Shalini Abeysekara

emotion was best concealed, opinions were a liability, and that dreams were for the wealthy.

I plan on tearing it apart.” There was something disturbing in his eyes. Not mockery or cruelty, something infinitely more worrying for its namelessness. “And you don’t want to stand in my way.”

She’d arm herself with his secrets. And he wouldn’t see her coming when she ruined him.

Cisuré sounded as though the bit of politesse had cost her a limb

But to spy on him? She may as well ring her own death knell

So this was how Kadra indoctrinated everyone to his brand of violence. He took their broken hearts and reshaped the fragments into daggers

Because the madman she’d set out to ruin was everything the most desperate, anguished parts of her had always craved.

The caged force in her head ceased to rattle its bars because she finally understood

Not just being human but being … worthy of all the accoutrements of humanity.

Something quiet and lethal burned in his eyes. “Choose me.” His voice was rough, jaw tensed like he hadn’t wanted to say it. As if she hadn’t given him a choice but to say it.