Charissa Weaks

think a lot about how much I hate this place, but the truth is that I only hate my circumstances—not having a choice

You look as though you carry the moon on your shoulders.

I am salvation and damnation. There cannot be one without the other

Again, he smiles, and it’s irritating how devastating it is, even with a busted lip. His lone dimple makes an appearance, too, making matters even worse. It’s hard to despise someone who lights up the world when they smile.

Damn him to the Nether Reaches

But the Witch Collector will not come for me. Of this, I’m certain. I, Raina Bloodgood, have lived in this village for twenty-four years, and for twenty-four years he has passed me by.

His mistake.

Lately, her memory is everywhere.

Finn has been my first everything. My first friend. My first fight. My first kiss. My first lover. My first heartbreak.

“Like the wind, Mannus. Let’s find Raina Bloodgood.”

“I love you, Raina,” Finn says out of nowhere.

My thudding heart all but stops. I snap my head around, searching his boyishly handsome face. Why is he saying this to me now?

The second that thought hits me, I realize that I know why.

“I felt you needed to hear that before doing something rash,” he says. He takes my hand and presses a tender kiss to my fingertips. “I love you, Raina Bloodgood. Forever.”

Ophelia Bloodgood did the impossible. She hid her family’s power.