The Endless War (The Bridge Kingdom #4)

by Danielle L. Jensen

“Did he have a big cock?” A laugh tore from her lips, and Zarrah snatched up a handful of dirt and chucked it across the fire at Daria. “That’s an important question?” “A big cock can make up for a small man.” Several of the other women in camp shouted their agreement.

“Some women desire a man who will burn the world to be with her. Some desire a man who will save the world at the cost of her. Which sort of man he is may be beyond your control, but you can choose which woman you wish to be.”

“You deserve to be happy, Lara. If this is what you want, please don’t allow the joy of it to be destroyed by individuals who don’t care about you.”

You are not heartless, Keris Veliant, no, no…You are a man whose heart decides all, even when it risks costing him everything.”

“There are moments in life where one stands at a crossroads, and each path leads to a future so wildly different from the other that it seems impossible they stemmed from the same place. Most of the time, the ripples of those choices touch only a few. But sometimes a choice is made, and the ripples are not ripples at all but rather tsunamis that tear across the world, altering everything in their path.”

“I love you, Zarrah. You say that I don’t know what love is, and maybe that’s true. Maybe there is some part of me missing or broken that ensures I don’t feel things like a better man would, but I know the way I feel about you consumes me. That it gives me breath even as it steals the air from my lungs. Makes my heart beat even as it cuts it from my chest. What word I give it matters little. What matters is that even after my bones are dust and my name lost to history and history lost to time, I will feel this way for you.”

But worthiness was not proven by never falling. It was proven by surviving the impact, learning from the error, and climbing upright again.

To be stabbed in the back by someone you believed would always have your back was the worst sort of betrayal,