Extraits

“I’m still really damned angry with you.” I lift my chin, just as furious with myself for getting into this position, for feeling whatever all this bullshit is.⁠

⁠

“Feeling is mutual.” He slides one hand into my hair, then sucks a breath through his teeth when his fingers meet skin at the base of my spine. “But it’s possible to be angry while still madly, wildly, uncontrollably in love with me.”⁠

⁠

His mouth crashes into mine in the same instant the world goes dark around us.⁠

"I love you," I whisper. "You could throw my entire world into upheaval, and I would still love you. You could keep secrets, run a revolution, frustrate the shit out of me, probably ruin me, and I would still love you. I can't make it stop. I don't want to. You're my gravity. Nothing in my world works without you."

I’m sorry if you expect me to do the noble thing. I warned you. I’m not sweet or soft or kind, and you fell anyway. This is what you get, Violet—me. The good, the bad, the unforgivable. All of it. I am yours.

"You want to know something true?

Something real? I love you. I'm in love with you. I have been since the night the snow fell in your hair and you kissed me for the first time. I'm grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won't have to face a day without you in it. My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I'll meet Malek at your side. It's a damned good thing that you love me, too, because you're stuck with me in this life and every other that could possibly follow."

“You’re capable of hurting me in ways I’m not sure you’ve even begun to fathom, Violet. I might be skilled enough to land a death blow, but you alone have the power to fucking destroy me.”

Spoiler(cliquez pour révéler)My house. My chair. My woman.

"Stop keeping me safe!" I immediately regret raising my voice with Cat in the room and try to steady my ire with a deep breath. "You never would have pulled this bullshit last year. You never held me back, never caged me in the name of protecting me. You were the one telling me to find another way on the Gauntlet, watching me fight off other cadets at Threshing-"

"I wasn't in love with you then." His hand graps the nape of my neck, and his thumb skates over the pulse in my throat. "During Gauntlet, Threshing... I had no idea what you would become to me." And he couldn't kill me thanks to the deal he made with Mom - the deal he still hasn't trusted me with. "I sure as hell hadn't sat by your bedside for three days, knowing my life - if it even existed beyond yours - would mean nothing without you in it."

The gold flecks in his eyes catch the light, and I can't help but blink at what I see there.

"You're... scared, aren't you?" I grasp the door's edge to keep from reaching for him.

"Of losing you? More like terrified. And when Sgaeyl told me Tairn was headed this direction I nearly lost my fucking mind."

Chapter 41

Oh, good. I was wondering when it was going to start getting dangerous again.

Stop bringing logic into an emotional argument.

Touch me and I swear to the gods, I’ll cut your fucking hands off and let the quadrant sort you out in the next round of challenges, Dain Aetos.