More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Do ye like bein’ a monster?” “It doesn’t matter whether I do or don’t.” “Why not?” “Because I can’t change what I am any more than you can.” “My mama always sed that if ye change the way ye look at a thing, then the thing might jest change the way it looks.” “I think I would’ve liked to have met your mother.”
Where are you? It was a question she’d asked a dozen times already, each inquiry met with nothing but a wall of silence. It was the same silence that was ‘normal’ to most creatures, for one’s thoughts were supposed to be theirs and theirs alone. Now, that silence felt hollow and empty. Lonely.
He shook his head. “It’s more than that. Something about it feels…evil.” “Ain’t that the elbow callin’ the knee bony?”
“Good thing I don’ count on luck no more. Mama always sed I wouldn’t have any luck at all if it weren’t fer the bad kind, so I decided to start relyin’ on meself to git outta most jams.”
You did the right thing. Perfidy blew out a breath. “An’ ye know this how?” Because I’m an all-wise bloodpanther with the most lustrous hide in the forest. “Tha’s good, ’cuz I think I left all my wisdom in my uther pair o’ pants.” You have another pair of pants?
Perfidy had never seen the unflappable woman look so, well, flapped. “Tell me everything,” she said flatly.
She grabbed his arm as she burst through, shoving him to the left, his gait awkward on account of the overzealous supply of baked goods bulging from his trousers. They followed a predetermined route, one filled with numerous zigs, plenty of zags, several strenuous climbs over roofs, and more than its fair share of switchbacks.
“You’re making fun of me.” “I’m not. I swear it. I’m simply trying to glean a measure of amusement from the absurdity of the world that you and I now live in. And yet…” “Yet what?” He grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’d rather live in an absurd world with you than a perfectly normal one without you.”
My giant ate your woman, lover boy.” “First of all, Bryony is not anybody’s woman. She belongs only to herself, and yet she gives herself freely to this world. Her strength. Her resilience. Even her very life.” He paused to let that sink in before continuing. “And secondly, I believe you’re mistaken, for it wasn’t your giant who ate her. Quite the opposite, in fact. Let’s see…ah, yes, I think it’s starting to happen. Any second now…”
“Impossible? Indeed. But I think you’ll find that us Divided folk love to make the impossible, well, quite possible.”
“I didn’t know the Zibanejadi liked to swim,” the Sculptor said, watching as the trio climbed out of the trough, water sluicing off their scales and pooling between cracks in the cobblestone path. “We had no choice,” Beetlebub said. For once, his grin had disappeared. “Your damn dragonbees would’ve burned us to death.” “To death? No. At worst, you would’ve been scarred for life.”
So you must choose: to have a part of me that will never be enough for you or have none of me.” “That is no choice,” Ludo said, and his words chipped at her heart. “I won’t leave you. Not ever. I would choose a single ray of your light over the entirety of the sun’s warmth.” She knew she wasn’t worthy of that, only that she could try to be worthy. “Then fight with me. And if I die, keep on fighting. Can you do that?” “I can. I will.”
Was one who watched an atrocity committed without action any better than the one who carried it out? No, she thought fiercely. Not if they have the power to stop it or at least find someone who can.
“Good morningafternoonnight,” he echoed, which drew a raised eyebrow from Tweed as he looked back. “Humans are odd,” he commented. I agree with the snakeboy, Spear said. I think the snakeboy is my favorite. And you look like an oversized sewing needle, Bryony retorted. There’s no need for name-calling, you two-legged skin sack.
That’s just like them, always running back to the other Forsworn. It’s like a cult.” “And that makes us…,” Gruff said. “A group of likeminded people exploring the mysteries of existence in order to elevate ourselves above the foolishness of the common idiots of the world.” “Sounds like a cult to me,” Gruff muttered,
One is always blind until they open their eyes. Even then, sometimes it is hard to see the avalanche amongst the individual stones.”
Against her better judgment, Perfidy said, “Not my idea.” The glare that earned her made her wish for the zillionth time that she’d bothered to learn the art of biting her tongue.
Soraya kept her eyes open the entire time, for she wanted—no, needed—to bear witness. Not out of anger or the need for revenge, or even spite, but simply because one should always—always—witness and take responsibility for their actions,
“Thank you,” he said, his voice so low and fading that she had to lean closer to hear it. “For what?” “For not giving up on me.” “I could never,” she said. “Do you hear me? Never! I will always…I will always…I will…I…”
She felt it, the moment he left her.
when I met Peerless Hoffenstein.” “Tha’s a name?” Perfidy asked. “Asks the girl named Perfidy Tress.” “Fair point. But…tha’s a name?”
“Bedtime stories are nice when you’re a child, but then you must grow up and see the heroes for the monsters they truly are.”
Maybe one day you’ll care about me like that. The bird had a thoughtful look to the angle of its tiny head now. “I’m already starting to,” Ludo said. Good. I don’t mind you too much either. If you could fly, I’d like you better, but for a ground-bound, mouth-breathing two-legger, you’re bloody alright in my book.
Eventually the horizon began to lighten, the first sprays of golden sunrise cresting the world’s floor and doing battle with the last armies of darkness until they retreated. For now, they were routed,
but when enough time had passed, it would be their turn to taste glory and victory as they paved the sky for the arrival of the moons and stars.
Moona couldn’t help but to be impressed. “Who are you?” “I’m Countess Beatty of the Emerald Isles, First of My Name. May my enemies flee before my wrath or have their skulls smashed into little misshapen chunks. Now what’s the plan?”
“Hey, how do ye git a one-armed dwarf hangin’ from a branch down from a tree?” Perfidy asked. When no one answered, she said, “Ye wave!”
Couldn’t silence be a gift in the wake of words that held more meaning than the very stars in the heavens? She hoped so. Because this silence held the spirit of her mother.
she slid Spear from its spot, using it like a crutch to shove up to her feet. Friends again? it said hopefully. Bryony shook her head as a surprising smile curled her lips. Friends might be the wrong word, but yes, we’re something again. Something…I like it! You’re my best something in the whole world!
Just as history can be molded by those who write it, reality can be twisted by those who set themselves up as the speakers of truth. Meanwhile they spew only lies that benefit themselves.”
I don’t fear death, Bryony shot back, and she could feel the surprising truth in her words. But that wasn’t the full truth, was it? I fear…I fear not living.
