“You were saying that the kind of man Robert wasis hard to find,” she said.Yes…it is.”I thought you were that kind of man?”Well…I am that man in the making.”Why do you think things are like that?”Society…you are right. Society has made the modern man promiscuous.”What? I thought you didn’t get my point.”I see your point now…it’s a very important point.”She smiled and allowed me to do the same. “A point that you are now using as anexcuse,” she said.I smiled, “what excuse?”That it’s all society’s fault.”No…oh…no,” I smiled again. “It’s not all society’s fault. We can also blamewomen.”What! Blame women for what?”For making it easier for men to be dogs.”Are you freaking me?”I wish I could but you won’t let me.”

“Eliza—” I said, “so many of the books I’ve read to you said love was the most important thing of all. Maybe I should tell you that I love you now.” “Go ahead,” she said. “I love you, Eliza,” I said. She thought about it. “No,” she said at last, “I don’t like it.” “Why not?” I said. ”It’s as though you were pointing a gun at my head,” she said. “It’s just a way of getting somebody to say something they probably don’t mean. What else can I say, or anybody say, but, ‘I love you, too’?”

“I love you, Eliza,” I said.She thought about it. “No,” she said at last, “I don’t like it.”“Why not?” I said.“It’s as though you were pointing a gun at my head,” she said. “It’s just a way of getting somebody to say something they probably don’t mean. What else can I say, or anybody say, but, ‘I love you, too’?”

“I knew it,’ she says. ‘I knew I had met you before. I knew it the first time I saw your photograph. It’s as if we had to meet again at some point in this life. I talked to my friends about it, but they thought I was crazy, that thousands of people must say the same thing about thousands of other people every day. I thought they must be right, but life… life brought you to me. You came to find me, didn’t you?”

“You’ll do,” Hemarchidas thought. “Isn’t this what we always end up with? What we truly want is unreachable, so we’ll make do with what is at hand. I know for you it’s different. I know for you it’s really me you want. You won’t regret it. I’ll love you for that, and for who you are. There is still a little part of me that wishes things could have been different. I’ll never let you know, feel, or even suspect that, though. I’ll make sure at least one of us gets what he truly wants.” He noticed Arranulf was studying his face. He gave him a reassuring smile and a light peck on the lips. “It’ll be all right, and I too will be all right.”

“You can't go.""Give me a reason why I shouldn't.""Because I'll miss you, damn it!" she hissed, splaying her arms. "Because what's the point in anything if you just disappear forever?""The point in what, Celaena?" How could he be so calm when she was so frantic? "The point in Skull's Bay, and the point in getting me that music, and the point in... the point in telling Arobynn that you'd forgive him if he never hurt me again.""You said you didn't care what I thought. Or what I did. Or if I died, if I'm not mistaken.""I lied! And you know I lied you stupid bastard!”