Caragh M. O'Brien

“I can be loyal, Leon. I know what that is."He laughed. "Finally, the girl gives me a crumb”

“Every tiny, happy thing makes me want to share it with you," he went on, leaning forward. "I thought I would get over this, but I can't, and I'm done trying. I understand you like no one else here ever can."-Leon Grey”

“Home was more about people than a place.”

“It hurts to love someone this much. I feel each place where our minds meet, and each little place were they don't, until we talk things over and line up again...I've never had anything like this with anyone else. Now I'm never fully happy anymore unless you're with me.”

“Being brave alone does not make us smart.”

“Being brave along does not make us smart.”

“And for once, she was happy. Very.”

“Todos somos vulnerables, sobre todo cuando amamos a alguien.”

“She’d heard of love triangles before, but a love square?”

“There are some things, once they are done, that we can never question, because if we did, we wouldn't be able to go on. And we have to go on, every single day.”

“There"s nothing left between us at all, is there?” she asked.For a long moment he said nothing, and the pebbles made a clicking noise in his fingers.Then, as if it gave him no pleasure at all, he replied.“Whose fault is that?”

“The tinkle of a wind chime stirred from over a window. Purple and white phlox cascaded cheerfully over the top of a nearby stone wall. Sunlight sifted through the weave of her straw hat, casting freckles of light on her nose and cheeks that shifted, out of focus, as she walked.”

“She pivoted right, and sensed the vast, open space of the wasteland stretching before her under the opaque sky, a darkness as thin and final as the velvet lining of a shroud.”

“As she walked through the dark, stepping softly through the wet stones, she looked ahead to where the first cautious star managed to blink through the clouds.”

“What happened to your face?' he asked. 'When I was little, my grandmother was making candles and she had a big vat of hot beeswax in the backyard,' she said. 'I walked into the vat.' Usually that ended the conversation. 'I don't remember it,' she added. 'How old were you?' he asked. She tilted her face slightly, watching him. 'Ten months.' 'You were walking at ten months?' he asked. 'Not very well, apparently,' she said dryly.”

“There are many ways to be a criminal or hero. Don't forget that.”

“It isn't always easy between us. I admit that. But it's right between us, always.”

“You look like a decent young man."Leon didn't smile. "I'm not.”

“What boy could resist you?""Will's hardly a boy.""Don't give me that. He's a boy playing a game," Norris said. "The oldest game there is.”

“You make me sound like some kind of moral freak."The Matrarc's eyebrows lifted slightly. "Isn't that what you are?”

“Would you have this?” the Protectorat hissed at his son.Rafael's gaze narrowed in a slow inspection while she stared defiantly back. Rafael's gaze faltered, shot briefly toward Leon, and then down. His answer was obvious: no.And in spite of everything, in the face of all the other more important dangers that threatened her, it still stung that someone, some boy, found her ugly. Gaia burned with sudden hate for all of them.The Protectorat saw. He smiled slightly.“I thought not,” said the Protectorat, releasing her with a flick. He turned back toward his family. “I can't thrust her on any family I know, no matter what her genes are. She's a freak, not a hero. I'd rather make a hero out of Myrna Silk.”Leon had been standing tensely throughout this exchange. “I'd take Gaia,” Leon said, his low voice resonating in the space.”

“Be good, Gaia,” Capt. Grey told her, his voice grave. She still refused to look at him, but she could feel the heated flush of anger again in her cheeks. “Cooperate with the guards. For your own sake,” he continued.“Be good yourself, Captain,” she said bitterly. “If you know how.”

“Though she could not see his shadowed eyes clearly, she sensed an emptiness in there that matched the controlled composure of his other features. It chilled her.”

“I'd take Gaia," Leon said”

“Even the worst feeling, with time and familiarity, became tolerable.”