“Aelfa assures me you eat small children every morn to break your fast. Do you? (Callie)Nay, I find them to be too harsh on the belly. All that moving around once they’re swallowed. Not worth the effort, really. (Sin)”

“Mmm. Let me guess. I like to drink the blood of innocents, feast on the entrails of knights and eat the hearts of small children everywhere. (Sin)Aye, that was much the consensus. (Callie)Well, I hope you didn’t go to such trouble to feed me. I fear ’tis off season for good blood, and knights can be rather testy when you disembowel them. (Sin)”

“Where’s the bull? (Callie)Tied to a tree, eating my boot. I’m just glad my leg is no longer in it. (Sin)Lad, how did you manage it? (Angus)I run fast when chased by large bulls. (Sin)”

“Callie. (Sin)Aye. (Callie)Can you teach me what love is? (Sin)”

“Cyn? Short for Cynric? (Callie)Nay. S-I-N. As in conceived, born in, and am currently living happily in. (Sin)”

“What did they do to you, to make you withdraw so far into yourself? (Sin doesn’t answer.) You’ve left me again, haven’t you? I can always tell. Your eyes turn dull, cold. Very well, I shall leave you in peace. But know this: One day I am going to find the heart you have buried away from the world. (Callie)And what would you do with it if you found it? (Sin)I would hold it safe and keep it from the hurt that has shriveled it. (Callie)”

“I love you, Callie ingen Neil, Lairdess of the MacNeelys and wife of a man who is so unworthy of you that he swears he will spend the rest of his life trying to show you just how much you mean to him. (Sin)There’s no need to try, Sin. All I have to do is look into your eyes and I know. (Callie)”