Jesper put his arm around her. “He loved you so much, Nina. Loving you made him better.”“Did it make a difference in the end?”“Of course it did,” said Inej. “Matthias and I didn’t pray to the same god, but we knew there was something beyond this life. He went easier to the next world knowing he’d done good in this one.

A thousand desperate wishes have been spoken on these shores, and in the end they were all the same: Make me someone new.

They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things—if love can ever be called that.

You cannot worry about what came before or what happens next, what has been lost or what you might gain. There is only this moment.

To live is to grieve.

I can't change what my ancestors did. I can only hope to repair some of the damage and set us on a different course.

But no one can live in fear forever.

She knew she should say something profound, something beautiful in response. Instead, she spoke the truth. "If we make it out of here alive, I'm going to kiss you unconscious.

I wept with relief that I would not have to live with the burden of his death. But lodged in my gratitude, I felt a bright thorn of resentment. I wept with rage that I would have to live at all.