stevie’s Reviews > A Kingdom of Beasts and Betrayal > Status Update

Her veins lit up like stars, pulsing beneath her skin like rivers of molten moonlight. Beautiful and horrifying.

“It matters. You matter. But the way you disappear when you’re hurting,” his head drops. “It’s like you’re bracing for the world to leave you first.”

Death was a visitor, not a keeper.

But I do not rise as a hero. My feet stumble like a man reborn from the grave.

Bono was quiet for a moment, then said, “Because you’ve been alone for too long. You thought surviving it by yourself would fix something.”

His eyes weren’t his anymore. They carried ruin in them, the kind of ruin that lingers long after the fire dies, smouldering in ash and bone. It felt like he was caught in some unseen war, dragged through shadows that whispered and bled. Whatever he’d seen, it was still clinging to him, gnawing at the edges.

“You’re either blind or stupid,” quoting his previous words. “Because I’m in fact walking,” I shout over my shoulder. “And I’m not ignoring anything, I’m just getting away from you.”

“The Quiet Killer stared at me, like he was contemplating how to live up to his deranged nickname.”

“I just... want something to get lost in,” I whispered, my fingers brushing over the spines, trying to distract myself, ground myself. “Something that has nothing to do with who I am or where I come from. I want to feel something I’ve only dreamt of.”

“I’m an enchantress, not a showgirl.”