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“You are not what I was expecting,” Arin said.

🥴

Arin’s gaze slid to Vaun and hardened. Though his voice didn’t change, a frigid chill swept through the room. “You put your hands on her.” (...) “You should do what I ask and only that.” Again, Arin remained perfectly pleasant, but Vaun paled like the Heir had personally called for his beheading. “Go.”

I'm feverish is this a hallucination oh lord 😭

“Was yesterday’s stabbing session insufficient for you?”
“Fascinating,” he said. “That was a learned instinct. Who would teach an orphan girl to catch knives?” (...) "What is your real name?” (...) "Have your pleasure, suraira. Every truth has its time.”

🙂‍↕️ Good lord

“Are they for me?”
“They’re for the vermin.” He glanced at my bowl. “Are you finished?”
I pushed away from the table. “Evidently.”
We walked to the training center.

I looove their banter

“(...) Have you seen it? Abominable. My current stench alone could be used as a weapon. I have no garments, and the sole company I am permitted to keep is a handful of soldiers whose conversational skills peaked in the womb.”
Arin unbuttoned his coat. “Good morning to you, too.”
I scowled, gesturing to the windowless walls. “I have seen no evidence of either.”

🤭

"Wes, who I had woken this morning to find hovering over me with a cold cloth (to which I had garbled, “Did I swallow any insects?” and promptly earned his departing back)"

Lmao

"This Jasadi was the human equivalent of spilled ink over the meticulously drawn lines of his map. Whether he could refrain from breaking her neck until the end of the Alcalah was one question for which Arin had no answer."

"Secrets. So many secrets. She was wreathed in them."

Sir, you're one to talk

"The hunger seized him as soon as their hands touched. Howling through Arin, digging into him with a thousand whittling blades. His teeth cut his bottom lip open.
Her magic—it was strong. Too strong."

🥴

"Arin pulled off his gloves and hesitated. The last time he brushed against her magic, it had consumed him. The utter loss of control was not a memory he would soon forget."

🥴

"The Jasadi lay unmoving against him. He had caught her at a precise angle, using the curve of the riverbank to slide to the rocks instead of tumbling straight down. (...) Combined with the deathly pallor of her skin, the effect pricked a rare bead of disquiet in the Nizahl Heir."

ARIN POV ARIN POV

"If you do not believe in my honesty, believe in my loss. If it is revealed I allowed a Jasadi to stand as Nizahl Champion in the Alcalah, it will cast my reputation and my throne into ruin.” (...) “I believe you,” I slurred. My last recollection before my hand slackened and my body dropped was of the Nizahl Heir running, sliding in the mud trail, and the collision of our bodies over the edge of the cliff."

“What do you want?” (...) “Freedom. Real freedom.” (...) “I offered you freedom, and you ran away.” (...) “I have no need for your empty promises, Commander." (...) “How can I convince you my word is true?” I stared at him with open bewilderment.

I'M LOVING THIS

“Stop!” I shouted. “One more step and I’ll push myself off. You may think my magic might heal a few stab wounds, but can it knit together a broken body?” (...) “You have lost a great volume of blood. I expect you have minutes until you faint. I will not be fast enough to catch you,” he said.
“Good.”

😝😝😝

"A new dagger slammed into my arm, pinning me to the tree. I screamed, the sudden agony whiting out my vision."

Finally, a true enemies to lovers 🙏🏻

"My stomach turned to stone. With the reins in one hand and a hold on the lowest branch of the tree behind him, Arin stood on his horse’s saddle. The cliff curved mere feet from its hooves. If it spooked, it could hurl its rider straight over the edge."

He's so attractive 😝

“Show yourself, suraira.”
Suraira again."

I'm fighting the urge to look it up bc I know the revelation will be unmatched 🥴

“We were instructed not to enter your quarters under any circumstance,” Jeru explained. “For your comfort.”
(...)
“What if I’m dying?”
“Why would you be dying?”
“Perhaps an insect crawled into my throat. I’m choking, frothing at the mouth. Will you watch from the threshold?”
“Yes,” Wes said. “Try not to swallow any insects.”

“Oh dear, did you think lust overcame your Heir?”The very notion of the icy Nizahl Heir allowing a physical urge to overcome his ruthless control made me cackle. “He was on top of you. The mistake could’ve been made by anyone,” (...) “Your Commander was hardly moved by passion, although I suppose sensing my magic changed that.” His feverish reaction still lingered in the vault of unanswered questions."

"This time, it was he who closed the distance between us. He lifted his arms and paused. He was giving me an opportunity to steel myself against the instinct to flinch away. (...) He deftly twined my curls together. The silk ribbon trailed across the back of my newly freed neck."

🥴

The decision is yours, suraira. I will not be your warden. However, Sayali and Caleb may have a more vested interest in your participation.” (...) “I have never met a Sayali or Caleb,”
He chuckled softly. “My apologies. You know them by other names.” (...) The Citadel’s High Counselor has searched long for his stepdaughter and her blond lover after they left him for dead and emptied his coffers."

IKNEWIT

“I am alive because you need me, don’t you?” I lingered close enough to count his silver lashes. “And you’re furious.”
Arin smiled, pulling his scar tight. “Finally.”

🥴

“Satisfy your hubris, then. You are my arbiter to the afterlife. End this cleanly.”
“Your infantile mastery of your emotions has done you no credit. I could have seen you dead a thousand times since I arrived, but there you sit, insolent as ever.”

🤭🤭🤭

“Sylvia of Mahair is protected from harm under amnesty laws,” he said.
Felix blinked. Ah, there was our familial resemblance—confused grimaces. “How?”
“She is Nizahl’s chosen Champion for the Alcalah.”

Oh my God

I was moving for Felix before the horses had finished their assault on Fairel’s still body.
Arin moved faster. I hadn’t taken more than a step, and he was already there, blocking my path. He knocked the dagger from my hand. I was moving for Felix before the horses had finished their assault on Fairel’s still body.
Arin moved faster. I hadn’t taken more than a step, and he was already there, blocking my path.+

“Your Highness.” I bowed my head. “An honor to see you taking part in our humble waleema.”
“The honor is mine alone, Sylvia.”
He said my name with subtle contempt. A five-letter accusation. An acknowledgment of my most successful lie."

"A gloved finger hovered under my chin. Though he didn’t move to close the distance, my trepidation spiked."

The tension my God

“Or you have magic.”
He halted when I did. His brow arched at my expression. “You’re shocked. Did you think I was taken in by your show in the woods?”
“If I’ve mistakenly led Your Highness to believe—”
Arin waved aside my objection. “Don’t embarrass yourself.”

🥴

"Your Highness, if you’ll excuse me, there are items—”
Arin didn’t bat an eye. “I am happy to escort you. My guards can set up your chairs in the meantime."

🤭

Fairel’s chair fell from her suddenly limp grip, hitting my foot. I cried out, hopping to the side. “Fairel! What has gotten into you?” I followed the source of the girl’s stupefaction. Standing at the door of his shop, Rory held himself stiffly near the Nizahl Heir and his guard. The three men in the rear appeared to be suppressing smirks, which explained why Fairel was blanching. Her words had carried.
😭