“I answered that I was sure, and he asked me again, and this time I understood his concern. ‘I’m not embarrassed!’ I said, or at least tried to say, before recalling that embarazada means something entirely different to ‘embarrassed’ and that I’d just wailed at the doctor that I wasn’t pregnant, something his medical training had presumably made evident to him.”

“But after dealing with Roy for a while I just wanted to get through the time I’d signed on for, to prove to myself that I couldn’t be beaten by a girly-faced, chicken-boned, racist cat.”

“I tried to think of something good to ask of him. “Do you always do this?Rescue girls from embarrassment?”Surprise flickered across his face and then there was something else I couldn’t recognize.“No..” he said softly. “Not always.”There was something in the way he said that, which felt like there was something else underneath the words I wasn’t catching.”

“I darted away from Geir and jmped through the gaping hole in the wall Will's body had made. The settling dust choked me, but I made it through and ran to Will. He was struggling to his feet, leaning heavily on his sword as the point dug into the cold ground. When I reached him, I dropped my swords and wrapped my arms around his chest."I've got you," I said, helping him lift his torso the rest of the way up. I heard a sickening snap in his chest as he groaned, and I knew something was broken. He buried his face into my shoulder and growled in pain.”

“Can I ask you something?”“Of course.”“You told me once that you loved me because I was human,” I said, my voice tiny. “Will you stilllove me when I’m an angel? Even if I won’t be human anymore?”“Always,” he said, green eyes bright. “Even if you stop loving me.”I felt myself begin to crumble and I left the armory and him sitting on the”

“Maeghan is local, Berengar is Liege.""Shotgun on Liege," I said quickly. The reapers all stared at me like I'd grown a third eye. "What?" I asked, not the least bit embarrassed. "Their waffles are world famous. I'm going to Liege if only for their awesome waffles.""I like waffles," Cadan said.I beamed at him. "All right. You'll be on Team Waffles with Will and me."Will just shrugged. He accepted me for who I was and he didn't seem to mind being on Team Waffles. Marcus gave Ava a pathetic look. "Why can't our team have a cool name?”

“...Emily hit the Terrible Twos and I bought a book called Toddler Taming. It was a revelation. The advice on how to deal with small angry immature people who have no idea of limits and were constantly testing their mother applied perfectly to my boss. Instead of treating him as a superior, I began handling him as though he were a tricky small boy. Whenever he was about to do something naughty, I would do my best to distract him; if I wanted him to do something, I always made it look like it was his idea.”