Servant of Earth (The Shards of Magic, #1)

by Sarah Hawley

That was the way of some men. Their tongues wagged in an imitation of love while their fists dealt pain. I stroked the dagger’s outline at my thigh, thinking about what it might be like to live in a world where women didn’t have to depend on people they feared for safety.

People vanished all at once, but the things you wanted to tell them or do with them or show them didn’t.

I’d been confronted with a dark truth about myself. I enjoyed getting revenge.

That was what love was. Not just romantic love, but any type of love. It was caring so much for another person that you would do anything to see them happy and whole.