" Elias?” Helene’s ghost is still here. For a moment, I don’t understand. She reaches for my face, and I flinch from her, expecting the cold caress of a spirit. But her skin is warm. “Helene?” Then she’s pulling me close, cradling my head, whispering that I’m alive, that she is alive, that we are both all right, that she’s found me. I wrap my arms around her waist and bury my face in her stomach. And for the first time in nine years, I start to cry. ««« "

― Sabaa Tahir , An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)