“Anyway, since when are you shy? Just talk to him already!' ''And say what? Nice fiddling, handsome man?''Absolutely.”

“It wasn't disgust she felt for Karou, not anymore; it was indignation. Incredulity. A man like Akiva crosses worlds to find you, infiltrates the enemy capital just to dance with you, bends heaven and hell to avenge your death, saves your comrade and kin from torture and death, and you send him off looking gut-punched, diminished, carved hollow?”

“What are we fighting for? What are we killing for? What do you see when you look into the future?”

“Death," said Akiva. His life was leaving him fast now that he no longer held his wound. His eyes just wanted to drift closed. "I'm ready.""Well, I'm not. I hear it's dull, being dead."She said it lightly, amused, and he peered up at her. Had she just made a joke? She smiled.SmiledHe did, too. Amazed, he felt it happening, as if her smile had triggered a reflex in him. "Dull sounds nice," he said, letting his eyes flutter closed. "Maybe I can catch up on my reading.”

“The choice I mean is to protect our own innocents from the seraphim, instead of slaughtering theirs.""There are no innocent seraphim, said the wolf.""That's what they say when they kill our children.”

“Where am I and doing what?You might well ask.Freaky chick, you say?You can't imagine.I am priestess of a sandcastlein a land of dust and starlight.”

“Was there any fate more bitter than to get what you long for most, when it's too late?”