“The word home evoked only the sweet green smell of the woods, long gone, and sometimes another word: Yew, I thought, or perhaps you.”

you,,,,,, oh,,, my heart,,,,,

“I was dying, but I had died before, and would die again. We had told this story so many times, you and I, and we would tell it so many more, and it would always end here, like this: with my blood on your hands and your tears on my face. Call it God or fate, bad luck or good—all I knew is that I would see you again, and it was enough.”

CRASHING TF OUTTTTT

“I loved you by then, or would soon, or always had. It was inevitable, foretold: When I look up, I will see the sky; when I fight, I will win; when I meet Owen Mallory, I will love him.

And you must have loved me, too, at least a little—but it wasn’t me that you needed. It was Una the Everlasting, the Drawn Blade of Dominion, the hero, the saint, the story. For you, I would become her, just once more.”

IM GONNA FREAKKKKK

“You had lost your way. And I—who knew every turn and twist in your journey, every step you must and would take—was your compass.”

ngl this would hit so much harder if it was sapphic

“If she’d declared them in a loud voice Casiopea would have let them take root inside her, and she could not have that. Instead, she polished them in secret, precious bits that they were, but bits and not wholes. […] The things you name do grow in power, but others that are not ever whispered claw at one’s heart anyway, rip it to shreds even if a syllable does not escape the lips.”

smthn smthn abt being afraid to say things out loud so it won't be given a sort of tangibility and a body to breathe in, but also smthn smthn abt the things you refuse to say out loud taking root in the deepest crevices of your heart and festering until it eats you up and swallows you whole on the inside

"You wear me like a jewel upon your finger, Casiopea." your honor,,,,