Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds #2)

by Micaiah Johnson

I don’t know why Cheeks thinks his cut is because of me.

I’m shocked at his ease despite being in the presence of a man Wiley only knows as the most prolific killer walking.

I’ve learned to get mad like a laser instead of a brush fire,

Beloved. He says it sharp enough to raise his upper lip and show his onyx teeth.

They would eagerly blame you for a fire while they were still holding the match,”

we’re making each other the kind of promises we’re only hoping we can keep.

When he calls me sister it sows the sun’s own warmth into my chest, and I am fiercely proud to be claimed by my big brother, even if just in whispers.

You don’t overcome pain by ignoring it.

the first moment of my life was this one, because it was the first moment anyone had ever shown me mercy, so I could believe that was all people ever did. It was the moment when Nik Nik reached out with no weapon in his hand and a promise in his mouth. I took his hand. And I was born.

We’re good…and it’s all we’ll ever be.

the smile I give him feels just like a noose.

I’ll get over it. I will. I’m just gonna wallow a bit till it stops stinging.

maybe I can only balance being attracted to one person who will never want me at a time.

He and I have precisely one thing in common: At our rank, no one’s paying us to think.

The city wants its parks to show it cares about nature. But it killed an ecosystem when it was built, and endangers another by casting its constant light and unnatural shadow across a once untamed desert.

“We’ll know what’s on the footage once they want us to, and we’ll think exactly what they want us to think about it.

I wonder if he’s going to be one of those runners who tries to climb by outing others as not good enough instead of proving themselves on their own merit.

people will learn from the story without truth getting in the way. They’ll learn that to love something is to open wide and hope what you love is digestible.

Being in love with someone doesn’t entitle you to them; wanting someone doesn’t obligate them to want you back.

if I’m going to choke on poison by my own hand, you can at least let me congratulate myself on how well I take it.

They are close like two people comfortable being close, not close like two people dying to touch.

She stopped being a person years ago and became a story.

“We have one family. Family is what we choose, not what leaves us behind.”

I don’t like the look in Adam Bosch’s eyes at the violence. He likes seeing people lowered. Or maybe he just likes displays of power, the weak bowing to the strong. Or maybe all this, and Cross’s blood, too, is just data to him, a bruised face just as good as a fun fact.

Cross is an asshole, but sometimes he looks so much like an innocent child you’ve got to kick him just to prove you don’t believe it.

“I can’t see you do it. I can’t know you would do it,”

I can work for a murderer, because I am a murderer. But I cannot work for a man who would lock someone in a room for days in their own filth, because I was that too.

I was not the man who did the locking. But I wasn’t always the person who’d been locked in either. Some days, I was the room. Others, the filth.

We don’t have many prosthetic eyes out here in the Ash. They’re pricey, and get permanently scratched during sandstorms. Mostly, we just rock patches.

Bastard isn’t an insult with any real teeth, and it’s not technically true anyway so I move right past it.

Family is what we choose, not what leaves us behind.

“And that’s why you’re heir to nothing. Too cowardly to own your place,”

Adam thinks I’m from an affair, not the time after his mother’s death.

my newly decided least favorite brother,

I guess I’ve never been good at spotting the threats that will destroy me.

No wonder Cheeks is so protective of Cross; looking at him is like looking at the woman who holds his heart.

I don’t like Cheeks having a real sibling, instead of having to pretend that’s what I am.

“Are you lost, Traveler?” she asks Adam. It’s a standard Ruralite greeting that probably could have been a genuine offer in another time or another mouth, but the context has shifted it into an expression of irritation regardless of the actual words. Like how Can I help you? translates to Fuck you want? if you wander into shopper’s alley right when they want to close down for the day.

There’s nothing here for a man like you but religious counsel. If it’s conversion you seek, I’ll need to clear my schedule. I anticipate the confession portion will take…a good while.”

A lot of hearts will break today if this goes sideways.

You’ve got to understand, I’ve spent my whole life not being good enough. I was a burden and a disappointment for my entire childhood.

But I didn’t care if it was fair; I cared that it was mine. Until that moment I had rage issues. I had an explosive killing temper. But even though the temptation in the ring would be to red-out and go berserk, I held myself in check, because everyone knows if you can’t control your violence, if you break those around you or yourself, you earn the lowest rank. You get marked as the worst soldier. I didn’t want to be the worst. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to make my brother proud.

but I still keep that day, and my ranking, as my own private bright day. The day when I was tested and succeeded, the day when everyone knew I was valuable, when not even Cross and his shitty family could say I wasn’t good enough. It was the day I knew a runner was what I’d been meant to be all along.

“Yes, nearly a decade and you are no worse. Not even a little. Years have passed and you haven’t aged a day.” He stops, just long enough for her face to shift from confusion to horror. “I never said I’d poisoned you. I simply asked how long you’d planned to live.”

best? I look back into Nik’s eyes, grateful the person who knows the truest version of my story is the one I’d protect with my life.

Civilians, Emperor, Fellow runners, yourself—the preservation order fires in my head fresh as the first day.

Did he pull him out so fast because he’s a civilian and that’s the preservation order? Or was it panic? Was it love?

instead her brow furrows. Disappointment? Confusion? Like if he’s dead she no longer knows what happens next.

he just relaxes once he’s seen Cara. I guess neither one knows what they would do without the other.

Take every chance you get to practice killing without a weapon, because you’ll want to be good at it before you need to be good at it.