“Knowing and believing are sometimes hard to combine.”

“Trusting is hard. Knowing who to trust, even harder.”

“Words are easy. It's convincing the heart that's hard.”

“Being a scrub was undesirable and hard work, living in crowded conditions with no privacy and just being one of many. Undistinguishable.”

“I wanted to dissolve into the floor, mixing myself with the hard stone. A stone had a single purpose: to be. No complicated promises, no worries and no feelings.”

“Yelena.” I halted in the doorway, looking back over my shoulder.“You once said I wasn’t ready to believe your reason for killing Reyad. I’ll believe you now.”“But I’m not ready to tell you,” I said and left the room.”

“In fact, he's never taken an interest in a woman before. I was beginning to to suspect he might prefer one of his male sneaks, but now..." She paused dramatically. "Now, we have the lovely, intelligent Yelena to get Valek's cold heart pumping.""You really should get out of your sewing room more. You need fresh air and a dose of reality," I said knowing better than to believe a word Dilana said, but unable to control the silly little grin on my face. Her sweet, melodious laughter followed me into the hallway."You know I'm right, " she called.”