her.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“He marveled at how his own heart could exist outside his body. “You don’t know what you do to me,” he whispered. “By you alone I could be undone.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless

“And I would love nothing more than to bore you with mainland stories day after day and sing for you until your guilt sheds like old skin and you choose the life you want, not the one you think you deserve.”
― Rebecca Ross, A Fire Endless