“The path is here," he said quietly. "But you are free to walk it or choose another way.”

“It's just,' he said. 'If you don't want to be with him, you shouldn't be.”

“Despair threatened to drag me down, but I fought it back, clinging to a single, flickering thought. Shay loves me. He would risk everything to find his way back to my side and set me free. Because that's what love is, isn't it? It has to be.”

“I'll walk you to your room. I'll even sing you a lullaby . . . and maybe you could show me what makes you howl,” Connor said, a smile sliding across his mouth.“Hey!” Shay snapped out of his trance to glare at the Searcher.“Down, boy.” Connor laughed.”

“Are you going to apologize for slapping me?""No.""I didn't think so," he said.”

“He is Monroe's son." I pointed at Ren. "And he's your best hope to win this war." "He's what?" Shay's voice was dead quiet. I'm what?" Ren kept his own voice to a whisper, but the look he'd thrown me was a bit alarmed.”

“I growled and then slapped him."Hey!" His hand pressed to his cheek."You always say that when I slap you," I said."I think it's a problem that you know what I say when you slap me," he said. "That's not the kind of intimacy I'm looking for.”