Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15)

by Jim Butcher

“You’re in pretty good shape, Harvey,” I said as I led him down the stairs. “You a jogger by any chance?” “Uh,” he said. “I swim. And do yoga.” “No, Harvey,” I said. “You run. You run marathons every morning before breakfast. Make me believe it. Move.”

“Then what is it about?” I asked. “I dealt with the White Council my whole life, so I’m used to being treated like a mushroom—” “Eh?” Ascher asked. “Kept in the dark and fed bullshit,” Binder reported calmly. “Ah.” “—but this is going beyond the pale, even for me.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Butters’s voice was saying. “I don’t know. There’s no AMA-approved baseline for a freaking wizard Knight of Winter. He could be in shock. He could be bleeding from the brain. He could be really, really sleepy. Dammit, Karrin, this is what hospitals and practicing physicians are for!”

Doesn’t matter how pretty you are. What’s important is how pretty you feel. No one feels pretty when they hear “no” often enough.