“"Eva?" the monster whispered, feathering a panicked touch to her cheek. Her color was fading, a deathly pallor swallowing the rosy hue of sun-touched skin. "Wake up," it pleaded weakly, cradling the back of her neck to prevent her head from lolling. Salt burned the corners of its eyes. Strange, how tears could hurt sometimes. With a little sob, the monster repositioned Eva on the grass and pressed both palms to the wound in her side. The gentle pressure made Eva convulse, her eyes slitting open. She moaned. "I’m sorry." The monster couldn’t tell where its panic ended and Arthur’s began. The level of terror coursing through their shared being was so violent it made the monster nauseous. "I’m so sorry. But you’ve got to stay awake for me.” It scrubbed under its eyes, clearing the blurriness away, tasting salt. "You have to stay.” Eva’s lips parted, but no sound came out. The monster stripped off Arthur’s shirt and balled it up, then pressed it to her wound. "Come on, Freckles,” it choked out. The monster had never prayed before. What was a creature like it supposed to do with God, anyway? But it firmly believed that if anyone should curry divine favor, it was Arthur’s bee girl.” DyingRomantasyPersonality DisorderDark HeroIrredeemableInner DemonRomantic Tragedy Book:Honey in Her Veins Source: Honey in Her Veins
“As a girl, she’d lived on folktales. They were the water to her family’s roots, and she’d grown up on stories of bargains and broken hearts. Even Dad’s stories often ended in tragedy. When she was young, Eva thought it terribly romantic to love what you were destined to lose. Now she called bullshit. It was easy to say that you’d die for someone, but what Eva really wanted was the kind of love that stood its ground when things got difficult, the kind of love that chose to live. For years, she’d fed her anger to survive, picturing her heart like a garden made to wither in the cold, and she’d blamed Arthur for killing the part of her that had believed in their story. But his touch awakened something in her again. As Arthur moaned into the skin of her neck, pressing his lips to her body and making goose bumps erupt down her arms, Eva wondered if maybe she’d been wrong all this time. Gardens never really die, after all. Seeds lie dormant, and soil goes fallow, all in the faith that one day, when the conditions are right, it will bloom again.” HeartGardenRenewalYoung Adult RomanceRomantasyFolktales Book:Honey in Her Veins Source: Honey in Her Veins
“He smiled wearily, his eyes a treasure box of hazel. Stone. Soil. Grass. Gold. All the colors of the earth, ensconced in his irises.” HeroRomantasyEarthyHazel Eyes Book:Honey in Her Veins Source: Honey in Her Veins
“It was ridiculous to cast my shadow over her light. The bee girl didn’t know what it was like to wonder if she even had a soul, or if the emptiness inside was merely a sign that her soul was rotten. She had honey in her veins, not death. Not rot. Not like me.” HoneyRottenMagical RealismRomantasyLight And ShadowBook TitlePersonality Disorder Book:Honey in Her Veins Source: Honey in Her Veins
“Something changed. The glow in my chest ballooned down to my fingertips. I couldn’t feel the monster, nor could I hear its voice, as sunshine and power poured into my limbs, filling my heart to bursting. I gathered all the love I could muster for Eva, all the years spent missing her, all the ways she’d changed me and made me new. The flowers around us seemed to sigh, the heartbeat of the earth so close I could taste it. I could take it. But I didn’t want to take things anymore. I wanted to mend. A heady sensation filled the gaps in my mind where the darkness lay. But this was not my monster. It was sweet, and it poured through me, through Eva too, bright and sweet as sticky, sugary gold. Every breath was honeyed. Every breath was life.” TransformationMagical RealismRomantasyEarth MagickHoneyed Book:Honey in Her Veins Source: Honey in Her Veins
“Light. Hope. Home. Autumn was coming, but with her by my side, the promise of summer spread its wings in me. I would hold on to that and fight for this life I wanted until I had no more breath inside me.” Happily Ever AfterRomantasyWorth Fighting ForPromise Of Summer Book:Honey in Her Veins Source: Honey in Her Veins